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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Mexico will kick off celebrations tonight to mark the bicentennial of its independence from Spain. One town that won’t be celebrating is San Juan Copala, where violence has forced the cancellation of any official event.

Members of San Juan Copala’s indigenous autonomy movement say armed men from rival factions entered the town Monday, took over the local government building, and fired off automatic weapons. A local woman was reportedly injured by a high-caliber bullet, but has been unable to leave the town or seek medical attention.

A communiqué alleges that pro-autonomy residents have been given an ultimatum to either leave the town or face death.

Around 25 women and children displaced from San Juan Copala have been living in a protest encampment in downtown Oaxaca City since August 11th. They are all members of the movement that declared the town an autonomous municipality in January 2007.

The women moved their protest encampment a few blocks on Monday night from the central plaza (or zócalo) to the Santo Domingo church area. The state government had agreed to send tons of food and two police patrols to San Juan Copala in exchange for having the main square cleared of protests for the duration of Bicentennial celebrations.

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Three people died and another 2 were injured over the weekend when gunmen in Oaxaca’s indigenous Triqui region opened fire on a truck carrying organizers of a caravan bound for Mexico City. The victims were all members of an indigenous autonomy movement that makes up 1 of 3 factions vying for control of the town of San Juan Copala.

The purpose of the caravan was two-fold; to draw attention to the town’s humanitarian crisis and to provide safe passage for women seeking to leave the conflict zone. Safety concerns sparked by the ambush forced the cancellation of the caravan.

Two other humanitarian caravans have tried unsuccessfully to reach San Juan Copala in the past 4 months. Paramilitaries supposedly linked to the state’s ruling party have been blocking vehicular access to the town since November.

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.

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.

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