Nov. 2nd, Oaxaca, one year after the All Saints Battle

Nov 2nd, 2007,
In commemoration of the All Saints Battle last year in the barricades of 5 Señores ( in which hundreds of people stopped the PFP ( Federal Preventitive Police) from entering and destroying the Peoples Radio in the Benito Juárez Autonomous University. This day is also signifigant as Day of the Dead, and the commemoration of the more than 23 compañer@s who have been murdered by the government in Oaxaca in the last year.

On Friday morning people gathered at 5 Señores to make their altars and memorials. The event was interrupted around 7:45 a.m. when about 30 police arrived, heavily armed, some of which wore street clothes. They began threatening people with their guns, arresting 40 compañer@s and beating people, which resulted in 2 compañer@s in the hospital seriously injured by the police.

About 300 police swarmed the surrounding streets, arbitrarily detaining people that they consider suspicious. So many people hid in their houses and schools to avoid arrest. Friends and family warned eachother to not go to 5 Señores as the peaceful event had been turned into a heavily guarded police zone.

People continued to organize over the next several hours and a march was declared for 2 p.m. Around 1000 people marched through the streets. There was discussion throughout the march of if it was a good idea or if it was safe to arrive again at 5 Señores. People decided to go ahead, and bravely marched on to the site of police repression that morning. Once there, people joined hands forming a giant circle in the intersection. Others made an altar, speeches, chants, and a song. Police waited in their trucks, guns in their arms, on three sides of the intersection. The event continued on, without further repression.

Otro Articulo en Español: http://imctj.espora.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=158&category_id=3