NOTE: This chronology is in the interest of documenting the timeline of the current wave of violence in San Juan Copala. Additions and corrections (backed up by a link to source material) are welcome.

Saturday, September 25: Around 100 people participate in a women’s march in Oaxaca City called by women from the MASJC encampment. One person, David García Ramírez, remains missing.

Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortíz denies the presence of paramilitaries, deaths or missing persons in San Juan Copala.

Friday, September 24: The Las Abejas Civil Society, survivors of the Acteal Massacre of 1997, express concern over the actions of armed groups in the Triqui region in a letter addressed to top national and state government officials.

Day 45 of the women’s protest encampment in support of the Municipio Autonomo de San Juan Copala (MASJC). Day 2 of the MULT women’s sit-in.

Thursday, September 23: Women from the MULT begin a sit-in in the Alameda de Leon, on the opposite end of the Zócalo from the encampment of displaced autonomy sympathizers. MULT sympathizers say they will continue their sit-in until a march planned for Oct 12th.

Ten female autonomy movement members lift their hunger strike after 3 days, saying all but the most elderly of their members have fled San Juan Copala.

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Hunger Strikers' Camp - Sept. 22, 2010

Women displaced by paramilitary violence from the indigenous Triqui village of San Juan Copala began a hunger strike on Monday, September 20th, calling on authorities to ensure the safety of those attempting to leave the town.

They lifted the strike on Thursday, September 23rd saying all but the most elderly of their supporters were able to escape on foot. Some of the newly-displaced spent upwards of 2 days hidden in the hills before finding shelter in nearby towns. In the past 10 days, two young men were killed and 3 women and 1 teen were wounded by gunfire while attempting to flee.

Paramilitaries allegedly affiliated with two Triqui organizations – the MULT and the UBISORT – took control of the town on September 13th. They reportedly burned the homes of autonomy supporters this week. On Thursday, around 100 women from the MULT organization set up camp in the same plaza where women displaced from Copala have been living since mid-August.

San Juan Copala is a key ceremonial center for Triqui culture at the heart of a 3-way factional struggle for territory and regional power. The region is home to productive agricultural land, rich forests, and is rumored to contain significant mineral wealth.

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Mujeres y niños desplazados del autonombrado municipio autónomo de San Juan Copala iniciaron una huelga de hambre en el Zócalo de Oaxaca para demandar garantías de seguridad para sus compañeros, a quienes reportan atrapados por un cerco paramilitar al pueblo. Esta violencia ha dejado una decena de personas en los últimos 5 meses.

Mientras tanto, a convocatoria de dos reconocidos sacerdotes, dos de los 3 grupos que se disputan el control político de la región triqui aceptan participar en mesa de diálogo: o MULT, acusado participar en el cerco paramilitar sobre Copala,  y  MULT-I, organización detras del municipio autónomo, finalmente no consiguen reunirse con los representantes de la iglesia porque MULT-I exige primero detener la violencia.

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Displaced Triqui women and children from the self-declared autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala began a hunger strike today to demand an end to the paramilitary violence that has killed at least ten people in the past 5 months. They are calling on the government to guarantee the safety of autonomy sympathizers trapped in the town by a paramilitary siege.

Today was to mark the start of emergency church mediated talks between MULT-I, the organization behind the autonomous municipality, and MULT, one of the groups accused of participating in the paramilitary siege of Copala. The other group is the UBISORT, which has been linked to the PRI, the political party which has ruled Oaxaca for 8 consecutive decades.

In a press conference to announce the start of their hunger strike, displaced spokesperson Reyna Martínez Flores announced that MULT-I would cancel its participation in the dialogue due to a surge of violence over the weekend. She and the other protestors want security guarantees for the evacuation of autonomy sympathizers trapped in the town, among them, two people over the age of 90.

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[Note: This is a transcript of a report that originally aired on Free Speech Radio News]

The former government palace the night of Sept. 15th during the "Grito"

Today Mexico marks the 200th anniversary of its declaration of independence from Spanish rule. Mexico’s federal government spent months hyping up the celebrations which are estimated to have cost more than $230 million. But hard economic times, social grievances, and Drug War-related bloodshed have dampened the celebratory mood.

[dewplayer:http://www.fsrn.org/audio/download/7497/20100916SY.mp3]

(Grito “Viva México” – fade under)

Mexican independence celebrations kick off each year in central plazas on the night of September 15^th with a group yell known as the “grito”.

But this year, at least a dozen cities – most notably Ciudad Juárez – had to cancel the ritual due to security concerns. The extreme violence of President Calderón’s Drug War is just one of the factors contributing to the less-than-celebratory mood at Bicentennial events.

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