RED ALERT in Oaxaca

TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

TO INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

TO HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS

TO THE PEOPLE

Oaxaca de Juarez, Monday 7th of august 2006, 5:47 PM

Indian Organizations for Human Rights in Oaxaca (OIDHO)- member of the provisional collective directorship of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), sends the following urgent communique:In these moments, - via radio broadcasts from the brave Oaxacan women who peacefully occupied the Channel 9 TV station last tuesday - APPO calls for a RED ALERT in order to reinforce all current blocking of local, state and federal government buildings and Channel 9 amidst the threat of intense police activity in the states capitol.

Let us not forget that as of yesterday we have confirmed a dangerous complicity between right-wing extremists of both the national and state governments evidenced by President Fox's immediate grant of a request, petitioned by (ex) governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, to send the Federal Prevention Police (PFP) - a nefarious militarized police created for the authoritarian neoliberal state. The acute aversion to the state police can be attributed, amongst other reasons, to the repression experienced at the hands of fellow country-persons. More than one thousand PFP actives, along with some special state and municipal units with similar repressive practices, and groups of vandals financed by the (ex)government, have been contracted to enforce the fascist plans of this moribund regime.

New information has come to light that reveals other tactics in this dirty war. The repressive front has plans to plant bombs in banks in order to frame the popular movement and, thus, use the accusations to justify massive repression. And yesterday, thieves hired by the (ex)state government highjacked and burned buses having falsely identified themselves as APPO. Fortunately, the movement was able to apprehend them and reveal the nature of the provocation. Today, units of the police dressed in civilian clothing tried to dislodge one of the blockades in front of an occupied public building with tear gas and gunfire. The attempt to disperse the blockade was a failure, and there were no wounded reported.

Previously described in an internal communique within the state regime which the APPO acquired, the dirty war has tactics to prevent the impeachment of the nefarious governor and his mafia. The campaign includes a move orchestrated on the high pulpits of ecclesiastic power. Yesterday and today, the Archbishop Botello of Oaxaca made repeated calls for "Peace" criticizing the supposed "violence" of the popular movement. The Archbishop went on to say that "peace was worth more than any movement for justice" to the various outlets of mass disinformation.

The compañero Catarino Torres - a representative for the Indigenous-Farmworker Organization (CODECI) from the Tuxtepec region and member of the APPO - was detained yesterday under false federal accusations.

These accounts depict the tense situation that we live in the State of Oaxaca set in the context of ultra right-wing state and national government alliances that believe the popular movement DOES NOT EXIST.

The compañeras of the radio have just said that Oaxaca is the birthright of humanity; and they hope that this perspective would not be limited to the beautiful buildings, but would include all the human beings fighting for a just and free life on these lands.

From the permanent sit-in in the center of this Capital, from the different blockades of public buildings and roads, from l@s oaxaqueñ@s' Channel 9, from the university and free radios, and from the popular organizations and the distant communities in the different regions of the state that have integrated into this peaceful and just fight with the APPO, we are sending one sole communique to Ulises Ruiz and his regime, including any of his alliances, being state or national:

The men and women of Oaxaca, the children, the youth, the elderly, we are all tired of being walked over, tired of living in misery due to the greed of corrupted officials and business-people. The State of Oaxaca in its majority is indigenous and has a long history of resistance and struggle.

We will resist. We are not going to retreat. The State of Oaxaca will not permit fascism. THEY WILL NOT PASS.

And to the Archbishop we speak with the words of Mahatma Gandhi:

"Poverty is the worst of all violence."

We are putting out a red alert to everyone warning them not be fooled by the dirty campaign perpetuated by the mass system of disinformation and to join in solidarity with the popular oaxacan movement represented in the APPO.

Indigenous Organization for Human Rights in Oaxaca - OIDHO -