So the atmosphere here in Oaxaca is very tense. The last barricade, Cinco Senores, which is 6 blocks from the university, fell to the PFP today. People cleared the University and gave up the radio station peacefully. Almost all journalists have gotten the fuck out of Dodge and only a few remain and the ones we talked to today say they were leaving. The situation defiantly has worsened when a major paper here reported that the government has a list of over 100 foreigners with photos that they are looking to “talk” to. There is a march planned for December 1 here in Oaxaca but little has been said about it. The PFP are still in control of Santo Domingo and the Zocalo. That’s all for now and we are heading to our undisclosed location.
Siempre en la lucha!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Update...
Once again I am behind in blog entries. I will recap the last few days even though they all seem to run together.
Last week we went out to a town 45 minutes from Oaxaca City. The town had taken over city municipal building a few months ago and kicked out their town mayor. The people we met with were men in the 50’s. They have been taking care of the town ever I asked where the police were and the men all laughed and said that the police had left with the mayor. They collect taxes every weekend at the town market to pay for trash collection and other necessities of the town. The also operate a radio station to keep the town informed with all that is going on. We also were able to speak with some of the women who were able to tell us what their involvement in the movement has been. We have all this on video and are working on getting translations done so that we can post it. We are also hoping to go back to the town during the day to view more of what the people there are doing and how it all works.
On Thursday we visited Cinco Senores the last barricade that is still held by the demonstrators. It is enormous! Cinco Senores is about 6 blocks from the University, which houses a medical center and APPO Radio. There are burned out buses and cars blocking every intersection and men and women defend the barricade 24 hours a day. Cinco Senores is a very dangerous place, many have disappeared from the barricade, and it is often attacked by gunshots at night. We were able to conduct several interviews with people who have been at the barricade for months. The people at Cinco Senores seem prepared for anything that the PFP may attempt to do and are prepared to defend their barricade to the end.
Friday like most of the week was calm with most people preparing for Saturday, November 25, the day of the mega march (their term not mine!). We mainly got our gear ready for whatever would happen on Saturday. The plan was supposed to have a HUGE many mile march that would start outside of the city and end by circling the Zocalo which the PFP were in and not letting anyone in or out for 48 hours!
When Saturday came we got on a bus near Santo Domingo that would take us to the beginning of the march. Hundreds were waiting to get on the buses some wearing helmets, some with large sticks, young, and old it seemed everyone was going to be at this march. On the bus ride that took about 30 minutes we saw hundreds more people sitting along the roadside waiting for the march to pass by them. When we got to the march it was amazing we could not see the beginning of the march or the end! It was huge; I have never seen anything like this before. While we marched people along the sides were clapping, holding signs and joining the march. When the march got to the Zocalo it easily circled the PFP. The PFP has put up sandbags and lots of razor wire to prevent people from entering the Zocalo. There was about an hour of calm before all hell broke loose. I don’t know how it all started but once it started it was on. There was tons of tear gas and demonstrators were ready with shopping carts full of rocks for their slings and slingshots. There were carts full of Molotov’s and many people with homemade bazookas. We saw 2 buses set on fire and pushed down the hill into PFP lines. Molotov’s were thrown and bazookas shot. The PFP responded with more tear gas, concussion grenades, and water canons shooting pepper spray. The battle lasted some 5 hours into the night. Some friends were right near a man that was shot in the leg by live ammunition. We saw people being carried on stretchers by medical students to the clinic near Santo Domingo. When all was said and done 3 people from the movement were dead and at least 200 detained.
Saturday night and Sunday the APPO radio called out names of people who were unaccounted for telling them to call home. Many people were hurt and were getting treatment from the medical center. We went over to the University where hundreds had gone for safety after the fighting the night before. We conducted interviews with street children who are now part of the movement and farmers. It seems that I always eat best when I am at the University where there is always plenty of supplies. When supplies get low a call for what is needed goes out over the radio and tons of supplies comes in. PFP helicopters were flying low over the University so people masked up for fear of being tear gassed and people fired the bazookas and came very close to hitting the helicopters. As the sun was setting we got word that the AFI was in town. The AFI is basically a 1920’s J Edgar Hoover FBI. People coming by car to the University were being pulled over and had guns put to their heads. It was time to leave and people from the movement had us run 6 blocks out to a main road where we piled into a cab. As we rode in the cab we saw pickup trucks full of PFP rolling through the area. We got out just in time but fortunately there would be no raid on the University Sunday just more and more state repression.
Monday, November 27 was mostly calm (whatever calm is around here). Santo Domingo is all cleared out and the PFP have it all blocked off. We went into Santo Domingo without a problem but other people we know had their bags searched before going in. The PFP is profiling people that might be part of the movement. All the anti URO (Governor Ulisis) graffiti was painted over and business that were not previously open were beginning to come alive. There was a march that was supposed to begin at the University but it was cancelled, there are also more rumors of a raid on the University. Things in the city seem much different and we have heard reports of houses being raided, It should also be said that Radio Ciudadana, the local radio that supports Governor Ulisis Ruiz, has been calling for citizens to attack houses where leaders of the APPO live as well as hostals or houses where foreigners may be staying, promoting a sense of terror in the Oaxaca City. They have been using scare tactics in their programming for several weeks. December 1 will be a big day and no matter how bad the repression in Mexico gets it will not solve the problems or kill the ideas that created this popular movement.
More 11/25 photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594392041212/
Siempre en la lucha!
Last week we went out to a town 45 minutes from Oaxaca City. The town had taken over city municipal building a few months ago and kicked out their town mayor. The people we met with were men in the 50’s. They have been taking care of the town ever I asked where the police were and the men all laughed and said that the police had left with the mayor. They collect taxes every weekend at the town market to pay for trash collection and other necessities of the town. The also operate a radio station to keep the town informed with all that is going on. We also were able to speak with some of the women who were able to tell us what their involvement in the movement has been. We have all this on video and are working on getting translations done so that we can post it. We are also hoping to go back to the town during the day to view more of what the people there are doing and how it all works.
On Thursday we visited Cinco Senores the last barricade that is still held by the demonstrators. It is enormous! Cinco Senores is about 6 blocks from the University, which houses a medical center and APPO Radio. There are burned out buses and cars blocking every intersection and men and women defend the barricade 24 hours a day. Cinco Senores is a very dangerous place, many have disappeared from the barricade, and it is often attacked by gunshots at night. We were able to conduct several interviews with people who have been at the barricade for months. The people at Cinco Senores seem prepared for anything that the PFP may attempt to do and are prepared to defend their barricade to the end.
Friday like most of the week was calm with most people preparing for Saturday, November 25, the day of the mega march (their term not mine!). We mainly got our gear ready for whatever would happen on Saturday. The plan was supposed to have a HUGE many mile march that would start outside of the city and end by circling the Zocalo which the PFP were in and not letting anyone in or out for 48 hours!
When Saturday came we got on a bus near Santo Domingo that would take us to the beginning of the march. Hundreds were waiting to get on the buses some wearing helmets, some with large sticks, young, and old it seemed everyone was going to be at this march. On the bus ride that took about 30 minutes we saw hundreds more people sitting along the roadside waiting for the march to pass by them. When we got to the march it was amazing we could not see the beginning of the march or the end! It was huge; I have never seen anything like this before. While we marched people along the sides were clapping, holding signs and joining the march. When the march got to the Zocalo it easily circled the PFP. The PFP has put up sandbags and lots of razor wire to prevent people from entering the Zocalo. There was about an hour of calm before all hell broke loose. I don’t know how it all started but once it started it was on. There was tons of tear gas and demonstrators were ready with shopping carts full of rocks for their slings and slingshots. There were carts full of Molotov’s and many people with homemade bazookas. We saw 2 buses set on fire and pushed down the hill into PFP lines. Molotov’s were thrown and bazookas shot. The PFP responded with more tear gas, concussion grenades, and water canons shooting pepper spray. The battle lasted some 5 hours into the night. Some friends were right near a man that was shot in the leg by live ammunition. We saw people being carried on stretchers by medical students to the clinic near Santo Domingo. When all was said and done 3 people from the movement were dead and at least 200 detained.
Saturday night and Sunday the APPO radio called out names of people who were unaccounted for telling them to call home. Many people were hurt and were getting treatment from the medical center. We went over to the University where hundreds had gone for safety after the fighting the night before. We conducted interviews with street children who are now part of the movement and farmers. It seems that I always eat best when I am at the University where there is always plenty of supplies. When supplies get low a call for what is needed goes out over the radio and tons of supplies comes in. PFP helicopters were flying low over the University so people masked up for fear of being tear gassed and people fired the bazookas and came very close to hitting the helicopters. As the sun was setting we got word that the AFI was in town. The AFI is basically a 1920’s J Edgar Hoover FBI. People coming by car to the University were being pulled over and had guns put to their heads. It was time to leave and people from the movement had us run 6 blocks out to a main road where we piled into a cab. As we rode in the cab we saw pickup trucks full of PFP rolling through the area. We got out just in time but fortunately there would be no raid on the University Sunday just more and more state repression.
Monday, November 27 was mostly calm (whatever calm is around here). Santo Domingo is all cleared out and the PFP have it all blocked off. We went into Santo Domingo without a problem but other people we know had their bags searched before going in. The PFP is profiling people that might be part of the movement. All the anti URO (Governor Ulisis) graffiti was painted over and business that were not previously open were beginning to come alive. There was a march that was supposed to begin at the University but it was cancelled, there are also more rumors of a raid on the University. Things in the city seem much different and we have heard reports of houses being raided, It should also be said that Radio Ciudadana, the local radio that supports Governor Ulisis Ruiz, has been calling for citizens to attack houses where leaders of the APPO live as well as hostals or houses where foreigners may be staying, promoting a sense of terror in the Oaxaca City. They have been using scare tactics in their programming for several weeks. December 1 will be a big day and no matter how bad the repression in Mexico gets it will not solve the problems or kill the ideas that created this popular movement.
More 11/25 photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594392041212/
Siempre en la lucha!
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Day 5-6
I’ve gotten a bit behind in my bog entries so I’d like to sum up Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday we to the Santo Domingo in the morning to find that during the night someone torched all of the tarps and encampments the movement had set up. No one knew who actually did it but it seems that it was the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) or Governor Ulisis thugs (which is pretty much the same thing). The evidence of the torching was all around as there were huge burn spots on the ground and chucks of blue plastic from the tarps. Even though the encampment was burned people had already begun rebuilding. We met some of our new friends and talked for a while about what would be coming up the rest of the week. Our contacts told us that the rest of the week would be mostly people resting and preparing for Saturday when the people will retake the Zocalo from the PFP. We also heard a rumor that many of the PFP was pulling out of the Zocalo because they were needed to stop any trouble that may happen in Mexico City with the coming inauguration on December 1. We walked the 2 blocks from Santo Domingo to the Zocalo where all the fighting the day before had taken place. All was calm and once inside the Zocalo it was obvious that many of the PFP have left. With that said there are still several thousand PFP still occupying the Zocalo. We left the Zocalo to run some errands. The main thing was to find gas masks, which was surprisingly easy and cheap. By the time we finished our errands it was dark and we were back in the Zocalo. We watched the PFP for a while rotating shifts and moving equipment. It seems that the first day when we were in the Zocalo there were about 4,000 PFP and now it seems like there is about half as many if not less. While walking away one of the PFP brass walked behind us and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. We told him we were from the US and were documentarians (there was no use lying since we had gas masks in our bags). He seemed satisfied and was probably annoyed at our poor Spanish and let us go. We walked back through Santo Domingo and even though some of the encampment was rebuilt it was a ghost town. The people that had been sleeping there holding the encampment were no longer there.
Wednesday morning we had a meeting with some people we had met at Santo Domingo to go over video. I talked to several people from the movement about what would happen Saturday. I asked one companero if on Saturday the people would be victorious and he laughed and smiled and said, “I hope so”.
We went towards the Zocalo to grab a bite to eat and when we were done and started heading towards Santo Domingo and there was a march heading right for us! It’s amazing how things happen here. The march was of law students and their school is right next to the PFP roadblock at the Zocalo. They were all dressed very nicely and held copes of the Mexican Constitution in their hands. When the students came to the PFP roadblock the PFP put on their gas masks and readied. The students took a desk from inside the law school and stood on it giving speech after speech. “It is our public right to access the Zocalo”, “We paid for these tanks and armaments and you use them against the people, how dare you!” the students said. Professors from the law school also made speeches shaming the PFP about their sexual assaults of local women. Speakers were put on the balcony of the law school and more students made speeches. After 40 minutes of speeches the students ended their demonstration and returned to the school and went home. I only had my point and shoot with me since this was an unannounced march, and that’s what I have uploaded on my flickr account.
Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/
Siempre en la lucha!
On Tuesday we to the Santo Domingo in the morning to find that during the night someone torched all of the tarps and encampments the movement had set up. No one knew who actually did it but it seems that it was the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) or Governor Ulisis thugs (which is pretty much the same thing). The evidence of the torching was all around as there were huge burn spots on the ground and chucks of blue plastic from the tarps. Even though the encampment was burned people had already begun rebuilding. We met some of our new friends and talked for a while about what would be coming up the rest of the week. Our contacts told us that the rest of the week would be mostly people resting and preparing for Saturday when the people will retake the Zocalo from the PFP. We also heard a rumor that many of the PFP was pulling out of the Zocalo because they were needed to stop any trouble that may happen in Mexico City with the coming inauguration on December 1. We walked the 2 blocks from Santo Domingo to the Zocalo where all the fighting the day before had taken place. All was calm and once inside the Zocalo it was obvious that many of the PFP have left. With that said there are still several thousand PFP still occupying the Zocalo. We left the Zocalo to run some errands. The main thing was to find gas masks, which was surprisingly easy and cheap. By the time we finished our errands it was dark and we were back in the Zocalo. We watched the PFP for a while rotating shifts and moving equipment. It seems that the first day when we were in the Zocalo there were about 4,000 PFP and now it seems like there is about half as many if not less. While walking away one of the PFP brass walked behind us and asked us where we were from and what we were doing. We told him we were from the US and were documentarians (there was no use lying since we had gas masks in our bags). He seemed satisfied and was probably annoyed at our poor Spanish and let us go. We walked back through Santo Domingo and even though some of the encampment was rebuilt it was a ghost town. The people that had been sleeping there holding the encampment were no longer there.
Wednesday morning we had a meeting with some people we had met at Santo Domingo to go over video. I talked to several people from the movement about what would happen Saturday. I asked one companero if on Saturday the people would be victorious and he laughed and smiled and said, “I hope so”.
We went towards the Zocalo to grab a bite to eat and when we were done and started heading towards Santo Domingo and there was a march heading right for us! It’s amazing how things happen here. The march was of law students and their school is right next to the PFP roadblock at the Zocalo. They were all dressed very nicely and held copes of the Mexican Constitution in their hands. When the students came to the PFP roadblock the PFP put on their gas masks and readied. The students took a desk from inside the law school and stood on it giving speech after speech. “It is our public right to access the Zocalo”, “We paid for these tanks and armaments and you use them against the people, how dare you!” the students said. Professors from the law school also made speeches shaming the PFP about their sexual assaults of local women. Speakers were put on the balcony of the law school and more students made speeches. After 40 minutes of speeches the students ended their demonstration and returned to the school and went home. I only had my point and shoot with me since this was an unannounced march, and that’s what I have uploaded on my flickr account.
Photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/
Siempre en la lucha!
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Day 4
Sorry for the late post but yesterday was crazy. We met some people the night before who said they would give us a ride to the beginning of the march site on the edge of Oaxaca. We met them at 9am. They led us to a pickup truck, which had no license plate on it. Many people involved in the movement have taken their plates off their cars to avoid identification. It was a 4-door pickup and our ride insisted we sit in the backseat. So it was 2 of us and 12 communists in a pickup truck with a machete in the driver’s side door. We got to the starting point and had to wait over an hour before the start of the march. They were waiting for buses of people to come in from outside of the city. When the buses came in people got off carrying large sticks with nails in them for protection against the police. It was a diverse group, teacher’s students, farmers, the very old and the very young. The indigenous led the march and all other political groups were in the back. Along the way people were spray-painting messages telling the Governor and the PFP to get out. At one point a pickup truck with kids in all black and masked pulled up. They had home made bazookas, which they shoot out large fireworks with nails in them. A transport truck full of PFP went by the march and protesters screamed and yelled profanity at them telling them to leave. Midway though the march we passed several schools where demonstrators yelled “traitors” to the teachers who have gone back to work. One bank and a McDonalds on the route were vandalized with revolutionary messages spray-painted on them and their signs destroyed.
When the march got to the Zocalo demonstrators stopped within a blocks distance and screamed and yelled. Some people flashed their bazookas as a show of force. I did not witness any demonstrates use violence against the PFP but I don’t know what was happening the block behind me. Without any notice the police started firing tear gas. Once this happened demonstrators returned fire with their homemade bazookas. From this moment on a street battle ensued that lasted at least 3 hours. There was tear gas in pretty much every direction. People eventually retreated one block where they tore apart a construction site for material to build a barricade. One block further up old women were gathering rocks and putting them in shopping carts that young children would push to the front lines. Demonstrators held the barricades from which they launched their attack of rockets, and rocks. Many Molotov’s were prepared but none were thrown at the police that I was able to see. More then several demonstrators were injured and were carried on make shift stretchers to the clinic near Santo Domingo. Protesters torched a bus they were using as a barricade a block away from where I was and people on motorcycles were masked with bazookas sticking out of their backs. This march was supposed to stay nonviolent but once the PFP launched their barrage of teargas the battle was on. Police often taunted the demonstrators to hit them and would advance their line as if it were “Braveheart” the movie. The PFP is not trained for this type of action and it showed. They would pick up rocks demonstrators had thrown and throw them back. Eventually the PFP advanced past the barricades pushing the demonstrators back into Santo Domingo. At this point people seemed to decide it was time to go home for now since the “real” battle is supposed to take place on Saturday.
While we were walking around a masked man came to us. It was a friend we had met earlier who asked if we needed anything. We told him we needed to get to the University to meet a friend. He told us to come with him. He took us to his car (which had no license plate) and drove us around many side streets. The university is barricaded pretty well and there is a security checkpoint one must pass though to gain access. Once inside the university you can understand why it is so guarded it is the home of APPO radio, which broadcasts the movement’s message and news 24 hours a day. We were given food there and the outside kitchen the students have made is fit to serve a small army. Bottles read to be used as Molotov’s are stacked several feet high and sandbags surround the radio station. We eventually left the university and returned to our apartment. It had been a long day.
Siempre en la lucha!
More of todays photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/
When the march got to the Zocalo demonstrators stopped within a blocks distance and screamed and yelled. Some people flashed their bazookas as a show of force. I did not witness any demonstrates use violence against the PFP but I don’t know what was happening the block behind me. Without any notice the police started firing tear gas. Once this happened demonstrators returned fire with their homemade bazookas. From this moment on a street battle ensued that lasted at least 3 hours. There was tear gas in pretty much every direction. People eventually retreated one block where they tore apart a construction site for material to build a barricade. One block further up old women were gathering rocks and putting them in shopping carts that young children would push to the front lines. Demonstrators held the barricades from which they launched their attack of rockets, and rocks. Many Molotov’s were prepared but none were thrown at the police that I was able to see. More then several demonstrators were injured and were carried on make shift stretchers to the clinic near Santo Domingo. Protesters torched a bus they were using as a barricade a block away from where I was and people on motorcycles were masked with bazookas sticking out of their backs. This march was supposed to stay nonviolent but once the PFP launched their barrage of teargas the battle was on. Police often taunted the demonstrators to hit them and would advance their line as if it were “Braveheart” the movie. The PFP is not trained for this type of action and it showed. They would pick up rocks demonstrators had thrown and throw them back. Eventually the PFP advanced past the barricades pushing the demonstrators back into Santo Domingo. At this point people seemed to decide it was time to go home for now since the “real” battle is supposed to take place on Saturday.
While we were walking around a masked man came to us. It was a friend we had met earlier who asked if we needed anything. We told him we needed to get to the University to meet a friend. He told us to come with him. He took us to his car (which had no license plate) and drove us around many side streets. The university is barricaded pretty well and there is a security checkpoint one must pass though to gain access. Once inside the university you can understand why it is so guarded it is the home of APPO radio, which broadcasts the movement’s message and news 24 hours a day. We were given food there and the outside kitchen the students have made is fit to serve a small army. Bottles read to be used as Molotov’s are stacked several feet high and sandbags surround the radio station. We eventually left the university and returned to our apartment. It had been a long day.
Siempre en la lucha!
More of todays photos at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Day 3
Today we were at Santo Domingo much of the day talking with people from the movement. At noon the women’s march started, it was made up of young and old. The reason for the march was because local women have been sexually assaulted and raped by some of the 4,000 PFP who occupy the Zocalo. The women carried mirrors that had written on them “violators”, and “rapists” which they intended to hold up to the PFP’s faces. The main part of the march was to perform a play in front of the PFP where actors playing PFP would storm into a home and “steal” away the women to sexually assault them.
The march was full of energy and set off to the first barricade. The march was nonviolent and remained that way the entire time. The women moved close to the barricades and after a few minutes the PFP sprayed us with pepper spray. Many people moved back but some stayed to hold mirrors in front of the PFP and confront them about their violations. I was covered in the orange spray on my arms and my camera but amazingly none got in my eyes. My friend was not so lucky he got a direct hit in the face. I got over to him to give him water and then others came to help. I have photos of that on my flickr account.
When the march got to the second barricade of police at the Zocalo entrance they performed their play. It was interesting to see the faces of some of the young PFP. It seemed that a few were holding back tears, however most seemed untouched by the action. When the play was over all of the PFP begun to clap and people moved closer to them. It was a clear tactic to bring the people closer and then they were giving the orders to advance. PFP beat their batons against their shields and moved forward with armored water canons behind them. They advanced some 15 feet before stopping but it did not deter the people from holding their ground. The event ended with no further incident and no one seriously injured.
We’ve heard allot of things about what might be happening in the next few days, things that probably shouldn’t be written. Hopefully all that takes place this week will leave no one seriously injured or worse. I know I probably should have gone into detail on much more of this but things have been very busy and my power cable for my laptop broke so I need to share one. There isn’t an Oaxaca Apple Store yet. You can check out today’s photos at my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594383443037/
Siempre en la lucha!
The march was full of energy and set off to the first barricade. The march was nonviolent and remained that way the entire time. The women moved close to the barricades and after a few minutes the PFP sprayed us with pepper spray. Many people moved back but some stayed to hold mirrors in front of the PFP and confront them about their violations. I was covered in the orange spray on my arms and my camera but amazingly none got in my eyes. My friend was not so lucky he got a direct hit in the face. I got over to him to give him water and then others came to help. I have photos of that on my flickr account.
When the march got to the second barricade of police at the Zocalo entrance they performed their play. It was interesting to see the faces of some of the young PFP. It seemed that a few were holding back tears, however most seemed untouched by the action. When the play was over all of the PFP begun to clap and people moved closer to them. It was a clear tactic to bring the people closer and then they were giving the orders to advance. PFP beat their batons against their shields and moved forward with armored water canons behind them. They advanced some 15 feet before stopping but it did not deter the people from holding their ground. The event ended with no further incident and no one seriously injured.
We’ve heard allot of things about what might be happening in the next few days, things that probably shouldn’t be written. Hopefully all that takes place this week will leave no one seriously injured or worse. I know I probably should have gone into detail on much more of this but things have been very busy and my power cable for my laptop broke so I need to share one. There isn’t an Oaxaca Apple Store yet. You can check out today’s photos at my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594383443037/
Siempre en la lucha!
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Day 2
We started our day by heading down to Santo Domingo; it is a large Catholic church in town. The church is nearly 400 years old and you can tell from the outside however the inside is beautiful. However more importantly right now this is where the resistance is staying. There are tents and other structures that have been put up to house each of the organizations, which make up the APPO. Also in this area you have lots of people selling anything and everything you could want from clothing to DVD’s of the movement. Both the demonstrators and the merchants moved to Santo Domingo a few weeks ago when 4,000 PFP (Federal Police) stormed town and violently forced everyone out of the Zocalo (center of town). We spent some time walking around the Santo Domingo area where it was very busy. While there we met up with X who would take us around town and show us what was going on.
X took us to the Zocalo where you can only enter by foot. The police have erected barricades at all entrances. Most of the barricades have a line of PFP in full riot gear and behind them 2 armored trucks with water canons, which have a bulldozer front. There were thousands of PFP in the Zocalo many of which were very young. The PFP doesn’t have any housing they must sleep in makeshift tents out of tarps or on cardboard only some seemed lucky enough to have real tents. There were also many transport trucks that had dozens of PFP on them ready to go somewhere. It was very weird and tense, thousands of armed men occupying the center of town. Some of the people that sell goods in the Zocalo have returned and more then a few of the PFP were ogling the local women in the Zocalo. The PFP did not seem to happy about photos or video but we able to take some. The photos I took are on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594381854132/
After the Zocalo, X took us around town so that we could get a local cell phone and some other things. The night was much more interesting, X had gone home and we were on our own. We made a contact that told us to meet them at 8:00PM at Santo Domingo to discuss the movement. When we arrived at Santo Domingo there were still many people there, a good number of people stay the night to watch over the encampment. Our contact introduced us to a few people that knew Brad Will (the NYC Indymedia guy who was murdered by police in Oaxaca last month). I had met Brad in NYC once and in Miami another time. The people told us that there is a great fear from people about interviews on camera due to the disapearences of people in the movement.
It is getting late here and I don’t have time to write all that I had hoped. Tomorrow we must be up very early to go to Santo Domingo where the women in the movement have planned a march to the Zocalo to confront the PFP about rapes and sexual assaults that have happened to local women.
Siempre en la lucha!
X took us to the Zocalo where you can only enter by foot. The police have erected barricades at all entrances. Most of the barricades have a line of PFP in full riot gear and behind them 2 armored trucks with water canons, which have a bulldozer front. There were thousands of PFP in the Zocalo many of which were very young. The PFP doesn’t have any housing they must sleep in makeshift tents out of tarps or on cardboard only some seemed lucky enough to have real tents. There were also many transport trucks that had dozens of PFP on them ready to go somewhere. It was very weird and tense, thousands of armed men occupying the center of town. Some of the people that sell goods in the Zocalo have returned and more then a few of the PFP were ogling the local women in the Zocalo. The PFP did not seem to happy about photos or video but we able to take some. The photos I took are on my flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffrae/sets/72157594381854132/
After the Zocalo, X took us around town so that we could get a local cell phone and some other things. The night was much more interesting, X had gone home and we were on our own. We made a contact that told us to meet them at 8:00PM at Santo Domingo to discuss the movement. When we arrived at Santo Domingo there were still many people there, a good number of people stay the night to watch over the encampment. Our contact introduced us to a few people that knew Brad Will (the NYC Indymedia guy who was murdered by police in Oaxaca last month). I had met Brad in NYC once and in Miami another time. The people told us that there is a great fear from people about interviews on camera due to the disapearences of people in the movement.
It is getting late here and I don’t have time to write all that I had hoped. Tomorrow we must be up very early to go to Santo Domingo where the women in the movement have planned a march to the Zocalo to confront the PFP about rapes and sexual assaults that have happened to local women.
Siempre en la lucha!
Friday, November 17, 2006
Day 1
We made it to Oaxaca. It took well over 12 hours, some confusion at the airport in Mexico City but we have gotten to Oaxaca safely. We got a taxi from Oaxaca airport, which is on the outskirts of town into the city where we are staying.
You can tell that there is allot of tension here. On the 20-minute drive from the airport we saw graffiti on practically every flat surface. Fuera URO (get out!) Fuera PFP (get out police) Muerte Ulises (Die Ulisis (the governor)) Viva APPO (Long Live APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca). Even with the federal police presence we are told that there are still several barricades around town that the demonstrators still hold. Tomorrow should be an interesting day and I will post ASAP, hopefully with photos and maybe even a video clip.
Siempre en la lucha!
You can tell that there is allot of tension here. On the 20-minute drive from the airport we saw graffiti on practically every flat surface. Fuera URO (get out!) Fuera PFP (get out police) Muerte Ulises (Die Ulisis (the governor)) Viva APPO (Long Live APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca). Even with the federal police presence we are told that there are still several barricades around town that the demonstrators still hold. Tomorrow should be an interesting day and I will post ASAP, hopefully with photos and maybe even a video clip.
Siempre en la lucha!
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