Day 3

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Originally uploaded by Jeff Rae.

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!