Oaxaca-Camp for Political Prisoners attacked by pipe-wielding gang

June 14th saw a march commemorating the police attack on the Teacher's Camp that sparked the 2006 uprising. During the night of the 13/14, barricades were once again raised in symbolic remembrance. However they also saw the return of the death squads which fired at barricades early in the morning of the 14th. Following this, a hired group of aprrox 40 thugs attacked the camp in the main square...

Urgent Denouncement: aggression against Vocal member David Venegas

This Wednesday 17 of June, at approximately 1:30PM, the Camp of the Friends and Family of the Political Prisoners of the APPO, installed in the main square of the Oaxacan capital, was attacked by a group of about 40 hired thugs known in the city for their violent actions since the insurrection in Oaxaca in 2006.

The aggression occurred as several members of the APPO - including members of the teachers union and David Venegas Reyes (member of VOCAL) – prepared to conduct a press conference to clarify their position with respect to the accusations that David has received from Hugo Jarquín, leader of the organization “Eight regions”.

Days earlier Hugo Jarquín had blamed David Venegas Reyes (who he described as a “mercenary” and “infiltrator”) for organising what he called “acts of vandalism”, that happened this past 14th June, and declared that he would organise an “assault group” to end the “insecurity generated by `the Alebrije' and his followers”. On the 15th June Jarquín’s organization, called 8 Regions and also the FALP had abandoned the encampment due to their supposed disagreement with our compañeros, when in fact their departure is due to the agreements to which they have arrived with the State government of the murderer Ulises Ruiz and which are intended to destabilize the camp and to obtain its withdrawal from the main square of our city.

These declarations of Jarquín do nothing more than confirm that he is the person responsible for the brutal aggression that was suffered by several of our compañeros including David Venegas, today the 17th of June, in an attack in which tens of thugs brutally attacked those in the camp with metal pipes.

Following this aggression, and with the support of the teachers participating in the camp, the compañeros were able to apprehend several of the aggressors, including Marcos Mateo Esteva Cruz, alias “the Aladdin”, known as commander of the Death Squads responsible for tens of deaths during the insurrection of 2006 and for other later violent actions. These events lead us to believe that they took place due to the complicity of Jarquín, the organizations of the FALP and Eight Regions, in coordination with the thugs and police, by order of the state government of the assassin Ulises Ruiz.

The camp was installed on the 15th of May by the relatives and friends of Victor Hugo Martinez Toledo and Miguel Angel Garcia, political prisoners of the APPO, who were released on the 4th of June just past. Although the liberation of both compañeros has been achieved, the camp remains in place, despite harassment and aggression, demanding the freedom of the political prisoners Pedro Castillo Aragón and Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno.

Today’s aggression come in the context of deliberate repression from the state government, trying to buy out organizations to later attack with hired thugs the camp that is installed in the Square, employing this violent strategy in the hope that that this demonstration of discontent will be removed. In spite of the aggressions and the criminalization of our struggle – both from sectors of the Government and from certain groups that are considered a part of the movement, we intend to continue with our participation in the camp.

FREE POLITICAL PRISONERS!

NEITHER FORGIVE NOR FORGET! PUNISH THE GUILTY!

Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty (VOCAL)

Oaxaca of Magón, City of the Resistance, 18th June 2009