Update from Oaxaca pt. 6 : AZ IMC

1. Oaxaca, City Under Siege
2. Occupied City
3. City Under Control
4. Fascist Militarization by Fox Government
5. Calderon Government

Sunday, October 29th, 6,500 troops of the Armed Forces laid siege to Oaxaca: the
Army, the Marines, the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) and the Federal
Investigation Agency (AFI) (the AFI is the Mexican equivalent of the FBI -ed.). The
siege took place at eight strategic points.

The APPO orders a retreat. At first, this means abandoning the Zocalo and
reenforcing the most important barricades. They listen to the radio to hear about
the movements of the army. They hear and calle in details: what time the army left
the airport and other gathering points. What kind of weapons they had. How many
troops were being mobilized. What they were doing to remove the barricades. What the
reaction of the army was when confronted by angry citizens.

One hypothesis was that maybe they'd maintain the city under siege for a few days.
And detain those who wanted to leave. However, at 9:15 am, they began to advance.

By 10:30 am, people had gathered in the places with the most soldiers to chant and
express their disapproval of the use of military force against the people of Oaxaca.
These gatherings grew as the day wore on. An announcer on Radio Universidad said
"Let's block them, bring flowers to give to the army, if you don't have flowers draw
pictures of flowers. Give them water, sodas, food. Let's show that we're peaceful,"
etc. What possible motive could there be to welcome an army that comes to protect
the murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and his killers? The people were gathering to resist,
but it didn't have anything to do with carnations and roses. In Brenamiel (a
neighborhood in Oaxaca City -ed.) there were the most people gathering to resist the
army. Most of them women. They were shooting fireworks at the helicopters flying
overhead. The women were furious and didn't stop chanting and shouting.

1,500 feds advanced towards the Zocalo, where there were approximately 5,000 people
from the APPO. The protestors burned tires, and those giving out flowers struggled,
and apparently even that is considered "violent". Meanwhile, the troops advanced
near University City and the students reiterated their decision to resist and reject
the advance.

The teachers asked for the Secretary of the Interior and Enrique Rueda to be
considered liars. The Executive Committee of SNTE 22 has been overruled. There will
be no return to classes on Monday, assure the teachers of Oaxaca, in the midst of
their struggle, on the side of the people. They repudiate the declarations that the
the problem has been resolved, today more than ever that is a lie. "We didn't ask
for the army to come in, that's not a solution, that makes the conflict worse." The
murderer Ulises Ruiz Ortiz doesn't merit all this military repression. 6,500 troops
in defense of a midget with no authority! This fascist action, supposedly to
maintain law and order, show the Fox government for what it really is! Law of the
rich capitalists against the poor! Fascist order!

Excellent. Very few believe the news about the return to classes on Monday after the
Secretary of the Interior broke all agreements by sending the military to Oaxaca.
There is no date set, there is no return to classes while URO is still in power. The
struggle continues. And what it's doing is organizing the resistance to the advance
of the military forces, marching on Brenamiel with 12 mini-tanks and 500 PFP
officers. Was this what was agreed upon between the Secretary of the Interior, the
SNTE 22, and the APPO? To return to classes "starting on Monday the 30" like Rueda
keeps saying is equivalent to saying that yes, this was the agreement. But the
teachers of Oaxaca never consented to this! Rueda Pacheco continues to serve the
state, not the teachers and the popular struggle, and the teachers are outraged by
his statements.

The PFP's entrance is being surrounded by the people. They're getting behind the
PFP, even as the PFP moves towards the people entrenched behind the barricades. "The
invasion of Oaxaca", as it's been called by the people, worsened between 2:00 and
3:00 pm, when the PFP arrived at the perimiter of the Zocalo and surrounded the two
surrounding blocks. The AFI arrested the leaders that it found in the barricades and
stormed numerous houses looking for others. In Brenamiel the first serious injury
was reported. The defense of University City has been decided upon. In those areas,
many teachers are wounded and arrested.

Cut to the government offices in Mexico City. URO has been located, in Hotel Nico.
The crowds at the doors grow, "he has fallen, he has fallen, Ulises has fallen!"

Twelve mini-tanks advanced on Brenamiel.

The PFP retreats due to the presence of thousands of people from the megamarch that
advanced from the Zocalo of Oaxaca City. The people immediately go to University
City. PFP helicopters flew overhead. The radio announces 15,000 marchers. Buses were
burned. Thousands of people were in solidarity and came to the march.

The mini-tanks arrive at the Zocalo at 3:30 pm. The barricades are still up in every
street, they haven't been removed. But still there are police contingents closing in
on the Zocalo. What is happening everywhere is that the people are waiting
(resisting) until the PFP arrives with their front-end loaders and mini-tanks, then
they throw rocks and retreat at a run.

At 3:49 pm the PFP arrives at the Zocalo and teargasses people who were only
chanting and waving Mexican flags.

In Mexico City: the APPO leaves at around 4:00 pm. The manager of the hotel says
that URO is not staying there. The masses do not stop their mobilization.

Pepper gas is launched at the people of Oaxaca in order to remove the barricades in
historic downtown. There are injuries. The military offensive is detained at the
bridge to the Technological University. You can hear chants and the explosions of
fireworks. Water is shot from water cannons, mixed with pepper spray. Helicopters
flying low overhead shoot out a red-colored gas.

The APPO denounces the fact that the PFP is attacking companeros, saying that the
people in the barricades are responsible for their own arrests, and then takes the
arrested folks to the military zone. There are more than 50 arrested.

The mass of people in the Zocalo is there to dissuade the PFP from trying to take
it. A retreat is considered, because the PFP has the place surrounded. The megamarch
arrives at the Zocalo, and this is a great triumph for the resistance. There were
other marches (including one in San Francisco, California, USA). In San Lorenzo, the
neighbors who are protesting PFP presence are gassed. The line of PFP is
approximately 600 meters long, and includes busses, mini-tanks, trucks, and arms.

The people demand that the teachers not return to classes. They march from San Pablo
Huitzo, from Telixtlahuaca and neighborhoods in Viguera, where there are more than
2,000 people ready to resist the PFP. People from Etla (a town near Oaxaca City
-ed.) made it behind the PFP's line of attack, trapping the PFP between them behind
and protestors from the colonias in front. They then leave, towards Oaxaca, to join
up with the megamarch. The APPO is out in force! And there isn't a few people, a
mere 5,000, like URO said on Channel 40!

In Brenamiel, the most numerous and combative barricade, only surpassed by the one
guarding Radio Universidad, they launch fireworks at the helicopters. Women and
teachers are the most combative. It is evident that the Committee of Section 22 can
no longer tell people what to do, particularly Rueda, who is continually announcing
on Mexico City radio that "the return" to classes starts on Monday the 30th. He's
crazy! The teachers say "we're here, with the people." Rueda is six hours away.

The Tlacolula sector announces, in the protest camp in Oaxaca, that it will not
return to classes, and that it respects the agreements of the State Assembly: that
the Secretary of the Interior didn't meet the conditions for the return to classes.

In Italy, it is announced, the Mexican consulate was taken over by solidarity groups
to repudiate the PFP invasion. The news is celebrated by the teachers in the protest
camp, the ones who are organzing another blockade of a major thoroughfare in Mexico
City with the CGH, the Other Campaign, and many other organizations, especially
students from the Autonomous University of Mexico. They block the streets with two
trolleys, are attacked by cops, and during the confrontation the most combative are
photographed. One of the photographers is wounded. The number of participants is
growing, and is no longer paying attention to The PRIista leaders of APPO and the
SNTE, who are opposed to the mobilization in order not to upset the PRD government
of Mexico City, even though the PFP is in the Zocalo of Oaxaca City.

"In 10 minutes we'll decide what to do," announces the APPO in Oaxaca. The PFP has
positioned themselves a mere 50 meters away. There are hundreds more a few blocks
away from the Zocalo. The demand continues, "URO step down," Oaxaca is not business
as usual.

The masses are close by. They're still not retreating. We'll only leave when URO
does. Moments of high tension. They can overrun us, the teachers realize. They're
breathing tear gas, smoke from burning tires and cars, mustard gas. Stoic teachers
yell at the soldiers not to attack the people. It is announced that there will be
three more marches tomorrow.

Rueda Pacheco reiterates on the radio that there is a commitment to the Secretary of
the Interior and the Secretary of Public Education to return to classes, all the
details have been worked out. He says that the entrance of the PFP does not resolve
the conflict. He becomes a spokesperson when he says to the APPO that "tomorrow
there will be dialogue with the Secretary of the Interior. The APPO should be there.
Tomorrow four political prisoners will be freed. The CES is dealing with the fine
print and will fill the teachers in tomorrow. Unity continues with the APPO. With
the return to classes, the struggle against URO is brought to 14,000 schools and the
parents of the students. The return to classes is Monday. There are paramilitaries
about. They are responsible for the violence being attributed to the teachers. No to
violence." He tries not to appear as a traitor, saying that he got 41 billion pesos
for the teachers, that the money is for all the teachers. Nobody had ever achieved
as much, he says. He asks for security to go back to the classrooms. He wants the
teachers to be aware of all the details of the return to classes.

That is to say: Rueda Pacheco continues chasing the carrot offered by the
government, while the PFP, under orders of the same government, is killing people.
What a beautiful combination! At approximately 6:00 pm the PFP enter the Zocalo,
gassing, beating, 14 injured, 3 confirmed dead even though people say the number is
5. There's the contrast between a leader who turns his back on the people and the
heroism of the people! In the Technological University of Oaxaca 20 injured and 14
seriously injured. In the struggle for University City, the confrontations lasted
for an hour.

Two PFP officers suffer burns, several of the injured were beaten with their own
nightsticks. The PFP also received a strong dose of beatings. Those burned were
burned with Molotov cocktails. There was a death. In Mexico City Norberto Rivera
(the bishop of Mexico -ed.) declares "there's no need for violence, revolution." Of
course! But the violence of Fox is vile, fascist. It is not revolution.

In Mexico City, the blocking of the major thoroughfare becomes a major convergence
point: at one point there are 10,000 people.

The hunger strikers, sick and weak, stand up to sing "venceremos" to start of the
march, touching the heart of all the participants.

And back in Oaxaca, the electricity is cut, a true fascist act of war against the
people. In University City two cars are flipped over to reenforce the barricades.
They've armed themselves with machetes, baseball bats, and hundreds have converged
in the central lawns and in Radio Universidad. In the Zocalo the masses confront the
PFP. The PFP shoots gasses.

An official of the Department of the Interior declares that what's happening in
Oaxaca is the the Secretary of Security's problem, and not that of the Department of
the Interior. What's happening in Mexico City is the Secretary of Security's
problem, not that of the Department of the Interior. He will speak with APPO
tomorrow afternoon.

In the major thoroughfare in Mexico City, a march is organized towards Televisa, a
TV station, and the Universal, a newspaper. They dedicate an emotional minute of
applause to the people of Oaxaca in resistance. Not one step backwards! Not one step
backwards! It is announced that a medical worker has just died in Oaxaca.

Granados Chapa, in an interview, reminds people that the problems in Oaxaca come
from caciquism (caciques are local mafia bosses, often associated with political
parties -ed.). The PRI supports URO in Oaxaca, supports caciquism, 300 mayors
support him simply because he's the governor. If he's ousted, they won't support
him. That's the structure of caciquism. He has the federation's money and uses it to
maintain the cacique structure.

Granados Chapa is right. Caciques and their gunmen were the ones who shot at the
masses, murdering four people, among them a North American journalist. And caciques
are the principal enemies of the indigenous, who make up the majority of the
population in Oaxaca.

Joel Ortega (Secretary of Security in Mexico City) declares, "We stand with the
struggle of the APPO. But those who commit misdeeds are criminals." When asked why
the criminals weren't being arrested in the act, he answered "We're going to provide
footage of those who are damaging busses. We don't arrest anybody in the act because
it turns out worse, their companeros would protest. They're detained
after the blockade finishes, when they're getting on the subway. But they are indeed
filmed during the march, and even after. After the small groups break up, the
special forces come out." He finishes by saying "We're not going to let them block
streets and take over busses. We don't want to escalate a conflict that isn't Mexico
City's, to bring the conflict here. Yes, we repress, but after the crowds have
broken up."

Keep this declaration in mind and compare it with the the cries of the PRD members
in the Mexico City march, when the march arrived at the Department of the Interior
offices. When companeros took down the metal barricade, they yelled "They're
criminals! Isolate them! Their faces are covered! They're agent provocateurs, our
companeros in Oaxaca don't cover their faces!"

What a bunch of cowardly shit! Joel Ortega says that he photographs them and then
represses them away from the crowd. And these PRD dogs tell them not to cover their
faces!

Oaxaca, 6:00 pm. The radio reports that citizens have gasoline to make Molotov
cocktails. In Oaxaca, it seems, they go a bit farther than covering their faces!

At 7:20 pm, a professor says "The APPO has ordered a retreat, we're leaving the
Zocalo to go and reenforce Radio Universidad. Tomorrow there will be marches to
various destinations. Perhaps we'll regroup later in the Zocalo. The PFP will surely
remove everything that's there. It's sad, because I didn't want to leave like that.
There were agreements. Negotiation table. And then here comes the PFP. This fight
isn't over."

Agreements of the APPO: keep fighting, maintain the barricades. Demand the immediate
departure of the PFP, the liberation of the more than 50 arrested, some of them now
in the military zone, and the departure of URO. The Department of the Interior
doesn't respond and the aggression continue. The PFP arrived in Oaxaca to back up
URO the murderer. It's not true that it's been a clean operation, there are armed
police. The barricades will remain. In University City, Roberto Lopez Hernandez was
killed when a gas canister struck him in the chest, the same as Alexis Benhumea in
Atenco. Candles are lit in his honor in Brenamiel even though rumors are flying that
he was killed by a group of PRI supporters dressed in black, or even the APPO!

PRI senator Adolfo Toledo applauds the arrival of the PFP to preserve the rule of
law. Of course there are armed PRI groups participating, but there is more evidence
that PRD groups played a role in provoking the conflict. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
wanted to direct the whole thing, so that the authorities could go on the attack and
apply the law.

Poor political reactionaries! They don't know how to talk to anyone besides
themselves, especially not the people, whom they scorn!

Abascal declares that the Oaxaca City is under control. The Zocalo is occupied. The
APPO has retreated. The PFP completed their objective of occupying the city, and
they continue to restore order. He recognizes that only part of the city has been
recovered. But it was a clean operation, without deaths or injuries. He continues to
insist that nobody died.

In Oaxaca: Jorge Lopez Velez dies when hit by a gas canister.

Abascal says: URO needs to explain this. We're going to reestablish order. The APPO
shouldn't resist, that that's how it should be, and there should be negotiation.
Congress and the Oaxacan government asked for the PFP's presence to reestablish
order, but not to back up any particular side of the struggle. And he finishes by
saying that a parent of a child was killed while trying to climb over a barricade.
The return to classes will be Monday as Rueda has agreed. The city will be slowly
turned back over to URO. There is nothing to fear about the presence of the PFP in
Oaxaca, we're going to resolve this security problem. It was a successful operation.
Clean. With respect for all sides of the conflict. The aggression should go down,
and there should be dialogue.

APPO says that Abascal is lying. There was no agreement with the Oaxacan
Preventative Police. We decided to resist the PFP's invasion of Oaxaca, to not hand
over the Zocalo. To not stop protesting. Today another black page was written in
Mexican history. The PFP behaved violently. The mini-tanks sprayed water laced with
liquid gas. The political parties are complicit. URO is a governor who doesn't
govern. They keep him in power because they're worried about the 1st of December
(when Calderon is set to take office. The government is worried that if URO is
removed from power by popular protest, the same thing could happen to Calderon. In
fact, the APPO has said many times that they will not permit Calderon to assume
office if URO isn't removed -ed.) The responsability of the APPO lies with the
people and their demands. The political parties recieve with applause the murderers
and rapists of Atenco. We've suffered 3 murders, one of them a child, 13 years old.
What clean operation? In Oaxaca neither order nor safety has been restored. We will
have three marches tomorrow. There are 60 arrested, 50 houses stormed while looking
for people. Many people have been disappeared.

The same night and on the same channel, Rueda Pacheco declared that "dialogue has
been broken. We were told that there was to be no intervention. That the dialogue
was the way. There can be no dialogue like this." He said that the return to classes
is at risk, there can be no agreement with this attack. There should be no more
detentions. The PFP should leave, as a condition to return to the dialogue table.
Notwithstanding, a few hours later, at 8:00 am on Monday the 30th, he announced that
the Department of the Interior had released four prisoners, and made other offers,
and that because of these new developments SNTE section 22 would hold an assembly so
that the new terms of the agreement could be known and decisions could be made. The
offer of dialogue between the APPO and the Department of the Interior was still on
the table for the afternoon.

The real Rueda Pacheco is the Rueda Pacheco of Monday, not of Sunday! He quickly
forgot his own words! "I said yesterday that we were going to return to classes, but
not with PFP violence. The conditions for the return to classes have not been met.
There is no safety. It was a unilateral decision. There is violence from the
government." Today he announces a gradual return to classes, even as his base
screams "Traitor! Traitor!" at him.

He said that the teachers were not involved in the violence. That it was violent
groups. "We announce our actions, and do not cover our faces." But just at that
moment the following information spreads: 18 (later revealed to be 20) students were
detained and sent to the police station, surrounded by cops to prevent the crowds
from freeing them. Could this be because not everybody "shows their face" as Rueda
and his people say, or is it because they were provoking violence, as Rueda and his
people also say? And keep in mind, the arrests were made at the moment that the
crowd dispersed to go to the subway.

Solidarity groups in Chiapas report: flyers were handed out at bus stations, press
releases sent, announcements made at radio stations like La Libre in San Cristobal
de las Casas, Radio Lagarto in Chiapa de Corzo, Radio Copa in Copainala. More than
100 slogans painted in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Venstiano Carranza, Pujiltic. And today,
Monday the 30th, a roadblock at the entrance to San Cristobal de las Casas, in
addition to radio station takeovers and flyers handed out on streets.

Monday the 30th, the philosophy department of the Autonomous University of Mexico,
in Mexico City, declared its solidarity with the APPO and the people of Oaxaca. The
Social Workers department blocked Insurgentes street, and were chased back to the
UNAM campus by cops, who were throwing volcanic rock at students and violating the
autonomy of the University. The students unite and march, protesting the situation
at University City, and converge with a contingent of students from the South CCH.
In CCH Azcapotzalco, they block streets. As Ortega, Secretary of Security in Mexico
City, foresaw, the conflict has escalated in Mexico City.

In Oaxaca, they've put up more barricades. They've got the PFP fenced in inside the
Zocalo. The position of the APPO is:
1. Maintain their primary demand: the immediate exit of URO from the government of
the state of Oaxaca.
2. Peaceful civic resistance will continue.
3. The murders of Sunday the 29th are condemned, murders which were caused by the
PFP and military intervention in Oaxaca City.
4. The barricades will be maintained, as always, everywhere possible. Companeras and
companeros are asked to leave after putting up barricades. We will not be provoked
to violence.
5. Participation is requested for the megamarch on Monday the 30th of October at
12:00 pm, departing from Santa Rosa, the IEEPO, and the Procuraduria. 6.
Negotiations continue with the Department of the Interior.
All of which means: The struggle continues. The presence of the PFP, AFI, Marines,
and Army is all the more reason to continue the struggle. The teachers in resistance
are determined to continue. In Mexico City and all of Mexico, the point is to
mobilize in support of Oaxaca. URO is dead in the water, garbage, washed up.

Long live the heroic resistance in Oaxaca!
Long live the unity between the APPO and the teachers!
No to the return to classes with the boots of the military on our necks! He has
fallen, he has fallen, Ulises has fallen!

Oaxaca was laid siege to. Then it was militarily occupied. Like Abascal says, the
next thing is to reestablish law and order, that is to say, military and police
control of the situation. As we have seen and heard, the military action has been
aided by coverage on a national level in all of the media, all of which justify and
praise the events in Oaxaca, saying that law and order has been reestablished.

We've also seen the union leader flavor of the month played his role well, dividing,
demoralizing, and demobilizing the base. He condemns people who "violently" cover
their faces, just as communists (and anarchists -ed.) were condemned in the past,
and marked for repression as agitators.

The people, on the other hand, continue the struggle. During the night and early
morning of the 29th and 30th en Nochistlan there were armed
confrontations. In the city, the companeros in the barricades were fed by the
neighbors from the neighborhoods, who risked running across the PFP invadors by
leaving their houses. The march from the Juarez monument started out with 4,000
people and tried to retake the Zocalo. What does all of this tell us? It tells us of
the existence of a growing revolutionary situation that is continuing to mature. And
the application of a fascist form of government, like that of Calderon and the
bourgeouisie that he represents opens the way for a revolutionary situation like to
take root. This is the Mexican version of the fascism that Bush has ordered in the
US and all of its colonies, which include Mexico, its principal colony.

"Prepare yourselves for combat and resistance" is what this struggle against these
representatives of imperialism is telling us.

Long live the democratic and revolutionary struggle of our people!
Long live anti-imperalist struggle of all the peoples of the world!
Total support for the just struggle of the people of Oaxaca!

-Communist Party of Mexico, 30th of October, 2006