The European Collectives Nodo Solidale (Italy), Zapatista “Marisol” Collective of Lugano (Switzerland), and Nomads of XM24 (Italy), which make up the Internationalist Platform for Resistance and Self-Initiative Weaving Autonomies (PIRATA), organized a brigade for the observation of the violation of the rights of native peoples in the municipality of Santiago Xanica, Oaxaca, México, in which activists from France and the Spanish State also participated. The brigade traveled through the municipality from March 14 to March 21, 2011.

The task that the International Brigade set for itself has been to listen, understand, relate, and make public what is happening in the community of Santiago Xanica. In recent months the townspeople of Xanica have been denouncing outrageous violations and abuses by PRI party members and power groups against the local Committee in Defense of Indigenous Rights (CODEDI Xanica), Adherent to the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle, and against the general population.

Historically, the native Zapotec people of Santiago Xanica have suffered constant repression, militarization, and dispossession brought on by capital and international capital. There are now three highly significant problems that affect the community:

1. the tourist and development projects that the State and national and international businessmen seek to implement in their territory;
2. the invalidation of their election according to traditions and customs of the municipality;
3. the arrest of political prisoner Abraham Ramírez Vasquez, imprisoned since January of 2005.

Read the full report in English | Spanish: Informe sobre la situación en Santiago Xanica, Oaxaca