New York City Anarchoblogs

January 27, 2012
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell

Approximately 200 police officers, belonging to the state Department of Public Security, blocked the path of the caravan of displaced Triquis who are trying to return to the cultural and ceremonial center of San Juan Copala. The police positioned themselves at kilometer 7, in the municipality of Tlaxiaco, to keep the children, women and men from entering the Triqui region.

In the group are traveling 71 Triqui women, 24 children and 26 men. As well, there are 47 members of non-governmental organizations, international observers, human rights defenders and members of an alternative media outlet.

Members of the caravan state that a stretch of the highway was dynamited near the village of Santa Catarina in order to block their path.

They say that the police operation is being headed by Víctor Raúl Martínez, coordinator of the advisers to Governor Gabino Cué Monteagudo.

These events occur 24 hours after the displaced were to sign a peace agreement, in the presence of the governor of Oaxaca. However, in meetings held through Thursday morning, members of the Union for the Social Well-Being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT) and the Triqui Movement for Unification and Struggle (MULT) made clear their disagreement with the displaced returning to Copala this week. Given the impossibility of arriving at an agreement, Governor Gabino Cué has said that he cannot guarantee the safety of the displaced.

For more information on the current caravan to San Juan Copala, see El Enemigo Común.

For background on San Juan Copala and the continued impunity in Oaxaca under Governor Gabino Cué, see this previous post.

We hold Gabino Cué, MULT and UBISORT responsible for what may happen to us in San Juan Copala

January 26, 2012
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell

TO THE MEDIA

TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF MEXICO

TO THE HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS

TO THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS

TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN

Sisters, brothers – up until yesterday a great joy filled our hearts as we were sure that this time we would be able to return to our village – San Juan Copala – from which we were displaced by criminals in the service of the wicked Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. We were content as we believed that with the exit of the PRI from the state government that things had changed and that the criminals would no longer be protected. But our pain was great when we realized that nothing changed, that governments of any stripe will always protect those who supply them with votes, they guarantee them political and economic control and allow the indigenous population to remain displaced from its land and territory; dealing with the worst criminals doesn’t matter.

Yesterday we arrived at the meeting of Triqui “authorities,” arranged by the governor, with the aim of signing a supposed agreement of peace and understanding for our region, of which we were unaware until that moment and which the event served as a pretext for the state government to use as a reason to continue postponing the date which it had promised – in writing – of January 20, for the return to our village. Despite the fact that on several occasions we made clear to representatives of the state government that our displaced village does not recognize the supposed “municipal authority” of San Juan Copala, Julio Martínez Ramírez, who was put into that position by his son, Julio Cesar Martínez, the murderer of Jyri Jaakkola and many other people, this individual occupied the most privileged seat at the meeting, at the side of Governor Gabino Cué.

Also occupying a seat at the meeting was former state representative and well-known strongman in the Triqui region, Rufino Merino Zaragoza, who has committed with his own hands or personally ordered more than 80 murders. This criminal is the cause of much of the blood that has been spilled in our region. During the course of the meeting it became perfectly clear that the supposed “social organizations” MULT and UBISORT are one and the same, given the following: Rufino Merino presented himself as the representative of MULT’s communities but through the entire meeting he defended the proposals made by the former journalist Ixtli Martínez, who is the legal representative of the paramilitaries occupying San Juan Copala. Ixtli Martínez is the representative of the group of criminals who displaced us from our community, who imposed Julio Martínez as the municipal “authority,” who call themselves UBISORT but who in reality have been absorbed by MULT.

It is clear that all the murders committed against our brothers and sisters, including on April 27, 2010, were carried out by these two groups of criminals. The municipal “authority,” Professor Julio Martínez Ramírez, is the father of Julio Cesar Martínez Morales, the right hand of Antonio Cruz García, alias “Toño Pájaro,” both of whom have several arrest warrants out against them and today we understand that they have not been arrested because they receive protection from the government palace and the impunity they have allows them to dispose of human life at whim.

Knowing he was protected and that he enjoyed complete impunity, Julio Martínez put forward useless, stupid conditions for the return of the displaced to their homes – one of those was that the entry of two displaced families per month would be allowed beginning on March 20, or rather that the complete return of all 110 families would require four years. All of these were met with complacency by the governor, who continues to maintain that we are responsible for what might happen to us should we try to enter our village. Compañeros, compañeras: We can wait no longer.

We will return to our community and we hold the governor, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, the serial murderer Rufino Merino Zaragoza, Julio Martínez Ramírez, Antonio Cruz García, Julio Cesar Martínez Morales, and the advisor and inciter of this group of murderers, Ixtli Martínez, responsible for what may happen. Finally, we say to the governor that what happens will remain in his conscience, because he could have stopped it simply by ordering that the law of the state he supposedly governs be respected.

RESPECTFULLY

THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNAL COUNCIL OF SAN JUAN COPALA

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SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW is dedicated to creating the resources that we need to build and strengthen communities fighting for reproductive justice in Georgia and through the South.

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from California Bars Prisoner From Reading 'The Atlantic':

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Resistance Behind Bars is going into a second printing! The new edition will be out in Fall 2012.

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Monday, December 19, 2011

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by Ayesha Adamo

This is what 2012 looks like, in case you were wondering.  I spent my New Year’s Eve in Liberty Square here in New York, ready to occupy the New Year.  If you were there, then you know.  If you weren’t, then let me tell you that as I watched the team from Direct Action swoop in and pull barricades down, winning a tug-of-war against the cops who were outnumbered for once, thanks to the festivities in Times Square, I knew that this was the best New Year’s Eve of my life.

I knew it even more so as I, with my fellow occupiers, climbed the great pile of barricades that the people had tossed into the middle of the park.   We stood on top, looked out over the sea of faces that had gathered, and shook the ground.  And you could just tell—the myths are finally here: this is what 2012 was always meant to be.  This is what I’ve been waiting for all my life.

Later the NYPD battalions in riot gear would descend upon the park, kicking out the few of us who decided not to go on the march to the East Village, but it was already too late: the ground had already been shaken and the barricades had already toppled.  The symbol, the ritual, had already been completed, set into motion…the magick button had been pressed and no matter how many arrests were made that night, nothing could change it.  Standing outside the 9th Precinct at 4 in the morning to cheer our warriors as they exited the paddy wagon, and get an idea of names to pass on to the National Lawyers Guild, the night was winding down, but with the knowledge that nothing was over.  Far far from it.  Viva la revolución!  Viva 2012!

• There are at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care who are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents.
• If nothing changes, 15,000 more children may face a similar fate in the next 5 years.
• This is a growing national problem, not one confined to border jurisdictions or states-- the Applied Research Center identified at least 22 states where these cases have emerged.
• Families are more likely to be separated where local police aggressively participate in immigration enforcement

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When I sent the manuscript of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women to PM Press, I knew that, if I didn't have some other big project to keep me occupied, I would drive myself up the wall waiting for edits and responses.

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