A painted banner from the displaced persons camp in Oaxaca

Families displaced by violence in the Mexican town of San Juan Copala are attempting to return to the homes they fled last year. The rural town in the southern state of Oaxaca declared itself autonomous in January of 2007, but differences among factions in the region led to what many call “a paramilitary siege” which lasted for 10 months.

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In the early months of the siege armed men blocked vehicular access to and from San Juan Copala and fired shots from the hills that overlook the town. As the situation intensified, snipers targeted the families of those who supported the autonomy project – often wounding people who left their homes or who attempted to flee the town on foot.

By mid-October of 2010, more than a dozen of the small town’s residents were dead and many others had been wounded by gunfire.

Some residents who have escaped the conflict fled to Oaxaca City where they set up a protest camp in front of the Government Palace. Women here swept the side walk this morning ahead of their departure for Mexico City as part of a caravan.

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Burials are being held for victims of a massacre in Oaxaca over the weekend which has been linked to an electoral dispute. Ten people died and another 8 were left wounded when members of 2 indigenous communities were ambushed by gunmen Saturday en route to the town of Choapam. They had been traveling to what is – in practice – the rural area’s county seat to witness the inauguration of a new electoral council.

Police reports indicate the ambush occurred at a spot in the road that had been blocked by large mounds of dirt. Three of the trucks the victims were travelling in were set on fire.

A dispute has been festering in Choapam since December, when a local election was annulled due to irregularities. While the conflict may go beyond the simple politics of which political faction controls the town, details have been sparse. The town is a ten hour drive from the state capital, which prevents reporters with same-day deadlines from visiting the crime scene. This logistical detail also means that many of the comments on the situation cited in news reports come from politicians based in the state capital.

Choapan is located near Oaxaca’s border with Veracruz, a region that has experienced it’s share of drug violence. Most of said violence has been in and around the city of Tuxtepec. In the state capital, the massacre has led to furious finger pointing between members of the new reformist government and the party that controlled the state’s politics for 8 decades.

Reyna Martinez Flores of the displaced persons protest camp in Oaxaca City

The rural town of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca was thrust into an international spotlight a year ago when an armed group opened fired on a caravan of human rights activists, teachers, and international observers. Two people, Bety Cariño and Jyri Jaakkola, were killed by gunshots to the head.

The incident called wider attention to a cycle of violence and power struggles that had been damaging the indigenous Triqui community for decades. It also revealed a blatant lack of action on the part of authorities to protect a civilian population from attacks by irregular armed groups.

In August of 2010, women and children who fled the siege of the town of San Juan Copala set up a protest camp in the central plaza of Oaxaca City. They were joined by others after a violent – and deadly – displacement campaign forced supporters of the autonomy movement from the town. More than 8 month later, they remain camped out under the arches of the Government Palace.

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There’s no solid indication of when – or if – they be able to return to their homes. As an event to mark the 1 year anniversary of the deaths of Cariño and Jaakkola wrapped up, South Notes spoke with Reyna Martinez Flores about displacement, impunity, and the role women can play in the peacemaking process.

The audio interview is in Spanish and can be downloaded

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More than 35,000 Mexicans have been killed since President Felipe Calderón launched a militarized offensive in areas with a strong drug cartel presence. More than 15,000 of those deaths occurred in 2010.

It’s gotten to the point that massacres have become near daily events in Mexico…and behind each of those massacres are the stories of the people who died and their families. These back stories are what investigative reporter Marcela Turati has documented in her new book, “Fuego Cruzado” – or “Crossfire” in English.

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Turati sat down with South Notes recently to discuss these stories that go uncovered in a media landscape that can barely keep up with registering the daily death toll. The audio is in Spanish.

The bodies of María Magdalena Reyes Salazar, her brother Elías Reyes Salazar, and his wife Luisa Ornelas Soto were dumped in an rural area near Ciudad Juárez. The family members were abducted by an armed commando on February 7th and their relatives have been pressuring authorities ever since to find the 3 kidnapping victims alive.

Members of the Reyes Salazar family began a hunger strike outside of the special investigators office in Ciudad Juárez on February 8th, then moved their protest camp to the Senate building in Mexico City earlier this week. The home of Sara Salazar, the mother and mother-in-law of those abducted, was burned down on February 15th.

The most famous member of this family was Josefina Reyes, a woman who carried out an extended battle against a planned nuclear waste dump who was also active in denouncing the impunity around a long string on unsolved rape-murders of young women in nearby Ciudad Juárez.

To total of 6 members of the Reyes Salazar family have been killed since late 2008.