Actualité - Oaxaca is Not Over

The New APPO, Elections, a Questionable Guerrilla Groups and the Threat of Forgetfulness

"Don't let another six months go by before the world turns around and sees Oaxaca again."
-APPO representative Eric.

Has the world forgotten about Oaxaca?

Political activity, from repression to organizing, is still just as present as when the Oaxaca uprising was visible in the streets, but with the appearance of normalcy in Oaxaca City it seems that many of us have begun the process of forgetting or assuming that the Oaxaca struggle is over.

Walking on the streets of Oaxaca it is indeed hard for the untrained eye to see the continuing struggle for autonomy.

The tourists have returned, the graffiti has been painted over, and the barricades are a burning memory. And perhaps it is a failure that on the left we need dramatic events and repression in order to recognize important political transformation, and in this sense we become part of the dangerous process of forgetting. But the Oaxaca movement was never defined by the presence of the barricades, by media takeovers, by occupations and sit-ins. Within and without the popular assemblies and the political bodies of the movement the Oaxaca popular rebellion has always been a spirit -- something that lives in the conscience of everyone who passes through or has sucked in a breath in Oaxaca. Some think that the Oaxaca movement grew sick from repression and died, when in fact it continues to live and struggle. Just like the Zapatistas had a long period of silence so has the Oaxaca struggle taken its time to reflect and understand itself, and within the apparent quiet is a storm of organizing and transformation.

Oaxaca is bracing itself for the upcoming state legislative elections on Sunday August 5, which are surrounded by tension. The recent heavy activity of a questionable guerrilla group has only added to the mood. All the while, the APPO continues to change its profile, and the Oaxaca uprising a year later is continues to development into a political force.

The APPO Then, the Many APPOs of Now

This weekend, the 3rd and 4th of July, a large section of the APPO (the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) is in Mexico City enacting the Popular Political Judgment, bringing forth documentation of repression by the Mexican state to demand punishment for Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz and others responsible for the grave human rights abuses in Oaxaca and throughout Mexico.

Meanwhile, the APPO as a political body is split in many directions, and out of this split the process of moving towards autonomy while dissenting with the status quo of the organization of the movement continues. In fact the movement is morphing and turning itself inside out. The Oaxaca movement from the beginning acted without the direction of the provisional APPO leadership, and many actions, such as the construction of the thousands of barricades in the state capital, Oaxaca City, the radio and television takeovers, and the occupations of public spaces were taken by the people themselves and did not reflect a decision of the APPO.

Until mid-November the APPO was officially defined as a body with representatives from 350 social organizations, many of which were vertical organizations that in of themselves only represented a small section of the Oaxacan people.

The APPO congress in November bought together over 200 representatives from all over the state and the provisional APPO leadership was more or less dissolved. Yet due to the repression in the aftermath of the November 25 street battle between protesters and Preventive Federal Police that led to a siege by federal and state forces on the capital and forced much of the movement to go into hiding, the APPO representatives to the APPO from all over the state have been unable to meet.

Yet the movement has not stopped. The movement has grown and began to spread out, and instead of becoming dispersed it has become more organized within it's own decentralization.Although the centralized, almost "formal" APPO of representatives and social organizations still exist, another phenomenon is visible-the ever-increasing number of popular assemblies throughout the capital city and throughout the state. In Oaxaca City there are 71 neighborhood assemblies, calling themselves the APCO (Popular Assemblies of the Colonias de Oaxaca).

Throughout the state the number of local and regional popular assemblies is on the rise, and there have been many new collectives formed everywhere.

Criticisms towards the APPO consejal (the central directed body of representatives) have contributed largely to the decentralized aspect of the movement and have played a large role in the form in which people are reorganizing.

Many sectors of the movement, such as the students, women, youth, neighborhood groups, and even some NGOs, distrust a democratic centralism and became disillusioned with the representative system and demand a collective process. The under representation of many sectors of the APPO has led to the formation of new organizations and collectives who as well as self organizing demand representation and more horizontalism within the APPO consejal.

The localized element of the political formation of the Oaxaca movement has furthered the struggle for autonomy in many senses. Groups who had tactical differences with the provisional leadership of the APPO before are now more self empowered to apply their forms of struggle.

Communities are discussing their own needs in the local assemblies and searching for ways to become more self-sufficient. For instance, some of the neighborhood assemblies are discussing how to begin to have control over means of production to become less reliant on imports, and the discussion over control over agriculture and food production is common.

Given the plurality of the movement there are many debates within the APPO at the moment. Different sectors are split over non-violence vs. direct confrontation with the police, and strategies for getting rid of Governor Ulises Ruiz once and for all and for real social change.

Evaluations and criticisms over the best process in which the APPO should have in terms of function and organization continues to have influence in the year-old movement. The conflict over electoral participation within the APPO has existed for a very long time and created many splits, such as the division in the section 22 teachers union. However it was visible in the APPO congress in November that many people within the movement have no trust in political parties and do not want to enter in the electoral process. There is a side of the APPO that doesn't seek out a political solution through the electoral process and instead puts its energies into forming assemblies and collectives to work towards autonomy in itsown way.

Elections, The APPO, and a Guerilla Group made by the Government?

The elections for the state legislature have historically caused more violence between disputing parts of the population in Oaxaca than any other elections. This time around the elections are especially tense for two reasons: one is that Governor Ulises Ruiz is more desperate than ever to keep a strong representation in the legislature from his party, the PRI (the Revolutionary Institutional Party) which has ruled in Oaxaca for more than seven decades, because of this year's popular movement to oust him.

The other element adding to the tension is the shadowy EPR (Revolutionary Popular Army). It is feared that an electoral fraud will occur and that the PRI will win the elections and that subsequently severe repression will follow. This is how Ulises Ruiz came to power in 2004.

Many of the APPO sympathizers don't believe in political parties or the electoral process.

Nevertheless the elections this weekend are expected to have a big turn out from the movement in which many will vote for the PRD in order to carry through the "punishment vote" against the PRI to further destabilize Ulises Ruiz's government.There has also been the worry that the EPR will be used by the state as a reason to postpone the elections.The guerilla group's activity has become so heavy in the weeks preceding the elections that many people inside the APPO wonder if the group isn't a convenient, if not obvious, creation of the state government itself to secure a place in the elections and to justify the further militarization of a turbulent Oaxaca, thus later securing the necessary conditions for corporate investments and the smooth operation of Plan Puebla Panama in the state. Eight different explosions occurring over the course of five days heavily damaged the Mexican state- oil Pemex's pipeline and infrastructure in the northern state of Queretaro, far way from Oaxaca, where the EPR is based.

In a communiqué released on July 10th the EPR took responsibility, demanding the physical appearance of Edumundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz. The group claims that the two men, disappeared from Oaxaca City on May 25, are EPR militants being held in a clandestine military prison.

"This is another intention that the state government has-to scare people so that they wont want to change the conditions of the mano duro (hard hand) of the PRI," said a member of the APPO consejal who wished to remain anonymous. " This is a typical strategy of the repressive state. I think that the EPR is a creation of the government. They tried it before with an armed group that came out in the north of Oaxaca with new watches and clothes and military haircuts, not at all like guerillas. "

The communiqués are written at times with language similar to the autonomist movement of Oaxaca. Those who believe that the EPR is a government creation also fear that the EPR is being used to finger anarchists and other autonomist sectors within the movement. "It sounds like the discussion that autonomists could have. They want to insert the idea in people heads that with autonomy comes violence."

On August 1 two more smaller explosions occurred in the entrance of a Sears store and in front of a bank in Oaxaca City. At first the government accused the APPO, saying the bombs were not typical of the EPR. The EPR later took credit however. Coincidently, the Sears where one of the bombs was placed is also located very close to the Soriana barricade, one of the barricades protecting the university radio, part of the last set of barricades remaining in Oaxaca defended by the neighborhood, anarchists, and the students, all part of the autonomous sector believed to be heavily targeted by the state.

The Real Communist Threat

Throughout the APPO Stalinists from the FPR (Popular Revolutionary Front) party have attempted to appropriate many groups and have deployed themselves strategically throughout the diversity of organizations within the APPO. Again and again the FPR has used the tactic of creating crisis in order to open a space to insert their vanguardism, both in the streets and within APPO organizations. The FPR has fanned so much conflict within the teachers section 22 union that the union has nearly fallen apart and has not been able to meet for months.COMO, the Oaxaca's women organization created after the historical takeover of Canal 9 television station on August 1, 2006, has been criticized by many large groups of women who have split off to form their own collectives because of the power that the FPR has sought within COMO.To Not ForgetThe process of forgetting and the appearance of normalcy is exactly what the government wants, both for corporate investments, tourism, and to fight the movement -- not only in terms of solidarity and attention, but in terms of creating a perilous psychological space for the movement, where it can be difficult at times to identify with one’s own memories of the movement in the streets, and to deal with the collective trauma of the repression.

With the apparent "normalcy", from the government to independent media there is a denial of what what continues to be a state-wid rebellion. The protesters have been dispersed, businesses have re-opened, and Oaxaca City has returned to the status of a party enclave for Europeans and Americans.

Indeed, the government continues to block the signal of Radio Planton, one of the last remaining Oaxaca radios, and sabotage the Oaxaca Libre independent media page, attempting to do away forever with the voices of the Oaxacan people.

But despite finding itself in this challenging place, the rebellion continues and Oaxaca is still not the same place it was before June of last year. The desperate tactics of the government to hold onto control and militarize the state are signs that the power structures are under grave stress and neo-liberal investments in the state of Oaxaca threatened by a movement that can’t be easily done away with.

(CounterPunch, par Barucha Calamity Peller)

Actualité - Mexico Releases Austerity Policy

Mexico, Jan 16 (Prensa Latina) - In the face of adverse international conditions such as dropping oil prices and rising agriculture products, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced the implementation of a policy of economic austerity.

Analyzing the Mexican economy with a group of industrialists, Calderon assured the country and the government will work to make everything possible to keep going.

He invited the businesspeople to make investments that forward the national economy and make it profitable, competitive and one of the world s largest in the next decades.

Among the measures announced to boost the industrial sector, the Mexican dignitary mentioned the creation of a single department to implement all public policies supporting micro, small and medium ventures.

He added the government will also undertake a tax system that facilitates investment and competitiveness, credits, economic stability and an export model that includes all productive entities.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Mexico Admits Violence in Oaxaca

Mexico, Jan 15 (Prensa Latina) - The Interior Ministry recognized there has been excessive force and violence in Oaxaca recently.

About 12 members of Oaxaca People s Popular Assembly (APPO) were arrested after they were violently removed from a place they had chosen in front of Miahuatlan prison.

Drugs and weapons were planted on those detained to justify their arrest while others were prosecuted at Oaxaca Attorney General s Office accused of attacking and damaging other people s property.

After those events criticism increased against the Federal Government while protests continue for the resignation of local governor Ulises Ruiz.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Violent Confrontations Resume in Oaxaca

Mexico, Jan 14 (Prensa Latina) - Eight days after the talks between the federal government and the opposition movement in Oaxaca was cancelled the violent confrontations start again and the restarting of next week's talks for solutions is rule out.

At least 100 members of the municipal State Preventive Police move away the Committee of Murder Families sit-in, missing and political prisoners that were settled down at the outside of the regional prison in the south mountains for several days ago.

During the operation the agents beat and arrested about 12 supporters of Oaxaca People´s Popular Assembly (APPO) that were attending a march of protest against the action.

The action was repudiated by a delegation of the International Civil Commission of the Human Rights Organization, the Commission of Justice and Peace from Oaxaca-Antequera Archdioceses and the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights.

The university students from the Federal district and members of APPO marched up to the TV station to denounce the violence broke out ordered by Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz.

The demonstrators demanded to give information to the country about the events in Oaxaca at the time of saying that the spontaneous mobilization is the first among others they will carry out in the country since that moment on.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - The Popular Assembly Movement Advances While Neoliberalism Stalls

Throughout the State, Communities Continue to Organize Themselves in Resistance

Here’s a run-down of events in Oaxaca that support my perception that the Popular Assembly movement is growing:

1. The Council of the State Popular Assembly (APPO) announced the creation of more autonomous municipalities and autonomous territories, naming San Juan Copala and Villa de Zaachila (a small town near the capital of Oaxaca) as models to follow for the achievement political rule more in favor of equality.

Among the entities in rebellion, the APPO recognized the January 1, 2007 creation of the Free and Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala comprised of 20 communities inhabited by about 20,000 indigenous Triqui who “dis-owned” their municipal authorities and declared an autonomous municipality, calling it San Juan Copala, and declaring their affiliation with the APPO. According to the APPO announcement, they voted to reject their prior “constitutional” government. A Council of Elders handed the leadership baton to the “presidente popular” José Ramírez Flores, a 32-year-old campesino who attended school to the sixth grade, as reported in Milenio on January 2.

The Triqui people who decided to declare themselves autonomous formed part of three prior municipalities, Juxtlahuaca, Putla de Guerrero y Tlaxiaco. “We know the government is not going to recognize us, but we are going to recognize (the new entity) as our own government and we are going to support it. We are going to govern ourselves because they (the municipal governments) are not indigenous, they’re not Triqui, and they don’t know how to govern,” asserted Jorge Albino Ortiz, council member of the APPO on behalf of the Unified Movement for the Triqui Independence Struggle (MULTI, Movimiento Unificado de Lucha Triqui Independiente.

“... This was also something we learned from the APPO, taking decisions ourselves regarding what pertains to us,” Albino Ortiz added. According to the members of the new government, since taking office in December of 2004, Ulises Ruiz has been responsible for 70 political assassinations in the area. The state authorities acknowledge only 48.

2. At least thirteen alternative governments have formed, among them: San Miguel Chimalapas, Santo Domingo Tehuantepec, San Blas Atempa, Jalapa del Marquez and Santiago Xilotepec, located in the region of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; plus San Antonio Castillo Velasco, San Francisco Telixtlahuaca, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán and Villa de Etla, in the region of Valles Centrales. Additionally, Asunción Nochixtlán, Tlaxiaco and Putla de Guerrero, in the regions respectively of the Mixteca and the Oaxaca Coast, have set up new governments.

Most of these towns overtly engaged during the 2006 six month struggle of the APPO, to oust the PRI and establish their autonomy. The political delegate and member of the state directorship of the APPO, Florentino Martínez López, alluded to profound and very advanced work of organization in the diverse regions where the sympathy of an important number of sectors and organizations joined the APPO.

He said that in each one of the municipalities where the APPO has foreseen the installation of alternative governments, problems of ungovernability are prevalent. These long-standing problems resulted from abuses and excesses that the legally constituted authorities committed. Lopez Martinez explained that in each one of the municipalities they have received no legal help and so they had “no other option than to rebel and create their own governments,” Milenio quoted.

3. On December 30, 2006 the Peoples Assembly of Oaxaca, APPO, issued a notification (attached below) in which it announced the establishment of a dialogue and open public negotiation, where a discussion will deal with the complaints of the peoples of Oaxaca. The goal is to end to poverty and to equalize the economic political and social development of the state.

4. The First Regional Assembly of the peoples of the Isthmus will take place in Ixtepec the 27th and 28th of January, 2007. That announcement says, “Our state has the opportunity to reorganize itself and structure its development starting with our own way of life…We are not seeking a political manifesto but rather a consultation to strengthen our forms of relating to each other and to include us all as actors in our collective life.”

The topics be discussed by the Isthmenians are Economy, work and alternative businesses; Education, culture and communication; Health and the environment; Women and diversity. The invitation, was signed by the organizing groups and individuals :APPO-Istmo, Otra Campaña-Istmo, Radio Totopo, Grupo Solidario de la Venta, Colectivo Corta Mortaja, Guietiqui Bibaani, Ayuntamiento popular San Blas Atempa, CECACI Juntos en el Camino A. C, Unitierra-Istmo, and individuals Damián López and Lucas Avendaño.

It carried the added note: bring your blanket and bring something put on the common table to make the food sufficient for all (cheese, totopo, beans, rice, sugar…)

5. The daily Oaxaca newspaper Noticias published an article with the headline “In spite of the repression the democratic movement is rebuilding and advancing”, written by Víctor Manuel Gómez Ramírez, a member of the Socialist Workers Movement and of the State Council of the APPO, who reports that the process has its ups and downs. However, Gómez states, “…we have come to understand that our adversary is not merely Ulises Ruiz or Felipe Calderón. The true enemy of the Oaxaqueño peoples, the Mexican peoples and all the peoples of the world, are the money men, national and foreign, who want to sack and exploit all the natural energy, cultural and human wealth of our peoples.” He cites the raise in the minimum wage of less than two pesos a day (yes, 18 cents a day) and the fierce repression unleashed against Oaxaca; the cuts to education and the “supposed” reorganization of the police forces to combat narcotrafficking, although many believe narcotrafficking is organized by the state governors. The principal reason for reorganizing the police, according to Gómez, is to confront the popular insurgency as it increases.

The most threatening neoliberal projects for Mexico are Plan Puebla Panamá and the linked Trans-Isthmus corridor. (Do we think there is no connection between this proposed project and the new popular assembly of the Isthmus?) The intention of Calderón is to continue privatizing the natural wealth. The puppet state governors, Gómez writes, will try to destroy or co-opt the unions, and the popular, political and citizen organizations which don’t obey the federal government dictates.

Thus, he says, it is necessary to strengthen the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de México, the Otra Campaña and all the other peoples’ initiatives. About a dozen new assemblies are underway in other states in Mexico, among them Jalisco, Puebla, Michoacan and Guerrero.

“The task,” Gómez avers, “is to get over our dependency on leaders and bosses who at the first winds of change submit to a patron or to the government. It’s necessary to create horizontal organizations with broad methods of coordination; in the unions we should break with the bureaucratic structures that hinder participation at the bases; in the communities we should strengthen community assemblies so that decisions are taken in benefit of the peoples; in the [smallest units of neighborhoods] we should create committees or councils of representatives for every block, street building or sector; in the schools, committees to represent the classroom, the section or the subject; in the market we need to eliminate the corrupt leaders in the service of the bad governors, creating committees of delegates or representatives by section.

“All these democratic organs should be independent of electoral political parties and of whatever organ is unsuitable to the group…they should elaborate a program… which responds to the needs of all…and includes from the beginning the principle of revocability, which is to say, that whichever representative or delegate who doesn’t work out should immediately be changed by the same assembly who named him.”

The struggle continues, with due recognition to how important self-organizing is, until URO is out and the prisoners are freed, Gómez concluded.

I would like to point out that Gómez Ramirez is a teacher but not an academic. He is a socialist, but not seeking a political party affiliation for the APPO. His article, I think, constitutes an event in and of itself.

Virtually simultaneously, an article appeared on December 27, 2006 called “Globalization in Retreat”, by Walden Bello, and published in Foreign Policy in Focus. (Walden Bello, “Globalization in Retreat” Silver City, NM and Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, December 27, 2006).

In it, Bello gives his analysis of how and why transnational capitalism, or neoliberalism, is up against the wall. His first assertion is that neoliberalism has failed because it was intended to prolong the demise of capitalism. He says, “ …The IMF is practically defunct. Knowing how the Fund precipitated and worsened the Asian financial crisis, more and more of the advanced developing countries are refusing to borrow from it or are paying ahead of schedule, with some declaring their intention never to borrow again. These include Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, and Argentina. Since the Fund’s budget greatly depends on debt repayments from these big borrowers, this boycott is translating into what one expert describes as “a huge squeeze on the budget of the organization.”

Their practices has created havoc where they have been implemented: “The World Bank… having been central to the debacle of structural adjustment policies that left most developing and transitional economies that implemented them in greater poverty, with greater inequality, and in a state of stagnation, the Bank is also suffering a crisis of legitimacy.

“ …the actual results of neoliberal policies…have been more poverty, inequality, and stagnation. …Moreover, the advocates of eliminating capital controls have had to face the actual collapse of the economies that took this policy to heart. The globalization of finance proceeded much faster than the globalization of production. But it proved to be the cutting edge not of prosperity but of chaos. The Asian financial crisis and the collapse of the economy of Argentina, which had been among the most doctrinaire practitioners of capital account liberalization, were two decisive moments in reality’s revolt against theory. ..The final factor, not to be underestimated, has been popular resistance to globalization. The battles of Seattle in 1999, Prague in 2000, and Genoa in 2001; the massive global anti-war march on February 15, 2003, when the anti-globalization movement morphed into the global anti-war movement; the collapse of the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun in 2003 and its near collapse in Hong Kong in 2005; the French and Dutch peoples’ rejection of the neoliberal, pro-globalization European Constitution in 2005—these were all critical junctures in a decade-long global struggle that has rolled back the neoliberal project. But these high-profile events were merely the tip of the iceberg, the summation of thousands of anti-neoliberal, anti-globalization struggles in thousands of communities throughout the world involving millions of peasants, workers, students, indigenous people, and many sectors of the middle class.

“…The retreat from neoliberal globalization is most marked in Latin America. Long exploited by foreign energy giants, Bolivia under President Evo Morales has nationalized its energy resources. Nestor Kirchner of Argentina gave an example of how developing country governments can face down finance capital when he forced northern bondholders to accept only 25 cents of every dollar Argentina owed them. Hugo Chavez has launched an ambitious plan for regional integration, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), based on genuine economic cooperation instead of free trade, with little or no participation by northern TNCs, and driven by what Chavez himself describes as a “logic beyond capitalism.”

Finally, Bello calls neoliberalism a “spent force” whose demise must be managed in such as way as to minimize the economic chaos on the horizon.

A “spent force” indeed – here in Oaxaca and in Mexico, the struggle to convince the dead political parties and institutions that they are indeed dead continues. News of the popular assemblies arrives daily. The determination to resist has arrived, and if not yet for all, the number grows. Most people recognize the effects of failed neoliberal economics and the social chasm between the haves and the have nots, even though they can not yet articulate why.

_________________________________________________________
APPO Notification:

TO THE PEOPLE AND CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS, ACADEMICS, INTELLECTUALS, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICIANS AND ARTISTS

WE ARE BUILDING A PUBLIC AND OPEN BOARD FOR DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION

Today has made clear to the eyes of the world, that the origin of the conflict in which the state of Oaxaca lives has been the product of innumerable assaults and crimes committed by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) since the beginning of his administration against we the indigenous communities, municipal authorities, social organizations, residents of neighborhoods, defenders of human rights and of the cultural patrimony and the ecology, religious groups, students , merchants and transportation workers, who making our just claims and demands received as reply the cancellation of our constitutional guarantees and the systematic violation of our fundamental human rights betrayed in the most brutal persecutions, incarcerations, torture and political assassinations in the memory of Oaxaqueños. Faced with these grievances, the 7th of June of 2006 in the political court in which all of us sectors and peoples of Oaxaca who have been offended by Ulises Ruiz, for seven hours presented the denunciations and proofs of our accusations, for which the natural conclusion of so many humiliations was to fight for the departure of Ulises Ruiz as governor of the state.

The political assassinations committed by Ulises Ruiz against the people of Oaxaca reached the level of genocide. During the first 15 months of his administration 29 were assassinated. From June to October of 2006 at least eighteen were assassinated and from November to date, twenty-four were assassinated during the occupation of the Federal Preventive Police and they were denounced by the National Commission for Human Rights, an organization that has been distinguished by its indifference to the violation of human rights in our state, since in seven months it has done nothing to stop such crimes against all the people. In sum, when at least 71 were assassinated for defending their constitutional guarantees and their fundamental human rights. To these state crimes one can add more than 100 disappeared, more than 500 detained with invented charges and by any light they are a repressive reply and show the seditious use of the laws when at least 150 were tortured and raped by state and federal police, more than a hundred orders for arrest by which they are persecuting social activists and members of the APPO (Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca) around the entire state. Furthermore, the state and federal police have entered more than a hundred homes without presenting orders for arrest issued by any court, taking prisoners to high security. They have been liberated by the presence in Mexico of international human rights organizations, which declared the unconstitutionality and illegality of all the arbitrary events committed against innumerable Oaxaca citizens.

The previous examples, which have been documented by diverse human rights organizations, show that Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is the author of a genocide, that he has been violating constitutional guarantees, basic human rights, state and federal laws and nevertheless is free, making a joke of the state of law. Therefore, all the accusations, red tape and orders of apprehension put out by the authorities under his administration against the social activists lack objectivity, impartiality, legality and legitimacy, since he can not be judge and part of the conflict where the fundamental demand is his departure as governor and his punishment for all the crimes committed against the people of Oaxaca.

We have turned to all the legal and institutional ways which our constitution offers without obtaining a positive reply, since the parties of the PRI and the PAN have placed their interests and political deals ahead of the norms of the constitution. We asked the chamber of deputies political judgment against Ulises and they did nothing. We turned to the senate of the republic to ask them to declare the failure of power and is established in the constitution and their reply was negative despite that the executive, legislative and judicial functions could not be found anywhere since their buildings were blockaded by the different APPO groups. An evident situation of ungovernability existed in the state, a condition named in the constitution to make possible the declaration of failure of powers. We sought from the one responsible for internal policy, the secretary of internal affairs, to find a political solution to the conflict in the state, and his inability and closed mind impeded any negotiated solution to the problem.

Today it is apparent that the intention of the federal government to intervene in the Oaxaca conflict was to sustain Ulises Ruiz Ortiz as head of the government of the state, against the will of the Oaxaqueños, and to destroy the popular movement of the APPO.

The new administration of the president Felipe Calderón has declared publicly that “it is disposed to talk with whoever wants to talk”. The APPO talks, but not under the conditions in which it is really a pretense, where it seems that their only intention is to wash their hands and justify the excesses and the violations of human rights committed by the forces of the federal military police, restricting the number of the members of the dialogue commission of the APPO, defining the agenda times and pacing of the discussion in an unilateral manner. Given the aforesaid we propose:

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN OPEN AND PUBLIC BOARD FOR DIALOGUE AND NEGOTIATION, where an agenda that deals in an integral manner with the problems that the peoples of Oaxaca face can be discussed. [Its purpose] would be to make it possible to end poverty and aid economic, political and social development in our state, For that we propose five thematic core ideas to develop.

AGENDA FOR THE BOARD

URGENT MEASURES

Departure of Ulises Ruiz and punishment for the his crimes committed against the people of Oaxaca. For this purpose a Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad y la Justicia, COVEJU) should be established by organizations of national and international human rights, to investigate all the crimes committed by during the administration of URO.

Immediate and unconditional freedom for all the political prisoners and presentation of the disappeared. Immediate cancellation of all the orders for arrest against social activists and those who struggles for the cause of defending human rights and the social demands of the Oaxaqueño peoples.

Immediate indemnification to the families of those who died for political or social issues during the administration of URO.

CREATUION OF A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY TO DESIGN A NEW CONSTITUTION FOR THE STATE OF MEXICO.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOR THE STATE OF OAXACA.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE STATE OF OAXACA.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POLICIES OF DEVELOPMENT FOR THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE STATE OF OAXACA.

COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD ON THE PART OF THE APPO (to the extent possible, this will deal with adapting the experience of the committee of development used by the EZLN)

Members of the APPO. It will be composed of representatives of the different pueblos, social organizations and sectors which form part of the APPO.

Consultants, observers and speakers (ASOI) of the APPO. It will be composed of representatives of bodies, and persons in the fields of national and international human rights, academia, politics, intellectual pursuits and science.

Steps for the developpement of this proposal

Contacts for proposals to constitute the international and national group and invite them for a first meeting to take place the 8th of January in the city of Oaxaca, to explain and exchange points of view on the objectives, times and rhythms of the table of dialogue and negotiation with the federal government.

On January 10, in the framework of the national struggle, in their role as speakers, the ASOI will hand to the federal government the petition for the establishment of the board with the agenda, character and composition that we are proposing.

In parallel, after the 8th of January all the members of the board will continue breaking down the thematic areas to give them substantive content with the goal that the whole world will have a clear view of the components for making possible the development of our state.

Mechanisms should be established for permanent participation and direction on the apart of the distinct peoples and sectors by means of forums, reunions, meetings which should have agendas no later than the 10th of January.

This proposal for the board has three political objectives:

To break the scheme of negotiation in “brief and in darkness” (a small and conditional commission) in which the present SEGOB tries to put us, where they define the agenda , composition, times and pace.

To place the political initiative on the territoy of the dialogue board, where with the participation of the members of the ASOI, the federal government has to respond that it does not accept a board of this nature and in consequence it will be demonstrating that their openness to discourse is a lie.

With the thematic proposal we will be demonstrating URO’s limited and deceitful convocation, and we will establish a programmatic proposal that permits recuperation of the distinct sectors of Oaxaca society in a logical plan which will be possible to carry out.

Popular Assembly of the Pueblos de Oaxaca

All Power to the People!

(The Narco News Bulletin - Nancy Davies)

Actualité - Oaxaca Government Wants Police Back

Mexico, Jan 11 (Prensa Latina) - Ulises Ruiz, governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, requested that the Secretariat of Government on Thursday return the federal forces to help deal with the intensification of the social movement.

At his first meeting with Francisco Ramirez, secretary of Government, Ruiz asked for a security boost in Oaxaca capital as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) reactivated its protest actions.

The encounter came two days after denunciations against sexual abuse of fifteen APPO members, detained on Nov 25, by federal officers.

It also coincides with the presentation of those events before the Chamber of Deputies and with the decision of legislators of the Democratic Revolution Party to take such denunciations to the international court The Hague.

Ruiz s request is due to the new action plan by the social movement since the Secretariat of Government refused to resume talks on Monday, saying that APPO lacks a concrete agenda to transform Oaxaca.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Protestors back on Streets

Mexico, Jan 10 (Prensa Latina) - Faced with the suspension of the new round of negotiations with the Secretariat of Government, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) is resuming on Wednesday protests against local Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Activist leaders in that southern Mexican state decided to reactivate demonstrations to counter the position of that entity, which is trying to minimize the conflict and refused to resume talks scheduled for Tuesday.

APPO considered that the Secretariat of Government is making excuses to ignore Oaxaca s main demands, the resignation of Gov. Ruiz and the release of those arrested on Nov 25.

Hence, it will stage new actions, including protests in the capital and the main cities in the southern state.

Since the conflict began on Aug 14, 2006, APPO and the Secretariat of Government have held several rounds of negotiations without a peaceful solution

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Forum to Release Arrestees

Mexico, Jan 6 (Prensa Latina) - The Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), civilians, and trade union organizations called for a National Forum for the defense of Human Rights in Oaxaca in order to achieve the release of activists arrested in that Mexican state.

Representatives of APPO (Oaxaca Peoples s Popular Assembly) said violence has been used systematically against human rights which they have properly documented.

The decision for the event will be confirmed on Tuesday at San Lazaro Legislative Palace, the headquarters of the Mexican Congress, noted the organizations.

The APPO leaders reported that in the 15 months Governor Ulises Ruiz was working in the government, 29 persons were killed due to political reasons 18 of them from November to December 2006.

The deaths coincide with the occupation of Oaxaca capital by the Preventive Federal Police (PFP).

The last details have been denounced by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), which has done nothing in seven months to stop repression.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - L'Assemblée populaire des peuple de l'Oaxaca vit!

Communiqué d' un lieu quelconque de l'État d'Oaxaca, le Conseil d'État de l'Assemblée populaire des peuples de l'Oaxaca

Peuple d'Oaxaca!
Peuple du Mexique!
Peuples du Monde!

Déclare :

Premièrement : L’APPO continue plus que jamais de vivre dans le cœur des travailleurs, des indigènes, des paysans, des femmes au foyer, des étudiants, des jeunes, des enfants, de tous les exploités et les opprimés de l’Oaxaca et du Mexique. La Terreur que l’État a déchaînée dans toute sa violence contre le peuple de l’Oaxaca et certains membres de la communauté internationale, du 25 novembre dernier jusqu’à ce jour, n’a en rien entamé notre volonté d’être des femmes et des hommes libres.

Elle n’a pas non plus réussi à nous détourner de notre combat, nous continuons à penser que notre lutte doit être politique, pacifique et massive, en dépit des 17 personnes assassinées, les dizaines de disparus et les centaines de prisonniers politiques par laquelle s’est soldée notre lutte à ce jour, chose que nous qualifions de Crime contre l’humanité.

Deuxièmement : L’APPO continue d’agir en permanence, bien que nous ne participions pas visiblement aux piquets ou que nous ne nous fassions pas entendre vingt-quatre heures sur vingt-quatre à la radio. Nous sommes toujours vivants et nous communiquons à travers l’esprit indomptable qui constitue l’héritage des peuples exploités, nous luttons et continuerons de lutter de toutes nos forces jusqu’à obtenir la chute du tyran et de sa dictature, la dictature du capital.

Une nouvelle étape de la lutte commence, que nous appellerons désormais “Étape pour la paix dans la justice, la démocratie et la liberté et sans Ulises Ruiz Ortiz” et qui constitue une nouvelle manière de poursuivre la lutte que l’APPO apprend à construire patiemment, avec persévérance et sagesse.

C’est ainsi que nous l’ont enseigné les peuples originels dont nous sommes issus, rassemblés les 28 et 29 novembre au sein du Forum des peuples indigènes de l’Oaxaca, où ils nous ont dit que “le chemin à faire doit être parcouru lentement” : c’est ce que nous faisons maintenant, sans perdre de vue l’objectif commun qui est la transformation profonde des conditions de vie, de travail, d’études et de survie de nos peuples. C’est cette voie qu’a voulu barrer Ulises Ruiz, marionnette fidèle des riches et des narcotrafiquants qu’il défend et représente. Quant à nous, en tant que représentants d’un peuple qui a choisi d’emprunter le chemin de son émancipation, nous allons le balayer de cette voie qui est la nôtre.

Troisièmement : Le Conseil d’État de l’APPO appelle le peuple de l’Oaxaca à organiser et à réaliser dès aujourd’hui et jusqu’au 10 décembre des mobilisations et des actions de protestation pour diffuser cette “Étape pour la paix dans la justice, la démocratie et la liberté et sans Ulises Ruiz Ortiz”, pour la libération des prisonniers politiques, pour la présentation en vie des disparus, pour le retrait de tous les mandats d’arrestation, pour que cessent les arrestations arbitraires et les violations de domicile, pour le départ immédiat de la PFP et pour ce qui nous a tous unis, à savoir : pour le départ de l’assassin Ulises Ruiz Ortiz de l’Oaxaca. Nous appelons à réaliser ces actions et à diffuser nos exigences dans l’ensemble de l’Oaxaca, à travers nos Assemblées populaires régionales, municipales et sectorielles.

Jusqu’au 10 décembre, parce qu’à cette date nous sommes tous appelés à une macro-concentration au pied du monument à Juárez situé au Crucero de Viguera, dans la ville d’Oaxaca, à 10 heures, afin d’exprimer notre opposition et notre condamnation de la politique du bâton et du fusil à laquelle veut nous résigner cette camarilla d’assassins et de voleurs qui se fait appeler gouvernement dans l’Oaxaca.

Fraternellement,

"Tout le Pouvoir au Peuple!"

(The Narco News Bulletin - December 3, 2006)

Actualité - New Page in Mexican Oaxaca Conflict

Mexico, Dec 8 (Prensa Latina) - The APPO (Oaxaca People´s Assembly) should restart on Friday the dialogue with the Government Secretary´s Office to define agreements that favor a solution to the conflict in that Mexican state.

However, leaders of the social movement warned that if there are no guarantees from the government, the teachers will restart a strike for an indefinite period.

Members of the APPO negotiating commission said they requested protection from that federal office to avoid the arrest of 20 of its representatives, and make the dialogue progress.

They also demanded that Government Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuña preside over the talks, and suspension of the arrests in Oaxaca and the Federal District.

APPO leader Jesus Lopez Rodríguez said that southeastern district is undergoing an unprecedented cruelty in the country´s history.

He denounced that the situation did not begin on November 25, when the worst clashes in Oaxaca´s capital happened, and said it worsens each time with operations by paramilitary agents under local Governor Ulises Ruiz´s command.

In addition, the Federal Preventive Police is also operating and there are illegal detentions.

He said the number of jailed has reached 226, and there are 60 missing people.

However, the people keep up the fight in the streets, faced with operations by the preventive police and state agents.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Unusual Inauguration

Only the national anthem was able to impose fleeting silence Friday on the war of insults thrown between governing party and opposition forces in the Mexican Congress during the inauguration of Felipe Calderon. The brief formal act at which the new executive received the presidential band from exiting President Vicente Fox developed in an uncontrollable jabbering of slogans and the massive use of whistles by deputies of the opposing PRD (Democratic Revolution) party.

The new head of state was only heard to say a brief swearing-in, the first time there had been no traditional speech in which the president presents his action program to the Legislature and nation at the beginning of his six-year term.

Governing PAN legislators (National Action Party) and the PRD opposition have permanently occupied the Legislature for the last two days, the latter to prevent Calderon from swearing-in and the others to allow him to do it.

The 48 hours prior to today's session began with a physical contest, broken by a 24 hour truce that today degenerated again into pushing and shoving between representatives of the PRD trying to prevent Calderon and Fox from entering the hall and PAN affiliates trying to let them in.

There was a moment when PRD controlled three of the four entrances to the chamber with barricades made from the seats of their part of Congress.

Finally, Calderon and Fox had to gain the podium through a back door, protected by a strong security cordon formed by 200 presidential guards dressed in dark suits and red ties.

His political adversaries received Calderon, 47, with insults like "illegitimate president" and yelled that his victory was due to election fraud. Those of PAN yelled back their slogan of "si se pudo" (it was possible).

Although deputies for the parties supporting leading opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were absent from the transfer, others kept his slogan alive, "Obrador it's an honor to be with you." PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) deputies made the quorum necessary to hold this special session.

Meanwhile, foreign visitors invited to the ceremony, headed by ex-President George Bush (father) and the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbon, were not in evidence as they were located in the two high balconies of Congress protected by heavy security.

The building itself, surrounded by a 9-foot high metallic fence guarded by thousands of police, looked more like a replica of the film "Siege" than a peaceful Legislature.

A peaceful march of hundreds of Lopez Obrador supporters, led by AMLO himself, followed central Reforma Avenue to the Chapultepec woods, to demonstrate in front of the National Auditorium where Calderon was to deliver his first speech as president before thousands of guests.

Mexican journalists and reporters from several countries consulted by Prensa Latina in the area dedicated to the press, said they had never seen such a sorrowful and unusual presidential transfer as the one that took place in Mexico this Friday.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Mex Opposed Leader Convenes Maintaining Resistance

Mexico, Dec 3 (Prensa Latina) - Opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador convened to maintain resistance and continue fighting for freedom, justice and democracy, faced with the situation of division in Mexican political forces.

Lopez Obrador insisted that the alleged Julio 2 electoral fraud and President Felipe Calderon's inauguration have provoked indignation in the population's extensive sectors.

He insisted that Calderon and his cabinet would not do whatever they want or enrich with the people's suffering or empowering from the nation's companies.

Meanwhile, Guadalupe Acosta, general secretary of the PRD (Partido de la Revolucion Democratica), said that political force is ready to dialogue on a State reform for Mexico, provided that it is with the Congress and never with Calderon.

Acosta stated that PRD legislators already have instructions to seek accords with members of other congressional groups, to achieve transcendent agreements for the nation.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - APPO Chides Governor for Oaxaca Violence

Mexico, Nov 26 (Prensa Latina) - The Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO) blamed state Governor Ulises Ruiz for the violent clashes in that district, where the number of dead and wounded people is still unknown.

The most recent incidents occurred on Saturday in the center of Oaxaca´s capital among APPO members and Federal Preventive Police agents. The clashes lasted almost all that day, after a peaceful march summoned by the Assembly, attended by thousands of people.

The purpose was to encircle the preventive police for 48 hours, as part of the action plan elaborated to make Ruiz resign.

So far, the number of people wounded has been estimated at 140, including three journalists.

There are 100 people in prison and uncountable furniture and cars burnt.
According to the APPO, three people would have been shot to death, although this version has not been confirmed.

Antonio Garcia, coordinator of the sit-in in Mexico City, asserted that the APPO is not responsible for any aggression. It is a peaceful movement, and it has proved it because those that have been wounded since the conflict began are members of the Assembly.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - People Want Oaxaca Governor Out

Mexico, Nov 15 (Prensa Latina) - As announced, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) Wednesday began intensifying actions in that Mexican state seeking the resignation of governor Ulises Ruiz.

APPO leaders indicated they will set up barricades, take public offices, and block roads to demonstrate Oaxaca is ungovernable.

The leaders also informed that on Friday they will rally near the provisional presidential residence of President elect Felipe Calderon to demand the withdrawal of federal Police from the Oaxaca capital.

All social and political organizations defending APPO causes will be well welcomed, they sustained, clarifying that no agreements have been reached with the PRD (Democratic Revolution), the Progressive Wide Front, or any other party.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Rips Ruiz, maybe Calderon

Mexico, Nov 14 (Prensa Latina) - The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) announced the beginning of an action plan to insist on the removal of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Reinstallation of barricades, occupation of public offices and roadblocks are among the measures they will implement in the regions of that southern Mexican state.

According to APPO leader Zenen Bravo Castellanos, demonstrations could even extend against president-elect Felipe Calderon if on Dec 1, Ruiz is still in the post.

Meanwhile, the constitutive congress of that organization, ending Monday, decided that APPO will be collectively run without a particular leader.

A state council composed by 260 people will represent the eight regions of Oaxaca and the different sectors in the movement.

Former political prisoners and those who have arrest warrants against them for participating in the movement will be honor members.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Saga Snarls up

Mexico, Nov 12 (Prensa Latina) - Leaders of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) rejected on Sunday the executive proposal urging Gov. Ulises Ruiz to demonstrate whether he can rule that southern Mexican state.

For the social organization, the governor was unable to administrate the territory and further worsened the ongoing crisis.

Friday, the Secretariat of Government exhorted Ruiz to shortly reach an agreement with his opponents that illustrates governability in Oaxaca or leave power, although a date for the withdrawal of the federal police has not been set.

The city will be hand over to the local executive a day after the police begin to make the rounds, for him to prove his capacity to control Oaxaca.

Faced with the government ultimatum, Ruiz presented a six point plan to recover stability in the control of the state and reconcile opposition forces and the social movement.

However, APPO denounced that aggressive actions by paramilitary groups and agitators continue and once more pleaded for talks over the pull out of the federal forces.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Obrador for Human Rights Commission in Oaxaca

Mexico, Nov 10 (Prensa Latina) - Mexican opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador asked the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) to intervene in the state of Oaxaca, where the list of missing and murdered people continues to grow.

The leader says area governor Ulises Ruiz, accused of human rights violations, has remained in power because of political maneuvering by the controversially elected Partido Revolucionario Institucional president Felipe Calderón.

During a nationwide tour, Obrador said his truly legitimate government will do much more for the people than those in power, who act like "police, protecting the violent few."

He called on the people to attend the symbolic inauguration act on November 20 in Mexico City main square, highlighting his main goals are to protect the people and defend national heritage.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Conflict Returns to Senate

Mexico, Nov 8 (Prensa Latina) - The Mexican Senate agreed to the PRD party (Revolucion Democratica) exhortation to reanalyze removal of powers in Oaxaca while six deputies from that state (5 PRD and one PT Trabajo) began an indefinite hunger strike to achieve that end.

The striking senators want Oaxaca declared ungovernable and the removal all state powers, especially of Gov. Ulisis Ruiz, in light of the wave of persecution, arbitrary arrests, and social destabilization provoked by the federal police sent in by President Vicente Fox.

Contrarily, representatives of PRI (Revolucionario Institucional, the party of Gov. Ruiz) and governing PAN (Accion Nacional) defeated this motion once before and criticize the hunger strike as unbefitting members of Congress.

Meanwhile four thousand women marched in Oaxaca yesterday to urge withdrawal of the occupying military and the reappearance, alive, of the nearly 100 people arrested since October 29. The women were met with water shot from a military tank but persevered in their demands.

Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) radio last night reported an attack with live ammunition at a barricade by the Oaxaca State Police - considered Ruiz´ private army, but with no report of injuries. Seventeen people, mostly teachers, have been murdered since the Oaxaca protest began in June.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca: Peaceful Solution or Civil War?

Havana, Nov 6 (Prensa Latina) - The embattled APPO of Oaxaca, Mexico, held a mega march this weekend to demand immediate removal of Gov. Ulises Ruiz and withdrawal of the federal police (PFP), sent last week by President Vicente Fox to restore order.

Police reportedly opened fire Sunday on the normally sacrosanct autonomous university where the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has its radio transmitter, wounding one student.

The disorder stems from the June protest strike by teachers prompting formation of the APPO in their support, organizing marches, sit-ins and camp-ins in Oaxaca and the capital, demanding removal of the governor.

The response was more violent repression, with 15 teachers and activists murdered in the past five months, including Brad Will, a NYC Indymedia photo journalist shot twice while filming the protest.

The Mexican Senate recognized that Oaxaca had become "ungovernable", but refused to remove Ruiz, a member of PRI party (Revolucion Instituional) allied with the governing PAN (Accion Nacional).

However, following more violence when the federal police tried unsuccessfully to evict the protestors rather than the paramilitary, the Senate asked Ruiz to voluntarily resign, which he refused to do.

Positions are hardening on both sides, with support for the APPO flooding in from many Mexican and international progressive groups and President Fox vowing to bring order to Oaxaca before he hands over power Dec. 1 to President-elect Felipe Calderon, himself a focal point of controversy in continuing protests of fraud in his election.

While the police entrench in the city with barbed wire and the population rebuilds their barricades protecting the university and call for cameras to film police harassment, PRD (Revolucion Democratica) party – part of the coalition supporting Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as legitimate president-elect – will again call for a Senate vote to remove the Oaxaca executive and judicial powers.

(Prensa Latina News Agency)

Actualité - Oaxaca Negotiations at a Standstill

Mexico, Oct 31 (Prensa Latina) - Negotiations between the Minister of Government and the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) remain suspended on Tuesday before the presence of forces of the federal police.

Enrique Rueda, leader of the Oaxaca teachers, stated that the military operation put paid to the resumption of classes promised for Monday, as conditions were not appropriate to open schools.

Minister of Government Carlos Abascal ratified that the federal presence in Oaxaca would last until they fulfill their objective to reopen roads and establish public order which, he said, is expected to be achieved soon.

APPO and the education union expressed interest in resuming negotiations to achieve the removal of the high-ranking commands of the police and justice under Gov. Ulises Ruiz, urged to resign by the Senate.

According to Rueda, the Presidency must assume the political consequences of the unilateral decision to send soldiers as the operation was violent and the resignation of Ruiz is a demand that is not negotiable.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Government admitted that the Preventive Federal Police have occupied the city of Oaxaca, but without achieving its total control.

Similarly, it admitted mistakes committed in the operation begun Sunday on the pretext to restore calm and order in that demarcation of southeast Mexico.

(Prensa Latina News Agency - October 31, 2006)