Jennifer Rogers

After a week of no classes, the students are set to return to the Universidad Autonomia de Benito Juarez on Monday the 13th. The University has been closed in support of Radio Universidad and the APPO activists. However, the Secretary of Communications and Transportations (SCT) shut down the radio station by stopping its signal a couple days ago. Many students marched yesterday in the morning to an SCT office in Oaxaca City demanding the right to broadcast their show. One member of the STEUABJO (a union of workers and students at the university) stated that the government maintains a double standard in Oaxaca because there is another radio station that has “called for the assassination of members of the APPO.” He claims that the government allows a station of propaganda and potential violence to remain on the air, but not a station in support of APPO. This is an illegal violation. I have spoken to people who feel nervous about losing Radio Universidad, even if it is temporary, because it serves as a communication network for the entire movement. It provides information on road blocks and meetings. In an interview I had with Radio Universidad, a young woman told me that her station is the only voice of truth amongst the entire commercial and government propaganda.

While the students were marching for Radio Universidad, others marched, separately, for a reopening of the school. They claimed it is their right to attend classes. The director of the UABJO, Martinez Neri, will open the school on Monday. However, the APPO will maintain road blocks on each end of the street and around the area. Therefore, students should be able to walk in, but no cars will be allowed.

We will have to wait and see what will come of this. The barricades continue to be attacked by paramilitary and police during the day and night. Just yesterday a barricade was briefly attacked as a car drove by at 12:30pm. While the students have a right to return to school, I wonder what the students are being sent in to. In a way I believe that having the students return to school will return this area to a stronger sense of normal, the businesses along the street will be able to open again, and perhaps a greater number of people will increase public safety.

I have also been learning about a local gang called the “porros.” They are “students” who may be at the university but are not really students. I do not have evidence for this, but I have been told by numerous people that the porros receive some money from government officials. They serve to provoke violence. They are possibly some of the young people I have seen putting graffiti around the town and throwing rocks at the police. Some APPO members claim that the porros are responsible for making some people believe that the APPO are a violent group

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

The front page headlines today definitely caught my eye. As a vegan animal rights activists, I couldn´t help spill a giggle over the bombing of a Burger King. But the giggle only came after a few minutes of concern over the fourth bombing in three days. The first three bombings happened in Mexico City on Monday. Five guerrilla groups are taking the responsibility for the attacks of a PRI office, the Federal Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power (TEPJF), and of a bank headquarters. They claim that the attacks are in response to the police repression in Oaxaca. However, no one has taking the responsibility for the Burger King attack. The current leader of the APPO, Florentino López Martínez stated, “los actos de violencia contra el inmueble, no son métodos utilizados por el movimiento social” (the acts of violence against private buildings are not methods used by this social movement).

This Burger King is located in Plaza del Valle, commonly spoken of as the ¨gringo¨ part of the city. Plaza del Valle is home to many familiar stores, such as Sears, KFC, Office Depot, and Sam’s Club. It is around the corner from the Autonomous University of Benito Juarez and is therefore the location of multiple road blocks and APPO members. I had decided, prior to today, to go to Plaza Del Valle so that I could try to see part of the University. After reading about Burger King, I wondered if I could even get in to the area. Luckily, my quick thinking taxi driver found the only way in. The stores were still open, however, the mall was scarcely being used. Normally I would be scared to cross the street because of the number of cars, but today, I strolled.

You can see pictures of the Burger King in my photos section. Surrounding the building is graffitti in support of the APPO. On the building itself, only one message is clear (most of the other windows are broken). It says ¨Multinationals Kill¨ (in Spanish). A few workers were wandering through the store, surveying the damage. I asked permission to take photos, but was only granted access to the outside of the building. However, with walls missing, I did not really need much permission. I asked the employees if they know who did it. One laughed and said that it may be the APPO or it may be Ulises (the governor). It is not a crazy idea that the government or the police may be involved. The APPO believe that some of murders committed in Oaxaca, and blamed on the APPO, may have actually been committed by the government to implicate the APPO.

The APPO´s most recent demands include a meeting with President Fox. The state representative Carlos Abascal Carranza has met with the APPO, but has been unsuccessful with a resolution. Prior to the attacks in Mexico City, Fox had agreed to a meeting (encuentro) with the APPO. Since the attacks, Fox canceled the meeting and has no plans to reschedule.

Most social movements experience debates over nonviolence or violent tactics. At it is not surpising that I am seeing it here. While the teacher/APPO struggle has been here since May, the problems of oppression, racism, and poverty have been experienced for a lifetime by many of the Oaxacanos´ and has only gotten worse.

Most APPO members I speak to are frustrated, but continue their fight to remove Ulises Ruiz Ortiz from power. The tactics of the APPO are currently to protect what they have. From what I have seen, they are strongly protecting the area around the University. They are not only holding the radio station and the University, they are holding the surrounding streets. Every intersection around the University is blocked by buses, cars, trees, and shopping carts. I took pictures of the barricades and of the closed University. The first barricade is overseen by a man with a walkie talkie and a gas mask. A man at the University gate asked why I was taking pictures. I have found that when I tell the truth, that I am from a University in the US and writing about social movements in Mexico, the APPO is very nice to me. I even show my ID. They are straight forward and tell me where to be careful. But don´t worry–I was walking around in the middle of the day, in the bright sun, and others were doing the same. I am curious why I did not see any reporters there. While more reporters are in the city now, I only estimate just around twenty reporters. I have even gotten to know some of them.

The men at the University barricades use walkie talkies and are cautious about who is walking around. At the other end of the University, closer to town, multiple large semi-trucks and buses block the large intersection. It is a major outlet in-and-out of town. In one of the buses a group of men are drinking beer. I can see a container of molotov cocktail bottles inside the bus. They ask if I am scared to walk around there. I said that I understand it is a tense situation, but I can see the other people shopping, talking, and working. I said that night time makes me nervous and I asked they felt the same way. Two men told me that the tension at night is hard to handle. The unexpected is always there. And nearly everyday there is a report of a new incident in the newspaper.

Until tomorrow…

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

The ¨Megamarcha¨ in Oaxaca yesterday was the largest I have seen so far. In the photos section you can see an album of pictures I took.

The march began at 10am on Sunday morning. The march, at least 10,000 strong (by my estimate), walked to the church at Santo Domingo, just a couple blocks from the Zócalo. The Zócalo is currently a contested area, housing about 4,500 federal police (PFP). When the police entered the Zócalo over a week ago, the APPO lost their headquarters for information and an encampment for many APPO members. Now the APPO are mainly located at the site of Santo Domingo and at the University Radio station. By law the police are not allowed to enter the University without the permission of the director because it is an autonomous institution. However, Noticias (a local paper) has reported numerous violations of this law. A paramilitary group, working for the police, has committed these violations.

It was an amazing site as the Megamarcha (as it was named in Noticias), entered the Santo Domingo area. Standing on top of a truck, a man on a microphone rallied the crowd, ¨¡Ulises ya cayo!¨, calling for the termination of the governor, Ulises Ruiz. While the majority of the crowd marched to Santo Domingo, some people called out ¨Zócalo! Zócalo!¨ With rumors that the APPO would try to take back the Zócalo (a scary thought and a monstrous task), I was surprised more people did not walk down to the barricades at the Zócalo.

For the past week, the PFP have allowed pedestrians to enter the Zócalo, causing more stores to open within the perimeter. However, they have maintained the barricade with officers across the middle, tanks behind them, and the sidewalks barely open for entry. By midday, the Zócalo was completely closed as the protesters came closer to the perimeter. After taking pictures of the rally, I walked down to the barricades to see what was happening. In front of one barricade is a large green dumpster of trash. Behind the dumpster is barbed wire and police. The barbed wire was a new tactic, just for this day. Someone had lit the trash on fire and a tire that was placed within the barricade. You can see pictures of this in my photo section.

At the next intersection, the officers were in clearer site of the protesters. While a few small rocks were thrown, others called out ¨¡No Provocan!¨ or ¨Don´t provoke¨. A doctor drove into the area with an ambulance. She spoke on a microphone and then outside of the ambulance about nonviolence and non-provocation. As she was doing this, a man was trying to take down some barbed wire, but he stopped when she started speaking. The reporters, looking for a potential confrontation, wearing their bullet proof vests, left without such pictures this day.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites