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.

[dewplayer:http://www.southnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ReinaMtzFloresApril27_lofi.mp3]

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 here.

Protest Graffitti - Oaxaca City - Sept. 2010

Across Mexico today, celebrations to mark the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution. Amongst other things, the revolution was considered a victory for the country’s rural poor, who won land rights away from the wealthy elite.

While Mexico today is preoccupied with with the bloody Drug War in the country’s north, small farmers are facing a new fight over land rights in the south.

[dewplayer:http://www.southnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/twtw_MexRevCen.mp3]

[Chants from Oaxaca City march for Copala]

Women march through the streets of Oaxaca City to call attention to the situation in the farming village of San Juan Copala.

Most of these women fled the town this summer during a violent paramilitary offensive that killed about 20 residents.

[Efendia López speaking in Triqui]

Efendia López is one of those who left.

MULT-I protest camp in the Zocalo

She says men, women and children were shot to death. Others were wounded, gang-raped, or received death threats. Like Lopez, many of the displaced have settled in Oaxaca’s state capitol.

They set up a protest camp in the main square of Oaxaca City, desperate for help.

Reina Martínez speaks for the group.

[Reina Martínez speaking in Spanish]

Martínez accuses the state government of being behind the armed groups that have been working in San Juan Copala.

She says the government is exploiting local political differences as part of a deadly divide-and-conquer strategy.

San Juan Copala is home to fertile farm land…but it also has valuable forests…and studies suggest, under all of it, valuable minerals.

San Juan Copala isn’t the only town in Oaxaca where farmers are facing a bleak future.

Opposition to the Paso de la Reina dam

[Juan Gómez speaking in Spanish]

Juan Gómez is with a group fighting a planned hydroelectric dam on the Rio Verde. The project would flood thousands of acres of agricultural land.

Gómez says they’ve tried to convince the federal government to cancel the project, but their campaign hasn’t worked.

Local control of communal farmland was one of the big changes after the Mexican Revolution. It was protected in the country’s Constitution…until 1992, and NAFTA.

Allowing private sale and ownership of farmland was one of the requirements of Mexico signing onto the North American Free Trade Agreement. That, and an end to some subsidies for farmers who made a living off the land.

Almost two decades later, those reforms are one of the reasons behind a big change in Mexican rural society. Millions of farmers have moved to cities – and to the United States – in search of a living.

[José Rodríguez speaking in Spanish]

Environmental consultant Jose Rodríguez says Mexican farmers used to have a guaranteed price for crops like beans

Zapata on a bike on a wall on Avenida Juárez, Oaxaca - 2010

and corn. He says cheap corn from the United States meant price cuts in Mexico…devastating the rural economy.

[sfx of Oaxaca City protest]

That, and the violent fights over valuable resources under all that land has left Efendia Lopez and others at the Oaxaca City protest camp with an uncertain future.

[López speaking in Triqui]

López says she left everything behind…her home…her animals. She says they didn’t do anything to deserve this.

Rural discontent helped fuel the Mexican Revolution that began 100 years ago today. There may be discontent again…but with Mexico now an increasingly urban country, rural life, and those who cling to it, are being left behind.

[NOTE: This report was produced for November 20, 2010 edition of the CBC's "The World This Weekend". All rights reserved by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.]

Members of the MULT describe Pasos’ murder as a “surgical strike by the state“. The 30 year-old organization has a broad membership in the Triqui region and operates Mexico’s only indigenous political party. More recently, it’s been accused of paramilitary violence in the town of San Juan Copala. Displaced persons from the town have said they fear a new wave of violence in the wake of the leader’s death.

The state attorney general’s office says two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle shot Pasos with pistols equipped with silencers. Three bodyguards – two from the State Investigative Agency (AEI) and one member of MULT – were arrested for “negligent homicide” (“homicidio por omisión”). Pasos was left wheelchair bound after another assassination attempt more than 10 years ago.

Friday’s victim,  37 year-old Catarino Torres Pereda of the CODECI, was an active member in the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), an organization that emerged from a 6 month long statewide popular uprising in 2006 to demand the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz. He had been the subject of several political arrests and spent 7 months in the federal maximum security prison of Amoloya for his participation in the APPO.

Social organizations are calling on authorities to investigate and prosecute the assassinations. More often than not, murders of leftist activists in Mexico go unpunished.

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.

September 22, 2010: Day three of women’s hunger strike in Oaxaca City camp. Oaxaca’s State Human Rights commissions issues written recommendations regarding the Copala case.

Around 400 people have reportedly fled San Juan Copala at this point, with many taking refuge in nearby communities.

Eugenio Martínez López, María Agustina Flores, and Jordan Gonzales – previously reported as missing – now confirmed as alive. New missing persons reported by the Oaxaca City camp: Angelina Ramírez Ortega, María Juana Agustina and a granddaughter, Sofía Martínez. The number of missing persons remains at 6.

September 21, 2010: Pablo Velasco Dorantes (16) reported as injured from gunfire on Sunday, September 19th. José Gonzalo Cruz added to list of missing; six total.

Children removed from Oaxaca City hunger strike in its second day.

MULT issues communique regarding church-mediated dialogue.

Reports that houses belonging to MULT-I leaders and sympathizers burned inside of San Juan Copala.

September 20, 2010: Displaced women and children begin hunger strike in Oaxaca City camp demanding safe passage for some 30 autonomy sympathizers trapped in the town.

Family of MULT-affiliated Daniela and Virginia Ortíz Ramírez issues communique asking MULT-I not to count the missing sisters among their dead.

Citing weekend violence, MULT-I cancels participation in dialogue meeting called by the Bishop of Tehauntepec and Wilfrido “Padre Uvi” Mayrén. MULT attends. UBISORT was not invited for the 1st round of talks.

September 19, 2010: A “considerable group” of autonomy sympathizers flee San Juan Copala in the night to take refuge in other communities, according to the women in the Oaxaca City camp.

Paulino Ramírez Reyes reportedly killed. Jordan González Ramírez, Susana López Martínez, Eugenio Martínez, and María Augustina Flores missing.

A video uploaded a “grito” Independence celebration inside of the Copala municipal office with alleged members of UBISORT.

September 18, 2010: David Garcia Ramirez shot while attempting to leave Copala. Reported as dead, but found wounded. Women from Oaxaca City camp say state police handed him over wounded but alive to paramilitaries.

September 15, 2010: Celebrations held across Mexico for the Bicentennial of the declaration of Independence. Macaria Merino Martínez (85) wounded by gunfire.

September 14, 2010: María Rosa Francisco and María Rosa López wounded by gunfire. Paramilitaries allegedly issue moratorium to leave town or face death.

September 13, 2010: Displaced women agree to move their protest encampment from the zocalo for Bicentennial festivities in exchange for state government promise to send 15 tons of food aid and two state police patrols to San Juan Copala.

Armed men allegedly with UBISORT and MULT take control of San Juan Copala.

September 7, 2010: Two women attacked while attempting to escape San Juan Copala. Natalia Cruz Bautista gang-raped and beaten, Francisca de Jesús García wounded by a bullet in the back while running away. Those accused of the rape are: Antonio “El Pájaro Toño” Cruz García, Julio César Martínez Morales, Ramiro Domínguez García, and Mauro Vásquez.

September 5, 2010: Pedro Santos Castro, municipal agent of Agua Fría Copala killed – MULT and UBISORT blamed.

August 22, 2010: Caravan scheduled to leave Copala with women and children canceled.

August 21, 2010: Ambush in the community of Hierba Santa targets truck carrying people organizing the women’s caravan to Mexico City. Antonio Ramírez López, Antonio Cruz García and Rigoberto González die in the attack. Victor de Jesus Gonzalez and Alfredo Martínez González injured.

August 11, 2010: Women and children displaced from San Juan Copala set up a protest encampment in the Zocalo of Oaxaca City

August 9, 2010: Announcement of a “Third Peace Caravan” to transport women and children from San Juan Copala to Mexico City on August 23rd.

July 30, 2010: Oaxaca state police and UBISORT enter San Juan Copala to pick up the body of UBISORT leader, Anastasio Juárez Hernández

Teenaged sisters Selena and Adela Ramírez López shot during incursion. Bullet lodged in 14 year-old Adela’s spine left her paraplegic.

June 26, 2010: Marcelina de Jesús López and Celestina Cruz Ramírez wounded by sniper fire after leaving a meeting in San Juan Copala.

June 24, 2010: Eight year-old Miriam Martínez wounded by sniper fire in San Juan Copala.

June 8, 2010: A second aid caravan carrying tons of aid and federal congressmen forced to turn back shortly after passing through Santiago Juxtlahuaca.

May 20, 2010: Timoteo Alejandro Ramírez (one of the founders of the autonomous municipality) and his wife Tleriberta Castro murdered in their home in Yosoyuxi.

May 15, 2010: Twelve women who snuck out of Copala to search for food captured and held hostage by armed men.

April 27, 2010: Paramilitaries open fire on a caravan of national and international observers, activists, teachers and journalists. Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo, the director of the Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos (CACTUS A.C.) and Jyri Jaakkola, an international observer from Finland, die in the attack from gunshot wounds to the head.

November 29, 2009: Child care center fired upon. Nine year-old Elías Fernández de Jesús dies and Tomotelín y Jacinto Velasco wounded. Another unnamed child reportedly injured. The road blockade installed in La Sabana.

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.

The UBISORT has issued a message to repopulate Copala and to recognize their authority in the town hall. The MULT denies participating in paramilitary actions in Copala and claims to seek a peaceful outcome. Sympathizers of the autonomous municipality have fled to nearby Triqui communities and to the state and national capital cities.

A peaceful resolution to the conflict remains elusive.

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.

AUDIOS:

Reyna Martínez Flores – vocera del plantón de las Mujeres en Resistencia

[dewplayer:http://southnotes.org/radio/Copala/Sept20HuelgaDeHambre_ReynaMtzFlores.mp3]

Gabriel López Chiñas – Comité Ejecutivo Seccional de la Seccion 22 (el sindicato de maestros oaxaqueños)

[dewplayer:http://southnotes.org/radio/Copala/Sept20HuelgaDeHambre_CES_GabrielLopezChinas.mp3]

Pascual de Jesus González – representante de la comision de dialogo del MULT

[dewplayer:http://southnotes.org/radio/Copala/Pascual-Mult_20sept2010_Xochimilco.mp3]

Arturo Lona Reyes – Obispo Emérito de Tehuantepec

[dewplayer:http://southnotes.org/radio/Copala/ObispoArturoLona_20sept10_Xochimilco.mp3]

Wilfrido “Padre Uvi” Mayrén – Comisión Diocesana de Justicia y Paz de Oaxaca

[dewplayer:http://southnotes.org/radio/Copala/Uvi_20sept2010_Xochimilco.mp3]

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.

The displaced say Paulino Ramírez Reyes was killed in Copala over the weekend. Another man, David García Ramírez, is feared dead. Jordan Gonzales Ramírez and Susana López are missing. It’s unknown if they were successfully able to flee Copala. An unnamed woman and child were also reported as injured.

Women in the protest encampment say a “considerable group” of their people were able to escape the town Saturday night and make their way to other communities, but that around 30 people have been unable to leave Copala.

Oaxaca state police went into San Juan Copala over the weekend to transport 3 wounded women to a Oaxaca City hospital and to search for the body of David García Ramírez.

The police made no arrests while in the town.

A week ago, the state government had agreed to send 15 tons of food and 2 state police patrols to Copala in exchange for the women moving their protest encampment out of the central plaza – or Zócalo – ahead of Bicentennial celebrations. The women kept their word, but food aid and police patrols never arrived.

The displaced women say they don’t trust the state government to take any action against those accused of maintaining the siege of Copala. The federal government has remained silent on the issue.

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.

Aside from the most recent reports of an armed incursion into San Juan Copala, two other violent events have marked the past 30 days in the region. Three people were killed and 2 injured in an ambush on August 22nd while organizing a caravan that aimed to allow women to safely leave the conflict zone. The caravan, which was due to leave the region the next day, was cancelled and has not been re-scheduled.

On Monday, Amnesty International called on the government to provide safety guarantees for 2 women who were attacked on September 7th as they went out to find food. One was allegedly gang raped and beaten upon capture while the other was shot while escaping on foot.

The territorial dispute over San Juan Copala has been deteriorating into a downward spiral of violence since late last year with the number of dead and injured growing each month. It’s precisely this level of violence makes reports from the area difficult – if not impossible – to independently confirm.

What is clear is that none of the alleged perpetrators have been taken into police custody and government authorities have demonstrated a lack of political will to ensure public security in the conflict zone.

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.

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.

“The municipal county seat is the base upon which the political structure of Mexican society is organized” explains López Bárcenas. “They were divided among 4 districts and dismembered politically, but that’s not all. The army was sent in and stayed from 1940 to about 1999″.

The military campaign aganst the Triquis was particularly harsh and included an aerial bombardment of their territory in 1956. Francisco López Bárcenas says it’s the only bombardment he’s aware of in post-revolutionary Mexico prior to the Zapatista uprising of 1994.

The division of the Triqui Nation among 4 political districts has also reduced Triqui control over their territory’s natural wealth, including forests, rich farmlands, water, and minerals.

The author says that in the past few decades the state government has created organizations to dominate the Triquis; “One of them is the organization accused of perpetrating the ambush, The Union for the Social Well-Being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT) which was created in 1994″. The UBISORT paramilitary group was founded some months after Mayan rebels in the neighbouring state of Chiapas launched an uprising for indigenous self-determination.

Another major player in the Triqui conflict is the MULT; the Movement for the Unification of the Triqui Struggle. The group formed to resist local political bosses and landlords but repeated assassinations of its leadership has weakened the organization. Fighting turned inward with MULT and UBISORT mutually accused of murdering each other’s members.

It was in this context that the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala was born. Residents of the town include former members of both adversarial groups who decided to form a new organization and focus on self-determination and autonomy. The reaction has been violent, with targeted assassinations of Copala residents and a physical blockade of the town, home to at least 700 people.

Daniel Arellano, a Oaxaca City activist who survived last week’s ambush with minor injuries, says the purpose of the caravan was to break the siege and document the situation. “For the past 5 months the community of San Juan Copala has been held incommunicado, under siege by paramilitaries, without clean water, without electricity, without teachers – because they had to leave, without a doctor – because he abandoned them” says Arellano, “Every night paramilitaries fire shots into the town and this situation persists because people don’t understand or have information about what is happening there”.

Demonstrations to protest the paramilitary ambush on the aid caravan and to demand justice for the two dead were held over the weekend in Oaxaca, Mexico City, and in several European and US cities.

“We ask that all the attention awakened by the murder of our two friends be shifted to the situation of grave humanitarian crisis in San Juan Copala” says ambush survivor David Venegas. He hid in the bush for two days after the attack with two journalists and a wounded friend. While all persons who went missing in the attack have been accounted for, Venegas says the town of San Juan Copala remains surrounded by paramilitaries. Another survivor of the attack, Gabriela Jimenez, said the armed men who captured her bragged of having protection from the state governor.

Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz publicly denies having ties to the UBISORT paramilitaries or that the ambush was an incident of electoral violence. In an impromptu press conference this weekend, he said the conflict in the Triqui region “has been going on for more than 40 years” and that it’s “an issue that goes beyond elections”. The governor has also called into question why international observers were in the region and asked that the National Immigration Institute investigate foreigners who “come here to cause problems”.

The PRI ruling party has dominated state politics for 80 years and has fired up the formidable party machinery in favor of its gubernatorial candidate, Eviel Perez Magaña. A number of political opponents and their family members have already met violent deaths this election season in the Northern Cuenca region and along the Pacific Coast.

The April 27th attack on a caravan carrying human rights defenders, activists, international observers, and journalists has prompted concern that even more extreme incidents could occur ahead of the July 4th elections.