Oaxaca: Paramilitaries fire on solidarity caravan, two confirmed dead

Oaxaca: Paramilitary attack leaves two dead and three disappeared

Oaxaca de Juárez, Oaxaca
April 27, 2010

To the media
To the people of Mexico
To the people of the world
To the people of Oaxaca

Armed attack against the Caravan of Support and Solidarity with the
Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca

CONTEXT:

Yesterday the realization of this caravan to the Triqui region,
inside of our state of Oaxaca, was announced to the media. In this
caravan there are comrades from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of
Oaxaca (APPO), Section 22 of the teachers' union, Oaxacan Voices
Constructing Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL), CACTUS, members of MULTI
(Independent Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle), as well as
international observer comrades.

As was already announced, the caravan left today, April 27, 2010, at
approximately 11 AM from the city of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, with the
goal of breaking the siege that the Autonomous Triqui Community finds
itself in as a result of state and paramilitary repression against the
process of autonomy which it is building inside this community. Violent
paramilitary attacks have occurred at different moments during the
autonomous process of San Juan Copala and have been directed by the
paramilitary organization called UBISORT (Union for Social Well-Being in
the Triqui Region) which in reality is presided over by Rufino Juárez
Hernández and the MULT (Triqui Movement of Unification and Struggle
Movement.)

Before the departure of the caravan, the autonomous president of San
Juan Copala, Jesús Martínez Flores, placed responsibility for any attack
on Evencio Nicolás Martínez, Oaxaca State Attorney General, Jorge
Franco Vargas "El Chucky", State Interior Minister, and Carlos Martínez,
local PRI candidate for the state congress. Also, he urged UBISORT and
MULT to behave responsibly and with earnestness towards the peace
negotiations for the Triqui people.

EVENTS:

Approximately 100 kilometers before reaching La Sabana, the road was
blocked with rocks, and that is where the cowardly armed attack began,
by about 15 paramilitaries in the service of the murderer Ulises Ruiz
Ortiz's government (the type of weapon is unknown), leaving vehicles
destroyed, wounding a comrade, and leaving two people dead.

During the attack, some comrades escaped, hiding in the hill, and of
those who don't know their way we are worried that they have been
captured by the paramilitaries. Those comrades who as of now are
disappeared are NOE BAUTISTA JIMENEZ, DAVID VENEGAS REYES, and DANIEL
ARELLANO CHAVEZ, all of them members of VOCAL.

Regrettably, as information is coming in we know that two comrades
lost their lives in this paramilitary attack; they are BEATRÍZ ALBERTA
CARIÑO TRUJILLO, a member of CACTUS, and TYRI ANTERO JAAKKOLA, an
international observer comrade from Finland. Both died as a result of
gunshots.

During the events, comrade MONICA CITLALI SANTIAGO ORTIZ was wounded
in the back by a gunshot and was attended to by medics in Juxtlahuaca.

Those who stayed in the area of the shooting were taken from the
vehicles and brought to the hill to be interrogated; some were
threatened with death and later were released on the highway. Comrade
RUBÉN VALENCIA NUÑEZ, a member of VOCAL, was detained by paramilitaries
who took his I.D., his cell phone, and threatened him with death, then
let him go.

An ambulance came to the site of the events to attend to the wounded,
but was also cowardly shot at by the paramilitaries, which forced it to
leave. While they were leaving, they found a wounded comrade who they
attended to, and to whom they confirmed the death of the comrades
previously mentioned.

As a result of the confusion and uncertainty of the events, the
location of the previously mentioned comrades is unknown, as is their
physical and psychological condition.

WE ENERGETICALLY DENOUNCE:

That this armed attack is a product of the conditions of
institutional violence and impunity that paramilitary groups enjoy in
this region of our state. Institutional violence directed at the
different manifestations of social struggle in Oaxaca, and specifically
against the construction of autonomous processes.

This attack occurred in the context of the isolation and state of
siege that the municipality of San Juan Copala lives under, where since
January the children have not had classes, where the community does not
have electricity, potable water, doctors, and lives under permanent
paramilitary harassment as a result of the blockade they have
established there.

WE DEMAND:

That the murderer Ulises Ruiz's government end the paramilitary
attacks in the Triqui region. As well, that he end the financing,
arming and impunity that these paramilitary groups enjoy in our state.

The immediate return of our disappeared comrades.

WE CALL:

To the people of Oaxaca, of Mexico, to the international community
and the different social organizations, collectives, and groups, to
visibly show your solidarity and support with the demand for the return,
alive, of our disappeared brothers and for the punishing of those
responsible. Also, we fraternally call on you to demand an end to the
violent conditions facing the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan
Copala.

The live return of the disappeared comrades!

Punishment for the murderers of our comrades!

End the attacks on the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala!

End the paramilitary blockade that encircles this autonomous Triqui
community!

Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom

(VOCAL)