Mexico rights chief blames govt for Oaxaca abuses

[cal04]

The Mexican government was an accomplice in the killing of 20 people in last year's conflict in the tourist city of Oaxaca and permitted torture and illegal arrests, a rights watchdog said on Thursday.

In a report on the conflict in which leftist activists tried to bring down Oaxaca's governor, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said federal, state and municipal officials were responsible for human rights violations.

"Authorities and public officials ... either by action or omission caused rights violations," including the right to life of 20 people, Jose Luis Soberanes, head of the autonomous state agency, said on presenting the report to the Senate's rights commission.

(snip)
Soberanes, Mexico's highest rights official, said police used excessive force, threats, illegal arrests and torture to take back the city from protesters, and blamed the government for badly managing the crisis.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N15221365.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. The fascist, illegitimate governor of Oaxaca needs to be removed--prosecuted and

put in jail--and President Calderon needs to be impeached for his role in sending the federales into Oaxaca in support of kidnappings, rapes, tortures, and murders that Gov. Ruiz's rightwing paramilitaries were openly committing. Calderon's response to these outrages was to add more, and to occupy and cs gas the town of Oaxaca, to punish people for their political activism against Ruiz. I am glad for this report--and I hope that it results in prosecution and impeachment of the perpetrators, but you can't "badly manage" kidnappings, rapes, tortures and murders. You either support them, or you don't. If you don't, and you are in charge of the federal government, then you catch and punish the perpetrators, not the victims. And if you punish the victims, then you are doing more than "badly managing the crisis." You are participating in the crimes. And that's what Calderon did.

Gathering evidence, writing a report and telling the truth can be courageous acts, when fascists are in charge of the government, and are freely killing innocent people. The truth can be the beginning of healing and the restoration of good order. But I hope that this report isn't shoved aside, or used to whitewash Calderon's actions as a "mistake" or "mismanagement." His ordering the invasion of Oaxaca by federal troops--on the excuse of "disorder" that was being caused entirely by Ruiz and his paramilitaries--resulted in, a) keeping this criminal Ruiz in power, and b) further government crimes and suppression of an entirely legitimate and peaceful political movement to remove Ruiz.

Actions like those of Ruiz can turn Mexico into Guatemala--where 200,000 Mayan villagers were slaughtered by US-backed dictators in the '80s, with Reagan's direct complicity. That's what rightwing paramilitaries do. If they are not stopped, they escalate. Today 20, tomorrow 200,000. But suppressing the Oaxaca political movement was more important to Calderon than restoring legitimate and lawful government. And behind it all are US global corporate predators, who want free rein over Mexico's oil and other resources, and who operate by enriching a few, and setting them over the poor majority, by means of stolen elections and brutal oppression. Calderon himself is an example of such a ruler. The huge leftist movement in southern Mexico and Mexico City advocates for the Mexican peoples' control of their resources, economy and laws. Oaxaca was used as an example, to try to crush this peaceful democracy movement. I hope that this report is the beginning of the restoration of democracy in Mexico. But when I see Calderon schmoozing with Bush, the way that Guatemalan dictators schmoozed with Reaganites, asking for more billions for the US "war on drugs" (war on peasants and leftists), and when I see Bush appointing John "death squad" Negroponte as Undersecretary of State for Latin America, I fear what their plans are, and I fear that no report--however truthful--can stop them. Southern Mexico (on the border of Guatemala) is a hotbed of rebellion against Corporate Rule. What are Calderon/Bush's plans for repression of the poor in this region?

The only hopeful sign I see, re Calderon, was that--rather amazingly--he felt obliged to lecture Bush on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and mentioned Venezuela in particular, where the Bush Junta supported a violent military coup and massive interference in Venezuelan elections, in order to topple the democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez. Self-determination and independence seems to be a consensus across the political spectrum in Latin America. Even President Uribe in Colombia has refused to participate in Bushite plots against Chavez, and has had to distance himself from the huge scandal in Colombia about paramilitary drug trafficking and political murder (including a plot to assassinate Chavez). And President Lula da Silva in Brazil greeted Bush with a similar "hands off" lecture. In the case of Calderon and Uribe, it may just be lip service. But it's interesting that they feel compelled to defend Latin American sovereignty, at least in public.

The democracy movement in Latin America--leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua (and big leftist movements that "threaten" leftist electoral victories in Peru, Paraguay and Mexico, as well)--has dramatically changed the political and economic climate in Latin America, in favor of social justice, and against US/Global Corporate Predator rule. The Chavez government in Venezuela is a leader of this movement, and its regional cooperation initiatives--for instance, creating a loan fund to extract its neighbors (Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador) from World Bank/IMF debt-- have been enormously beneficial.

This is a grass roots movement. It's not about Chavez, as a personality or individual leader--it's about the citizens and voters in Venezuela and other countries, who are empowering themselves with hard work on transparent elections and grass roots organization, and are thereby electing leaders who represent their interests. And this movement has started, in particular countries, with events just like those Oaxaca--peaceful democracy movements against fascist rule. In Bolivia, for instance, it was a rebellion against Bechtel Corp. and its privatization of the water in one Bolivian city. Bechtel jacked up the prices to the poorest of the poor, even charging poor peasants for collecting rainwater! The Bolivian people rose up and threw Bechtel out of their country--and elected socialist Evo Morales the first indigenous president of Bolivia.

In Oaxaca, it was the teachers' strike. Rather than respond reasonably, and negotiating with the teachers for a pay raise, Ruiz descended on the teachers with military force in the middle of the night (the teachers were camping out), the beginning of the Oaxaca uprising (in June 2006). The community rose up in support of the teachers, and peacefully took over the city of Oaxaca, seat of state government, and created their own government, based on the "customs and uses" provision of the constitution.

This is the movement that Calderon has tried to crush This is the movement that this report is about.

Oaxaca Resiste!

Viva la revolución!