Zapatista Supporters to Hold Protest in Solidarity with Oaxaca on December 22  

For Immediate Release: December 21, 2006 

Contact: Mario Galvan, Zapatista Solidarity Coalition, Sacramento, (916) 443-3424    


Zapatista Supporters to Hold Protest in Solidarity with Oaxaca on December 22  

The Zapatista Solidarity Coalition (ZSC) will hold a demonstration against the repression in Oaxaca, Mexico this Friday, Dec. 22 in front of the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento, CA. from 3 pm to 6 pm at 1010 8th Street (close to J St.). This action occurs in conjunction with a global day of solidarity with the people of Oaxaca called for by the Zapatista movement in Chiapas. 
    
On December 22, protestors from all around the U.S., Mexico and other countries will be participating in actions to express their outrage of the Mexican government’s continuing crackdown on striking teachers in Oaxaca and its failure to launch a credible investigation into the murders of many teachers and the murder of New York City based journalist, Bradley Will. 

“Besides being the global day of solidarity with Oaxaca, December 22 commemorates the day in 1997 when paramilitary forces massacred 45 men, women and children in Acteal, Chiapas,” said Mario Galvan of the Zapatista Solidarity Coalition. “The people killed were all Tzotzil refugees forced to flee from right wing violence in their communities.”   

After the protest, coalition supporters will get together at the Conference Room at 909 12th Street to enjoy hot drinks, music, a dvd about Oaxaca, and some friendly fundraising to send Mario Galvan to the Zapatista meeting in Oventic, Chiapas at the end of December. 

People are encouraged to bring treats, socialize and get up-to-date on what the Northern California Zapatista solidarity groups believe that we in Northern California can do as part of La Otra Campana (The Other Campaign).

“We encourage folks from other organizations to join us at the protest and at our event afterwards,” emphasized Galvan. “This is not just a Zapatista issue, but part of a wave of struggles for social justice and human rights throughout Latin America and the world.”

The conflict in Oaxaca began on June 14 when Oaxaca’s governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz sent in state police to break a peaceful teachers’ strike that was camped out in the center of Oaxaca City.

Since then over 20 dissenting teachers and their allies have been killed by federal police, a community radio station has been shut down, medical clinics have been raided by police, and hundreds of people have been detained, many of whom have given testimonies to being tortured during detention.

The Zapatistas, an indigenous movement who launched a popular uprising on January 1, 1994, the day NAFTA went in effect, put out the call for international solidarity on December 22.

Demonstrators across the United States and Mexico are protesting outside the U.S./Mexican consulates demanding that governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and the violent federal forces exit Oaxaca, that United States based institutions such as the School of the Americas stop training torturers, that the detained be freed, and that those who have been tortured, raped, and murdered be punished.  

For more information, contact the Zapatista Solidarity Coalition, (916) 443-3424, email: zapa [at] zsc.org.