Activists and human rights observers in Mexico are preparing a second caravan to an indigenous village in Oaxaca that has been blockaded by paramilitaries since November.
The call for the second aid caravan to the town of San Juan Copala came just days after paramilitaries opened fire on a convoy of human rights defenders, teachers, activists, international observers, and reporters. The April 27th ambush killed a prominent Mexican activist and a Finnish observer.
A second aid caravan to San Juan Copala is due to leave Mexico City on Monday evening. Organizers say 350 people have signed up to participate and deliver 13 tons of donated aid.
The paramilitary group accused of perpetrating the April attack has been linked to the PRI, the party that has ruled Oaxaca without interruption for the past 80 years. Survivors of the first caravan say no police investigators have contacted them for their eyewitness accounts of the ambush.
Members of the European Parliament have called on the government of Mexico to guarantee the safety of next week’s caravan. A leading Congressman who is planning to participate says requests for security guarantees made to the Oaxaca state government have gone unanswered.
Tags: Mexico, Oaxaca, San Juan Copala
A key figure in the Triqui autonomy movement was assassinated Thursday afternoon along with his wife in the town of Yosoyuxi near San Juan Copala. Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez was one of the main organizers behind the “autonomous municipality” of San Juan Copala.
In Mexico, a “municipality” has the same political status as a county seat. Yosoyuxi is located within the territory of the 3 year-old self-declared autonomous municipality.
Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez and his wife, Cleriberta Castro, ran a small store in the front portion of their home. According to a press release from the autonomous municipal authorities, eyewitnesses saw men in a 3-ton truck pull up to the store front run by the couple under the guise of selling merchandise. Ramírez and Castro were found dead later by a neighbour.
San Juan Copala has been blockaded by paramilitaries since November of 2009. Teachers were refused re-entry into the town in January. On April 27, paramilitaries opened fire on an international humanitarian aid caravan travelling to the besieged area. Two people died and at least 3 others suffered gunshot wounds.
Members of the Triqui autonomy movement (MULT-I) have been camped out in Mexico City’s main square since May 3rd, calling for an end to the paramilitary blockade of San Juan Copala and for official action against the perpetrators of violent crimes against supporters of the autonomy movement. They are calling for a march in Mexico City this afternoon and have announced a second humanitarian caravan scheduled to arrive in San Juan Copala on June 8th.
Tags: Mexico, San Juan Copala, Triqui
The ambush that killed a prominent Mexican human rights defender and a Finnish observer near San Juan Copala, Oaxaca may be the first time in Mexican history that paramilitaries have opened fire on an international humanitarian caravan, but it’s not an isolated act of violence. The fiercely independent Triqui nation has been steeped in years of bitter internal fighting which was itself preceded by decades of military occupation.
Francisco López Bárcenas, an academic who has written extensively about Triqui history, traces the current crisis back to the 1940s when the government withdrew recognition of San Juan Copala’s status as a county seat municipality – Mexico’s only political district with a distinctly Triqui identity.
Continue reading “The Context of the Conflict in San Juan Copala”
Tags: Bety Cariño, Jyri Jaakola, Oaxaca, paramilitary, San Juan Copala, Triqui
Two Mexican reporters who survived a deadly ambush on an international aid caravan in Oaxaca were located alive last night and are receiving medical treatment. David Cilia and Érika Ramírez from Contralinea magazine were the last missing members of the caravan to be accounted for alive.
They had run into a canyon and hid with Oaxacan activists David Venegas and Noe Bautista. The two activists emerged Thursday afternoon with videotaped evidence that the reporters had not been killed in the hail of bullets that riddled both sides of their car.
An official search and rescue operation found the reporters not far from the crime scene. Both reporters are receiving treatment for dehydration. David Cilia also has two gunshot wounds.
Human rights organizations and pro-autonomy activists are marching this afternoon in Oaxaca City to call world attention to the situation in San Juan Copala, the town where the aid caravan was headed.
The indigenous town has been harassed by paramilitary forces since it declared autonomy more than 3 years ago. More recently the paramilitaries sealed the town off completely, blockading the only access road and severing communication and electrical lines. Paramilitaries who briefly held caravan survivors hostage expressed they were ready to move into the town and take it over with violence.
Mexico’s Supreme Court has issued another blow to government transparency when it comes to human rights. The latest ruling comes less than one week after the high court limited the legal scope of the country’s publicly-funded human rights commissions.
In a 7 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a recently reformed internal policy of the Attorney General’s office that limits the National Human Rights Commission’s access to case files. The wording of the new policy allows the Mexican equivalent of the Justice Department to deny human rights investigators access to information that could “put ongoing investigations or the security of persons at risk”. The Attorney General’s Office itself will determine which case files meet the criteria for denial.
The National Human Rights Commission argued the policy restricting their oversight of the federal law enforcement agency was unconstitutional. The Commission published a report earlier this month in which the Attorney General’s Office ranked second only to the Armed Forces in citizen complaints of human rights abuses.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling is the second in as many weeks to restrict the scope of the federally-funded human rights ombudsman’s office. Last week, the high court ruled that the National Human Rights Commission can only cite the Constitution – and not international law – in legal challenges.
(From the March 10, 2010 broadcast of Free Speech Radio News)
Tags: human rights, impunity, Mexico
