Friday, October 06, 2006
A todos los que ven este blog, favor de participar en esta propuesta del NAHR
National Alliance for Human Rights
(NAHR)
“Emergency Urgent Call”
On behalf of the National Alliance for Human Rights (NAHR), I am making an urgent call to every person and organization in the United States that wants a peaceful resolution to Mexico’s present escalating Oaxacan political crisis to contact via e-mail, telephone, or letter President Vicente Fox and your local Mexican Consulate. It is imperative to demand a peaceful negotiated settlement to the four-month old political crisis that threatens to erupt into a violent military intervention, where a blood bath could ensue entailing the loss of lives of perhaps hundreds if not thousands of impoverished people who are merely struggling for social justice against a tyrannical and oppressive state government headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Please do all of the following:
1. Please Contact:
Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de la Republica
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Aleman
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850
Distrito Federal, Mexico
Telephone: (55) 52772376
Fax: (55) 527723376
E-mail: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/directorio/
2. Contact Nearest Mexican Consulate and Voice Your Concern
3. Email this Letter to Others
In order to accentuate the severity of the crisis the people of Oaxaca face, the following is an abbreviated extract of a report I am preparing on the National Alliance for Human Rights delegation travels to Mexico City to participate in the National Democratic Convention called for by Mexico’s legitimate President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on September 16 and a trip to Oaxaca to meet with APPO and SNTE’s leadership on September 17 in Oaxaca.
Briefly, the four-month old Oaxacan political crisis started in late May of this year when Oaxaca’s 70,000 teachers under the aegis of the Section 22 of the National Union of Workers in Education (Sección 22 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE)) struck for better wages and an increase in the state’s education budget. Instead of negotiating with the teachers who receive a mere $400 to $600 per month, PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz chose political repression. On June 14, he had the state police unleash their repressive fury against the non-violent teacher’s union by violently breaking-up their sit-in protests at Oaxaca’s zocolo (main square) and occupation of school buildings. Supported by the masses of people, the gallant teachers held their ground and compelled the state police to withdrawal. The next day, barricades across the city were established; highways were blockaded; and a massive march was held calling for the resignation of Governor Ruiz.
The people’s protests grew dramatically in the ensuing days. On June 16, the people’s organized power was manifested by a mega-march, which drew some 300,000 people, again demanding the resignation of Governor Ruiz. On June 19, in support of the teacher’s strike, several supportive groups coalesced and formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or La Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO). That same day, negotiations between the teachers’ union and state government officials broke-off, which resulted in several government offices occupied and highways barricaded. During the last four months, the unprecedented organized power of the people who clamor for social justice and a peaceful resolution to the crisis has been evident: several mega marches, one numbering over one-million people have been held; occupation of governmental buildings; occupation and control of radio and television stations that are used to transmit their demands and information on pending mobilizations; barricades of streets; and the creation of a mobilization contagion that has garnered the attention of the world’s press and human rights activists and entities. Today, a protest march is in progress from Oaxaca to Mexico City, which is scheduled to arrive on October 9th.
Yet as a result of the failure of President Vicente Fox and his administration to negotiate a settlement with SNTE and APPO, the Oaxacan political crisis has intensified in the last three months to where PRI’s Governor Ruiz and his administration in an recalcitrant, intransigent, and callous manner has resorted to the use of intimidation, harassment, and even violence – two people have been killed and several wounded and injured and scores of people arrested - against the growing people’s movement led by SANTE and APPO. Throughout the various failed attempts by President Vicente’s Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal Carranza’s to negotiate a peaceful settlement, both entities have maintained steadfast that the crisis can be easily resolved simply with the resignation or ouster of Governor Ruiz.
Understanding the pervasiveness of the region’s utterly wretched impoverished conditions coupled by a history of decades of corrupt government personified by Governor Ruiz and his PRI administration, the people of Oaxaca have unleashed an unprecedented urban based “people’s democratic” social movement that involves hundreds of thousands of active workers and peasants, which serves to buttress PRD President Andres Manuel Lopez Obr ador’s call for a New Republic, a new Mexico that is democratic, egalitarian, and can provide opportunities and change for “all” its people.
However, in the last two weeks the crisis has been exacerbated with President Vicente Fox’s decision to allow the Secretary of the Navy to initiate the requisite military preparations to end the crisis by the use of military force. Some four-thousand Mexican Special forces marines along with tanks and armored personnel carriers have been sent naval bases close to Oaxaca. Federal and state police forces are also prepared to intervene. Naval aircraft and helicopters have flown over the city of Oaxaca for intelligence gathering purposes as well as to intimidate and instill fear in the people that a military response is imminent. Particularly, in the last few days, the people of Oaxaca via SNTE and APPO have been preparing for a worst-case scenario -- an all-out military onslaught against the people of Oaxaca.
Thus, the next few days could well determine the course of events. President Fox does not want to deliver on December 1 Mexico’s presidency to the illegitimate PAN President Felipe Calderon with Oaxacan political crisis unresolved. Hence, understanding its precariousness and politically explosive nature, if negotiations fail to produce a settlement the federal government’s military scenario could well produce a conflagration, a blood bath, many times worse than what occurred in Tlateleco in 1968 when some 500 students were killed by the Mexican army and hundreds incarcerated by President Dias Ordaz’s repressive PRI regime.
In short, such an aforementioned scenario could be the match that ignites the fire to Mexico’s “second” social Revolution. As has been reported a number of insurgent groups (e.g., Ejercito Popular Revolucioñario, Armed Revolutionary Organization for the People of Oaxaca, others) in an around Oaxaca are prepared to initiate an armed struggle against the federal government should President Fox resort to a military solution. Again, the “powder keg” status of the Oaxacan Crisis is presently so severe that all people and organizations that care about social justice and human rights become engaged in pressuring President Vicente Fox to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis and to concomitantly categorically reject the use of the military or federal police. As has been said repeatedly by SNTE and APPO’s leadership, the crisis will be quickly resolved with the ouster or resignation of Governor Ulesis Ruiz.
Democracia, Justicia Social y Paz para Todos
Armando Navarro, Ph.D.
NAHR Coordinator
(NAHR)
“Emergency Urgent Call”
On behalf of the National Alliance for Human Rights (NAHR), I am making an urgent call to every person and organization in the United States that wants a peaceful resolution to Mexico’s present escalating Oaxacan political crisis to contact via e-mail, telephone, or letter President Vicente Fox and your local Mexican Consulate. It is imperative to demand a peaceful negotiated settlement to the four-month old political crisis that threatens to erupt into a violent military intervention, where a blood bath could ensue entailing the loss of lives of perhaps hundreds if not thousands of impoverished people who are merely struggling for social justice against a tyrannical and oppressive state government headed by the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s (PRI) Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Please do all of the following:
1. Please Contact:
Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de la Republica
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Aleman
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850
Distrito Federal, Mexico
Telephone: (55) 52772376
Fax: (55) 527723376
E-mail: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/directorio/
2. Contact Nearest Mexican Consulate and Voice Your Concern
3. Email this Letter to Others
In order to accentuate the severity of the crisis the people of Oaxaca face, the following is an abbreviated extract of a report I am preparing on the National Alliance for Human Rights delegation travels to Mexico City to participate in the National Democratic Convention called for by Mexico’s legitimate President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on September 16 and a trip to Oaxaca to meet with APPO and SNTE’s leadership on September 17 in Oaxaca.
Briefly, the four-month old Oaxacan political crisis started in late May of this year when Oaxaca’s 70,000 teachers under the aegis of the Section 22 of the National Union of Workers in Education (Sección 22 del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE)) struck for better wages and an increase in the state’s education budget. Instead of negotiating with the teachers who receive a mere $400 to $600 per month, PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz chose political repression. On June 14, he had the state police unleash their repressive fury against the non-violent teacher’s union by violently breaking-up their sit-in protests at Oaxaca’s zocolo (main square) and occupation of school buildings. Supported by the masses of people, the gallant teachers held their ground and compelled the state police to withdrawal. The next day, barricades across the city were established; highways were blockaded; and a massive march was held calling for the resignation of Governor Ruiz.
The people’s protests grew dramatically in the ensuing days. On June 16, the people’s organized power was manifested by a mega-march, which drew some 300,000 people, again demanding the resignation of Governor Ruiz. On June 19, in support of the teacher’s strike, several supportive groups coalesced and formed the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca or La Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO). That same day, negotiations between the teachers’ union and state government officials broke-off, which resulted in several government offices occupied and highways barricaded. During the last four months, the unprecedented organized power of the people who clamor for social justice and a peaceful resolution to the crisis has been evident: several mega marches, one numbering over one-million people have been held; occupation of governmental buildings; occupation and control of radio and television stations that are used to transmit their demands and information on pending mobilizations; barricades of streets; and the creation of a mobilization contagion that has garnered the attention of the world’s press and human rights activists and entities. Today, a protest march is in progress from Oaxaca to Mexico City, which is scheduled to arrive on October 9th.
Yet as a result of the failure of President Vicente Fox and his administration to negotiate a settlement with SNTE and APPO, the Oaxacan political crisis has intensified in the last three months to where PRI’s Governor Ruiz and his administration in an recalcitrant, intransigent, and callous manner has resorted to the use of intimidation, harassment, and even violence – two people have been killed and several wounded and injured and scores of people arrested - against the growing people’s movement led by SANTE and APPO. Throughout the various failed attempts by President Vicente’s Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal Carranza’s to negotiate a peaceful settlement, both entities have maintained steadfast that the crisis can be easily resolved simply with the resignation or ouster of Governor Ruiz.
Understanding the pervasiveness of the region’s utterly wretched impoverished conditions coupled by a history of decades of corrupt government personified by Governor Ruiz and his PRI administration, the people of Oaxaca have unleashed an unprecedented urban based “people’s democratic” social movement that involves hundreds of thousands of active workers and peasants, which serves to buttress PRD President Andres Manuel Lopez Obr ador’s call for a New Republic, a new Mexico that is democratic, egalitarian, and can provide opportunities and change for “all” its people.
However, in the last two weeks the crisis has been exacerbated with President Vicente Fox’s decision to allow the Secretary of the Navy to initiate the requisite military preparations to end the crisis by the use of military force. Some four-thousand Mexican Special forces marines along with tanks and armored personnel carriers have been sent naval bases close to Oaxaca. Federal and state police forces are also prepared to intervene. Naval aircraft and helicopters have flown over the city of Oaxaca for intelligence gathering purposes as well as to intimidate and instill fear in the people that a military response is imminent. Particularly, in the last few days, the people of Oaxaca via SNTE and APPO have been preparing for a worst-case scenario -- an all-out military onslaught against the people of Oaxaca.
Thus, the next few days could well determine the course of events. President Fox does not want to deliver on December 1 Mexico’s presidency to the illegitimate PAN President Felipe Calderon with Oaxacan political crisis unresolved. Hence, understanding its precariousness and politically explosive nature, if negotiations fail to produce a settlement the federal government’s military scenario could well produce a conflagration, a blood bath, many times worse than what occurred in Tlateleco in 1968 when some 500 students were killed by the Mexican army and hundreds incarcerated by President Dias Ordaz’s repressive PRI regime.
In short, such an aforementioned scenario could be the match that ignites the fire to Mexico’s “second” social Revolution. As has been reported a number of insurgent groups (e.g., Ejercito Popular Revolucioñario, Armed Revolutionary Organization for the People of Oaxaca, others) in an around Oaxaca are prepared to initiate an armed struggle against the federal government should President Fox resort to a military solution. Again, the “powder keg” status of the Oaxacan Crisis is presently so severe that all people and organizations that care about social justice and human rights become engaged in pressuring President Vicente Fox to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the crisis and to concomitantly categorically reject the use of the military or federal police. As has been said repeatedly by SNTE and APPO’s leadership, the crisis will be quickly resolved with the ouster or resignation of Governor Ulesis Ruiz.
Democracia, Justicia Social y Paz para Todos
Armando Navarro, Ph.D.
NAHR Coordinator
