"Eerie calm" in Oaxaca following repression wave

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Thu, 12/07/2006 - 00:20.

Under threat of an imminent invasion of the campus by Mexican federal police and Oaxaca state law enforcement, activists representing the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) formally turned over control of Radio Universidad Nov. 30 to the state university rector Francisco Martinez Neri. The rector announced at a press conference that none of the station's equioment was damaged or missing. (Noticias de Oaxaca, Nov. 30) The following morning, the university, which had been APPO's principal stronghold, re-opened its doors to regular classes. El Universal reported that "for the first time in over five months, this state capital awoke with no barricades in sight," and an "eerie calm" reigned over the city. (El Universal, Dec. 1)

The apparent return to normalcy came after a wave of violence and repression. Scores of protesters detained over the weekend of Nov. 25 for burning cars and buildings were transferred to a federal penitentiary in another state at the request of local authorities, federal officials admitted. The 107 men and 34 women arrested on vandalism charges are considered "highly dangerous" and were transferred to El Rincon prison in Nayarit state because Oaxaca does not have the facilities to guard them, the Public Safety Secretariat said in a news release. Activists charged the move was made to separate the arrested protesters from their local support base. (El Universal, Nov. 28) The Miguel Augustin Pro-Juarez Human Rights Center charges that some 60 APPO supporters have been "disappeared," with no official records of their detainment. (La Jornada, Nov. 5)

As the Oaxaca violence reached its climax, the Democratic Revolutionary Tendency-Army of the People (TDR-EP), the guerilla group believed responsible for the Nov. 6 Mexico City bombings, issued a communique announcing it wwas building a Popular Assembly of the People of Mexico (APPM), which would coordinate the armed groups with the civil social struggles. The statement read: "The EZLN and the organizations that adhere to the Other Campaign, the National Democratic Convention and the APPO, in spite of their differences, are concerete expressions of popular power in the process of political contruction and articulation. The new state and regional assemblies which are emerging at distinct points in the country can give way to one of the most important instances of political coordination of recent times: the APPM."

The group pledged new armed attacks against the federal forces in Oaxaca. (Noticias de Oaxaca, Nov. 28)

All sources via Chiapas95.