The Oaxacan Conflict

Edu. Union/APPO Arts community Federal government

Atenco repression

Event date(s) : 2006.4
event : Police repression at Atenco
author : Fed. Police vs. protestors
location : San Salvador Atenco, Edomex
detail : 3 and 4 May 2006
Description : On May 3rd and 4th, state and federal police attacked the municipality of San Salvador Atenco in Mexico. Hundreds were arrested and abused, a 14 yr old boy, Francisco Javier Cortes Santiago, was killed, and 45 of 47 women arrested reported sexual abuse including rape.

15 May Teachers' Day

Event date(s) : 2006.42
event : Teachers' Day
author : Oaxaca Edu. Union
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 15 May 2006
Description : On this date in 2006, the City of Oaxaca played host to a meeting of 60,000 union-unified teachers from across the state. This was a symbol of their power and their intent to pressure the state government in to receiving and respecting their annual demands for pay and budget increases and a simultaneous announcement of their pending city-centre, sit-in strike that would choke and paralyse the life and operation of the city and state, to begin that coming Monday, 22nd May.

1st Mega-march

Event date(s) : 2006.46
event : 1st Mega-march
author : Teachers' Union
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 2 June 2006
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14 June Violent Removal

Event date(s) : 2006.5
event : Violent removal
author : Various police bodies
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : sidestepthenorm.com
Description : Beginning at 0450 hours, State, Federal and Municipal police forces invaded the city centre area treated as a temporary home by the sleeping, striking teachers. Tear gas grenades were launched from helicopters flying over the city centre. Local and national press sources reported 92 injured and as many as 4 dead. It was later reported that two children died, one unborn, caused by the mother's intoxication by tear gas, this was confirmed by Red Cross and local hospital sources.

21 Aug. Shooting

Event date(s) : 2006.62
event : Armed convoys attack protestors
author : Police & paramilitary forces
location : Colonia Reforma, Oaxaca, OAX.
detail : Primary evidence.
Description : The worst of various nights of attacks on the human barriers around key antennae transmitting APPO radio and TV broadcasts, police and paramilitary roamed in convoys of tens of pick-up trucks. Outside the radio station La Ley, used for APPO transmission since the attack on the CORTV HQ being used by the APPO in the early hours of this same day, one man was shot dead in the first direct attack in an urban/residential area. Only one block away from this incident, I was able to see all of this unfold, (see map of Oaxaca de Juarez), even including the last shots being fired from the back of said pick-ups. The last gunman appeared to be told off by his colleague for having fired too low, and therefore in to the crowd. Before this incident, the convoy in its entirety had appeared from two different directions (I was at a crossroads) passing by the two hot spots - one at a distance of one block west of my location, and the other at one block north. The second of these, what I can best describe as drive-bys was aborted at the sight of the oncoming crowd of protestors and caused, firstly, for two pick-ups to collide - one running in to the back of the other, and secondly, for the convoy to make a hasty retreat away to my left in a southerly direction.

21 Aug. Cacerola TV attacked

Event date(s) : 2006.62
event : Armed men shoot at radio/tv HQ
author : Police & paramilitary forces
location : CORTV HQ, Oaxaca
detail : 21 August 2006
Description : The worst of various nights of attacks on the human barriers around key antennae transmitting APPO radio and TV broadcasts, the commandeered radio and TV headquarters was attacked using armed violence and deliberately put out of action by government forces.

September 2006

Event date(s) : 2006.7
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Dialogo por Oaxaca

Event date(s) : 2006.83
event : Dialogue For Oaxaca Conference
author : Various citizen bodies
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 12 October 2006
Description : Mesas de Diálogo por la Paz, la Justicia y la Democracia en Oaxaca organised by the Oaxaca Human Rights Network starts.

Brad Will murdered

Event date(s) : 2006.88
event : U.S. citizen, Brad Will, killed
author : Police
location : Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca de J.
detail : 27 Oct. 2006
Description : Rising violence over the weeks and months of August, September and October lead to the death of the first foreigner in the Oaxacan Conflict. Indymedia New York cameraman, Bradley Roland Will, was shot twice in the chest while filming an alleged paramilitary attack on APPO members after an altercation or what some people report as a direct attack on an APPO barricade.

2 Nov. University defended

Event date(s) : 2006.91
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25 November

Event date(s) : 2006.95
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San Juan Copala

Event date(s) : 2007
event : APPO creates autonomous municipality
author : 3 Triqui populations and 20 communities united
location :
detail : http://www.milenio.com/index.php/2007/01/02/28016/
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February 2007

Event date(s) : 2007.16
event : 1
author : 2
location : 3
detail : 4
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Edu. Union/APPO

Teachers' march

Event date(s) : 2006.41
event : Teachers' march
author : Teachers' union
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 29 May 2006
Description : A general march re-uniting the almost 70,000-strong union in the centre of the city from seven distinct start points on the outskirts of the city.

CCL claim harrassment

Event date(s) : 2006.43
event : Harassment claim
author : CCL - Alt. T. Union
location : Oaxaca
detail : Consejo Central de Lucha
Description : Erica Soto, the leader of a breakaway group (CCL) inside the Oaxaca Teachers' Union, claims that that Union are harassing members of her breakaway group, which was formed, under a name famous for fighting for teachers' rights, after rejection by the vast majority of teachers when the individuals concerned attempted to remove the Section 22 leaders from power.

2nd Mega-march

Event date(s) : 2006.48
event : Public mega-march
author : T. Union and sympathisers
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 7 June 2006
Description : A general march re-uniting the almost 70,000-strong union in the centre of the city from seven distinct start points on the outskirts of the city.

E.E.Gordillo rejected

Event date(s) : 2006.49
event : 13 June 2006
author : E.E.Gordillo rejected
location : Oaxaca, Mexico City
detail : PRI - PAN alliance
Description : The Oaxacan teachers' union (Section 22) denied that their leaders had travelled to Mexico City to meet with the national leader of the teachers' union, Elba Esther Gordillo. A career PRI politician, Gordillo was later ousted from her party and drew immediately closer to PAN candidate, and now president, Felipe Calderon. Gordillo firmly dismissed involvement in the Oaxaca teachers' fight and sided with the dissident CCL, a body within the union that resulted from internal fighting and later the creation of a new Oaxacan teachers' union, the Section 59.

500 km March to Mexico City

Event date(s) : 2006.79
event : 14 June Will Never be Forgotten March
author : APPO and Teachers' union
location : City of Oaxaca - Mexico City
detail : 21 September 2006
Description : The walking caravan entitled: For the Dignity of the Peoples of Oaxaca “14 June Will Never Be Forgotten” (Por la dignidad de los pueblos de Oaxaca “14 de junio nunca se olvida”), consisting of APPO and Section 22 Teachers’ Union members, left the City of Oaxaca to install a vigilant sit-in outside the Senate building, 500 km away in national capital Mexico City.

500 km Marching caravan arrives

Event date(s) : 2006.82
event : 500 km Caravan arrives
author : APPO - Teachers' Union
location : Senate House, Mexico City
detail : 9 October 2006
Description : 21 September - 9 October The walking caravan entitled: ‘For the Dignity of the Peoples of Oaxaca “14 June Will Never Be Forgotten”’ (Por la dignidad de los pueblos de Oaxaca “14 de junio nunca se olvida”), consisting of APPO and Section 22 Teachers’ Union members, left the City of Oaxaca to install a vigilant sit-in outside the Senate building, 500 km away in national capital Mexico City.

8th Mega-march

Event date(s) : 2006.97
event : 8th Mega-march
author : APPO
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 10 December 2006
Description : A very low turn-out to this Mega-march, realised on the International Day of Human Rights, in comparison to the others was no surprise to anyone after reports of the brutal and illegal behaviour of police and paramilitary bodies after the Mega-march-turned-battle of 25 November.

Rueda P. denied protection

Event date(s) : 2007.02
event : Rueda Pacheco denied protection
author : Judge vs Teachers' Union leader
location : Oaxaca
detail : 9 Jan. 2007
Description : Leader of the Section 22 Teachers' Union, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, was denied protection against arrest for the crime of violent robbery for leading the taking of the State Congress building during the Conflict. At least 30 APPO members, many of whom participated in the negotiations with the last Government Secretariat under Carlos Abascal Carranza and Vicente Fox, were also named in the same legal file.

12 APPO released

Event date(s) : 2007.08
event : 12 APPO prisoners protected by Fed. Judge
author : Limeddh vs PGJE
location : Oaxaca State
detail : 1 Feb. 2007
Description : 12 APPO prisoners were given protection from State Prosecutors by a Federal Judge after receiving a reversal from the PJE. Arrested on the 2 November 2006, the judge stated that they were depreioved of their freedom in an arbitrary and illegal manner by the PFP without the existence of any legal mandate against them.

Arts community

Adolfo Gilly presentation

Event date(s) : 2006.43
event : Adolfo Gilly book presentation
author : Adolfo Gilly
location : Mexico City
detail : 25 May 2006
Description : In the presentation of his new book, History against the grain: a constellation, historian Adolfo Gilly, stated that someone had written about the Atenco rape allegations and accounts told by the wom,en victims, that human rights had been violated. Gilly went one step further, and so, "No, partner, woman were violated, human beings, not human rights." "No compañero, se violaron mujeres, seres humanos, no derechos humanos."

MUPO vs Ana Santos

Event date(s) : 2006.78
event : Ya Cayo painting censured
author : Ana Santos
location : Museum of Oaxacan Painters
detail : 14 September 2006
Description : A painting depicting a punk Benito Juarez shouting "Ya Cayo" whilst felling a pistol-wielding Ulises Ruiz with a wrestling move, was removed from an exhibtion held at the government-controlled Museum of Oaxacan Painters. Occurring on the day of the inauguration, the artist in responsable, Ana Santos, and Míriam Ladrón de Guevara, both removed their works. The exhibition was then postponed for two weeks, whilst organisers awaited the submission of more works. Attributing the postponement to

Benito Juárez by DFC

Event date(s) : 2006.82
event : Benito Juárez crying (2006)
author : Demián Flores
location : MUPO, 10/2006
detail : http://www.oaxacapolitico.com/v2-articulog.php?id=1161106799
Description : Oaxacan artist Demián Flores exhibits painting of Oaxacan and Mexican political reform hero, Benito Juárez, crying over the state of events in Oaxaca.

Toledo - warning shots fired

Event date(s) : 2006.85
event : Shots fired outside Toledo's home
author : Paramilitary forces.
location : City of Oaxaca
detail : 20 November 2006
Description : At approximately 0130 hours of 20 October, shots were fired outside the home of greatest living Mexican painter, Francisco Toledo. Woken by the shirts, Toledo had participated in a number of ways in creating and implementing a solution to the Oaxacan Conflict. This photograph shows his hand full of 9 mm shell casings found outside his home on that morning.

Paseo dominical

Event date(s) : 2006.93
event : Paseo dominical - photo performance
author : Gabriela Leon, La Perrera
location : Alcala street, Oaxaca
detail : 19 Nov. 2006
Description : Artist Gabriel Leon created a dress from debris and materials to form APPO barricades in the City of Oaxaca. The dress was worn by the artist on the main pedestrian boulevard in Oaxaca and the centere of the city where Federal Police were installed and manning numerous roadblocks. The performance constituted a faux casting for a video to be made by Mexican pop group, Nine Rain. The sexy nature of the outfit created later raised questions as to the attitude, intent and achievement of this piece, in light of the allegations of sexual violence made against the same police forces at the San Salvador Atenco incident, and later in the aftermath of the 25 November march and battle in the City Of Oaxaca.

La Curtiduria Print show

Event date(s) : 2007.07
event : Collective print show
author : 38 artists Toledo, Flores
location : La Curtiduria
detail : 20 Jan.
Description : With the Oaxacan social conflict as the theme, 38 artists participated to create a travelling exhibition of prints. Entitled: ‘Calavera oaxaqueña. Homenaje a José Guadalupe Posada,’ the show also served as a tribute to Mexican printmaker, José Guadalupe Posada (1851 - 1913). Originally planned to open on 2 November 2006, it was delayed due to the incursion of the federal police in to Oaxaca at the end of October.

Federal government

Dr. Simi "Peligro" ad.

Event date(s) : 2006.44
event : Dr. Simi "Peligro" ad.
author : Victor Gonbzalez Torres
location : National press
detail : 30 May 2006
Description : In a direct rip-off of a negative advert used by the PAN to label AMLO a danger to society due to his liberal,left-wing policies, Dr. Simi, released a full-page print advert labelling himself as a danger to corrupt people, liars and those who just 'hand things over' to third parties - a term used to describe over-friendly foreign-investment policies.