Major State Repression in Oaxaca: Several Killed, Dozens Wounded and Detained

[ Photo by Radio Zapote. #OaxacaLucha #Nochixtlan #MarchadeAntorchas ]

UPDATE on June 21, 2am Oaxaca time

The feared attack on the city center of Oaxaca did not occur on Sunday night or Monday. Instead, at least 40,000 people marched in the city against Sunday's police violence, and those killed at the Nochixtlán blockade were laid to rest amidst chants of "The struggle continues!" and "You haven't died, comrade! Your death will be avenged!"

81 civil society groups issued a "humanitarian alert due to the armed State attack on a civilian population" while the CNTE claimed ten dead from Sunday's police violence, nine at the blockade in Nochixtlán and one during clashes at Viguera (graphic video). A journalist was also shot and killed near the blockade in Juchitán under circumstances that remain unclear.

More information on the police attack on Nochixtlán has come out, such as the fact that police took over the regional hospital and only allowed their people to be treated, turning away all others. Wounded demonstrators were treated in a church and school, likely resulting in further loss of life.

Monday morning also saw a student takeover of the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO), the main state university. This included the seizing of the radio station Radio Universidad. Calls to help hold the station against possible attack continued early Tuesday morning. The station played a major role in the 2006 uprising, and was the broadcast home of renowned Doctora Escopeta (Dr. Shotgun) and site of the November 2 Day of the Dead victory, when the people successfully repelled a federal police attack.

In Chiapas, teachers and residents set up numerous blockades, including of the Pan-American Highway, in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez. While in Mexico City, police arrested nine people, including journalists, during a Oaxaca solidarity action. Police threatened the women with rape and sexually assaulted them during the arrests. All were released by Monday evening.

At Santo Domingo in the city of Oaxaca, a "cultural barricade" was organized by prominent Oaxacan artists, who also released a statement against state repression. The Oaxaca State Minister of Indigenous Affairs resigned his post in protest of the state violence. Monday night saw 3,000 people take part in a silent, candlelit march to honor those who fell on Sunday.

The Zapatistas released their second statement in four days on the teachers strike. The first one, from June 17, presciently asked, "Will they murder them? Seriously? The “education” reform will be born upon the blood and cadavers of the teachers?" And the second, issued on Monday with the National Indigenous Congress, stated, "We call on our peoples and civil society in general to stand with the teachers who resist at this moment, to see us in them...We invite all the peoples from the fields and the cities to be aware and in solidarity with the teachers' struggle, to organize ourselves autonomously to be informed and alert in the face of the storm falling on us all."

Of Sunday's dead, Governor Gabino Cué pointed out that "not one is a teacher" and that those participating in the blockades, "a minority are teachers." In his eyes, this is likely meant to delegitimize what is currently happening. In reality, it points to the growing generalized resistance in Oaxaca.

We will try to continue to provide updates as we are able as well as on Twitter. Please spread the word from wherever you are - let those resisting know you stand in solidarity with their struggle. And let those doing the oppressing, primarily President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca, know that people are watching.

[ Day 11 of the Nochixtlán blockade. "Army out of Oaxaca. Murderers of the people. ]

UPDATE on June 24, 1am Oaxaca time

If Enrique Peña Nieto and Gabino Cué imagined that massacring demonstrators in Nochixtlán would crush the growing uprising in Oaxaca, they sorely miscalculated. As the dead were honored, the wounded tended to, and the disappeared sought after, the rage and indignation grew. The media outlet Desinformémonos reports that in the three days after the massacre it alone had received more than 2,000 emails regarding over 500 acts of solidarity around Mexico and the world.

More information and footage from Nochixtlán continues to emerge, such as the one below that captured the moment when federal police began to open fire on those defending the blockade.

Regeneración Radio offered the latest figures in the aftermath of the attack. 12 killed, 27 arrested, 7 disappeared and 45 wounded, 37 by live ammunition. In addition, Azarel Galán Mendoza, an 18-year-old mechanic, was killed when police opened fire at Viguera, on the outskirts of the city of Oaxaca, bringing Sunday's death toll to 13.

On Wednesday, June 22, the 27 arrested at Nochixtlán were released and began recounting the physical and psychological torture they were subjected to while being held incommunicado for 18 hours. The seven disappeared remain unaccounted for.

In a clear act of appeasement, the federal government suddenly decided that negotiations with the teachers was a great idea. Aurelio Nuño, the Minister of Public Education, who was criticized for his two-day silence following the Nochixtlán massacre, claimed that he had never rejected dialogue, that he was guided by the law and the constitution, and that the massacre and the Educational Reform were entirely separate issues.

Nuño was notably absent from the union's meeting with Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong on Wednesday. The end result of that meeting was more meetings, with the next one happening on Monday. The federal government insists on only discussing how to calm the situation in Oaxaca, while the union insists that the only way forward is repeal of the Educational Reform. In the meantime, the CNTE says it will continue to mobilize as if nothing has changed.

Also on Wednesday, the Oaxaca state Labor Minister resigned in protest and doctors and healthcare workers from around Mexico went on a one-day strike that was planned before the most recent state violence. Many strikers expressed solidarity with the teachers and made links between the privatization of healthcare with the privatization of education, as well as the state's criminalization of both professions.

Not everyone is happy about the fact that the CNTE and the government are sitting down for talks, as this statement from Oaxaca makes clear:

Our rage cannot be contained by police bullets, by the State’s jails, by the media’s lies. The blood of our dead cannot be negotiated with for reform. The battle against the State should happen on all fronts. We will not give up, we have learned that repression should not provoke fear, to the contrary it should nourish our highest ideal: freedom.

It remains an open question of what will happen with the mobilized populace, whose anger reaches far beyond matters of educational reform, when the teachers and government come to an agreement regarding the more limited scope of the issues they are discussing.

Meanwhile, the barricades and blockades remain, including in Nochixtlán. Universities around Mexico City have gone on one-day strikes in solidarity. Soldiers are getting run out of public events in Veracruz. Residents are fighting back against corrupt politicians in Quintana Roo. Teachers and supporters in Chiapas are continuing to mobilize in huge numbers. Anti-authoritarians are blocking a major thoroughfare in Mexico City.

Lastly, the Zapatistas channeled Sansa Stark to send a message to Aurelio Nuño:

Your words will disappear.
Your house will disappear.
Your name will disappear.
All memory of you will disappear.

Of him and the whole system he serves.

We will try to continue to provide updates as we are able as well as on Twitter. Please spread the word from wherever you are - let those resisting know you stand in solidarity with their struggle. And let those doing the oppressing, primarily President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca, know that people are watching.