Rural Student Protesters Under Siege in Guerrero, Two Killed by Police

by Kristin Bricker

Plainclothes police opened fire on unarmed students.
Photo: El Universal

Mexico's normales rurales, or rural teaching schools, are publicly funded socialist schools that train poor peasants to be rural teachers.  In a country where many rural students don't have the opportunity to study because there are no schools in their area, or the schools don't have teachers, the rural teaching schools are crucial to rural development. 

The rural teaching schools believe that a populace must be educated in order to demand that their rights be respected and to organize to raise their standard of living.  For this reason, the Mexican government is attempting to shut down all of the normales rurales by slashing their budgets, doing away with the boarding schools (making it nearly impossible for the schools to teach their desired student base, which is rural, marginalized, isolated, poor students), slashing the incoming class sizes, reducing the number of teaching positions guaranteed to graduates, and eventually shutting down the schools entirely. 

The government's position has forced the normalistas to defend their schools.  The student union frequently negotiates contracts with government officials, and like any union, they use protest to strengthen their hand during these negotiations.  They frequently use highway blockades to force a meeting, as was the case in Guerrero yesterday. 

Photo: EFE

The students were unarmed; the police immediately responded to the protest with high-powered assault rifles.

What follows are translated clips from media reports about the confrontation.  The first two articles are regarding the confrontation itself; the third article provides more background on the situation at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teaching School and what led up to the protest; and the fourth is an update on the wounded, detained, and disappeared, as well as continuing police and military operations against the students.

Police Kill Two Students While Clearing a Highway Blockade
*They were students at the Ayotzinapa Rural Teaching School
*The protesters demand a meeting with Gov. Angel Aguirre
*The students report wounded and disappeared persons

by Sergio Ocampo Arista, La Jornada
translated by Kristin Bricker


Chilpancingo, Gro., December 12. Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, students at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teaching School in Ayotzinapa, died after they were hit by shots fired by federal and state police, as well as agents from the state attorney general's office, during a violent [police operation to] clear a group of students from that school who were blocking the Mexico-Acapulco Sun Freeway and a federal highway near the city of Chilpancingo.

At about 11:45am on Monday, about 500 formalists arrived in buses, supported by 26 indigenous people from the Peasant Organization of the Tecoanapa Municipality, and another 20 from the organization Xanii Tsavvi ("Mixtec Dream"), and closed the lanes of the aforementioned highways.

Their main demand is a meeting with Governor Angel Aguirre Rivero, whom they accuse of standing them up four times.  They also ask that classes be reinitiated in the school.  They have been suspended since November 2 because the teachers "are trying to impose" Eugenio Hernández García as school director.  The students say he is a repressor. 

Other demands are an increase in the class size from 140 to 170 students for the 2011-2012 freshman class and that the potential students who have a average of 7 points [on a scale of 1-10] be permitted to take the admission exam.

The blockade had barely begun when at least 300 officers with the federal and state police, with the latter led by Guerrero's undersecretary of Security, General Ramón Arreola Ibarría.  Later, agents from the attorney general's office arrived.

Workers from the Servicio Centro Comercial gas station recounted that just minutes after noon, the federal agents attempted to clear the formalists, who repelled the police by throwing stones, bottle rockets, and molotov cocktails.

At that point, in the gas station, some of the students from Ayotzinapa set fire to a gas pump, and that was when the federal agents shot into the air. [Translator's note: the students deny that they set fire to the gas station, see below.]

Dozens of state police, led by Gen. Arreola, were positioned about 50 meters away, on the bridge over Huacapa River near the Liverpool department store.

Several of the police were dressed in plainclothes.  "Let's go, cabrones!" yelled the undersecretary of Security to incite his officers to confront the formalists.  Several agents fired their guns.

[...]

The students were attacked on two flanks, from the north and the south, from both sides of the Sun Freeway, and from the Huacapa River bridge.

One group of students attempted to take cover in one of the busses, and another attempted to repel the police with bottle rockets and stones, but they didn't succeed.

On the contrary, the gunfire intensified.  The bus windows were shattered and the side panels were pocked with bullet holes.

Astonished and nervous, drivers of cars, busses, and trucks who witnessed the indecent from both lanes, fled to protect themselves from the gunfire.

The driver of a truck with license plate number 249-DC-5 was grazed in the face by a bullet, and an elderly man who took refuge in the truck was detained by police.  His whereabouts remain unknown.

Police also detained Eric Escobar, a reporter with the Chilpancingo weekly Trinchera, whom they beat in the face and body and then later released.

At 12:10pm the gunfire intensified, and that is when student Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús was killed.

Jorge Alexis Herrera was shot down at about the same time.  Their classmates, thinking that they were only injured, tried to get them onto a bus to protect them, but when they realized that they were dead they decided to leave them on the ground.

The gunfire continued for about 20 minutes from both lanes.  The police, guns in hand, chased the students, who threw stones at the agents.

Several students took refuse in the hills located on both sides of the highway and from there they moved to their school.  Others headed towards the town of Petaquillas, located about five kilometers from the highway blockade.

Some fled towards the municipality of Tierra Colorada, located about 45 kilometers away.  According to the students, two of their classmates were injured.

On the ground there remained stones, pipes, molotov cocktails, and dozens of bullet shells from weapons of the calibers that police use.

The shooting ended at about 12:35pm.  Minutes later, three military vehicles arrived.  They stayed for about a half an hour and then headed for the town of Petaquillas.

[…]

At 2:35pm the highway was reopened in both directions.  The persecution of the students didn't cease.  The police searched the hills for formalists until after 4pm.

Herrera Pino was from Atoyac de Alvarez, Guerrero, and Echeverría de Jesús was from Tixtla, Guerrero.  Near their bodies were 7.62 caliber shells for a G-3 rifle.

[…]


We Were Completely Unarmed, Say the Normalistas
El Universal
translated by Kristin Bricker

El Universal's images from the confrontation: http://www.eluniversaltv.com.mx/detalle.php?d=27281

Rural teaching students who participated in the confrontation yesterday with police in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, say that they were unarmed and that they didn't even have bottle rockets.  They blame the state agents for having initiated the aggression with gunfire, which led to the dead of two students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teaching School in Ayotzinapa.

The students, represented by student Jersey Peñaloza, said that they were never at the level of the police because of the weapons the police carried.  They said their intention was only to protest and to demand a meeting with Gov. Angel Aguirre Rivero.

He added that according to a preliminary list from the State Attorney General's Office, nine people were detained following the confrontation, although Peñaloza says that at least another 15 students are disappeared, and it is not known if they were detained.

"We demand that this crime that has been committed against our classmates does not remain in impunity, and that those responsible be punished.  They know who acted, there are videos that show that it was them (the police) who initiated the aggression, the unarmed students sought refuge," he pointed out.

Peñaloza stated that the agents kept shooting at them, and that the students only defended themselves with sticks and stones.

Regarding the fire in the gas station, the students said that it was the police who retreated to the gas station and set it on fire, and then later blamed the students.

[…]

"We Now Have the Green Light," Said Police Before Shooting
by Rogelio Velázquez, Contralinea
translated by Kristin Bricker

December 13, 2011

Students from the rural teaching school in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, demanded negotiations with the governor and recognition of their demands.  The blocked the Sun Freeway as a form of pressure.  The police operation's toll: two students murdered, at least five injured with gunshots, and 18 detained. "It was the Federal Police who shot at us; many of us fled for the hills and even there they pursued us with helicopters," they said in an interview.

This past December 12 at about 11am, students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teaching School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, began to block traffic on the Sun Freeway, which connects Mexico City to Acapulco.  Their demands were clear: a meeting with the state government and compliance with a verbal agreement made my Governor Angel Heladio Aguirre Rivero to increase the incoming class size from 140 to 170 students and to grant 30 teaching positions to the school's graduates.

The operation was led by Federal Police, who were accompanied by Ministerial Police [from the Attorney General's office], and state police.

"There were about 400 of us--students and people from social organizations.  We blocked the freeway because the governor only says 'yes,' but he won't sign our demands.  It has to be signed before the year ends," one of the students who participated in the protest told Contralinea.  He is in hiding in Chilpancingo.

"Special Forces from the Federal Police arrived to clear our blockade.  We were dialoguing with them.  Then one of the police made a phone call--we don't know to whom--and when he hung up, they said that they had the green light to do whatever they wanted."

"That was when the Federal Police began to shoot tear gas at us.  Some of us ran.  Immediately afterwards they began to shoot us point-blank.  They didn't care that there were children and women with us.  The shooting continued, and all of us ran in different directions."

The bodies of two students, Jorge Alexis Herrera Pino, 22, and Gabriel Echeverría de Jesús, 21, were hit by bullets and fell to the highway.  The young men were students at the rural teaching school.

"Afterwards, they chased is in vehicles and on foot while they shot at us.  Some of us who hid in the hills were chased by helicopters.  We can't communicate with our classmates because the cell phones aren't working," he commented, alleging that the lines were cut.  "They're still looking for us."

Bertoldo Martínez, president of the Coalition of Democratic Organizations of the State of Guerrero explains that the protest also included the demand that missing environmentalists Eva Alarcón and Marcial Bautista, both disappeared since December 6 as they were headed from Chilpancingo to Mexico City, be presented alive. [Translator's note: Alarcón and Bautista were members of poet Javier Sicilia's anti-drug war Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD), and were kidnapped on their way to MPJD meetings.]

The human rights defender says that the Guerrero government is responsible for what is happening: "What is happening in the state is grave and shameful.  These sorts of situations don't get solved.  For example, the supposed suicide of Joel Santana Villa was a murder perpetrated by the State," he commented, referring to the death of an environmentalist who was imprisoned in the Iguala prison since last June.  His death occurred this past December 2 inside the prison.

Students from the Federation of Peasant Socialist Students of Mexico (FECSM) commented in a press conference--which took place in the offices of Local 9 of the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE)--that they still don't know the whereabouts of the detained (about 24) and they blame Gov. Angel Aguirre, Federal Police, State Police, and the Mexican military for the murder of the formalists.

"The attack occurred during a state of calm.  This was a normal protest, just like the ones we always do.  Now, after this, there's going to be movement," which means that they will take more forceful actions and that there will be more mobilizations.  "A few months ago the governor came to the school to talk with us, but he didn't want to sign anything.  His predecessor, ex-governor Zeferino Torreblanca, starved us, and this governor kills us."

Moreover, they stated that the rural teaching school is besieged by the Mexican military: approximately 14 military vehicles surround the school.  About twenty of their classmates are inside.  They fear that the school will be taking over by the armed forces in the next few hours.

They also note that the Secretary of Education in Guerrero has not responded to their demands.  They directly blame [President] Felipe Calderón for the strategy of war that is being carried out and for neoliberal policies that have deteriorated education in the country.

In a communiqué, the Interior Ministry said that it is working in coordination with Guerrero authorities to investigate the incident and to hold responsible those who were responsible for the homicides.  Meanwhile, the Federal Attorney General's Office opened criminal investigation PGR/GRO/CHI/CASO/387/2011 for any federal crimes that resulted from the incident.

José Ramón Salinas, spokesman for the Federal Police, stated that the Federal Police had not participated in the operation; however, Ramón Arreola Ibarra, undersecretary of Police Control for the state of Guerrero, contradicted him and commented that the Federal Police broke up the protest.

The government of Guerrero made a statement on its web site.  It explained that the governor had met with the students on various occasions and that the majority of their demands had been resolved.  Those that had not been resolved, "is because [the government] didn't have the ability to resolve them immediately."  Likewise, the statement reiterated the government's willingness to resolve the problems and demands from diverse sectors of society, respecting free expression of ideas and protest.

In response, the students stated: "We don't believe them.  How is it possible that they want a dialogue while they are preparing to close down the school by force? They want to close it because inside we practice self-government."

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), initiated a formal complaint with case number CGCP/309/11 regarding the aggression against the students.  In a communiqué it mentioned that it would provide accompaniment, legal support, psychological support, and medical attention if it is required to the victims' families.  Moreover, it declared the incident to be "lamentable and deplorable, and it should not, under any circumstance, remain in impunity."

Normalista Injured in Yesterday's Police Operation is in Grave Condition; 24 Detainees Are Freed
by Sergio Ocampo and Hértor Briseño, La Jornada
translated by Kristin Bricker

Several of the detainees say they were tortured in police custody

Chilpancingo, Gro. The Student Society of the Ayotzinapa Rural Teaching School stated that student José David Espíritu, who was injured yesterday as police cleared a highway blockade in the capital city carried out by students, has been operated on and his condition is listed as grave.

Iván Alberto Alvarez Adame and Rubén Eduviges Cuautololo were also injured during the operation.  Today the State Attorney General's Office released 24 students who had been detained.

Of those, 11 are from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teaching School, five are from the Autonomous University of Guerrero's Economics Department, four are from Chilpancingo Tech, and four are peasants from the Coyuca de Benítez municipality in the Costa Grande region of Guerrero.

Manuel Olivares of the Guerrero Human Rights Network, denounced that student Gerardo Torres Pérez, whom the state attorney general's office is accusing of having shot an AK-47, told non-governmental organizations that visited him that he was brutally tortured into stating that he fired a weapon.

The normalista said that the police took him to an area near the municipality of Zumpango de Neri, located about 10 kilometers from the capital, where they took him out of the vehicle in a parcel of land and made him fire the weapon four times.

Olivares also said that the whereabouts of 13 people who came to support the students are unknown.  The missing are from the municipalities of Ayutla de los Libres and Tecoanapa.

At 1pm there will be a protest march in the capital.  The central demand is the ouster of the Chilpancingo government and the removal of governor Angel Aguirre's cabinet.

People Are Still Being Detained

Jersey Peñaloza, representing the normalistas, that hours after "the massacre" teachers and people uninvolved with the protest were still being detained.  Some escaped and have taken cover in the hills.

[…]

Another student said that some of the detained have said that they were tortured.

[…]

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Federal Police Detain Juarez Journalist at Checkpoint

by Kristin Bricker


At approximately 1am local time on Sunday, June 12, Federal Police detained journalist Antonio Flores from the Juarez newspaper El Norte Digital.  Police in patrol car number 10889 detained Flores at the Gomez Morin checkpoint near his office.  They released him after about thirty minutes.  However, they confiscated his press credentials and noted his address.  Flores says he fears for his own safety and the safety of his family because now the Federal Police know where he lives.

As a result of the detention, Flores will have to flee his home temporarily because there are police trucks outside of his house.

At the time of his detention, Flores was returning home after covering the Caravan for Peace led by poet Javier Sicilia. Flores followed the Caravan from Cuernavaca to Ciudad Juarez.  The article he filed for his newspaper just before he was detained is an exclusive interview with Javier Sicilia.  Since he was returning to his home after traveling with the Caravan for Peace, the police found his Caravan press credentials when they searched his vehicle.

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Peace Caravan Encounters Massacres, Military Abuses and Disappearances in Torreón

by Kristin Bricker, Americas Program

Gunmen armed with AR-15 and AK-47 assault rifles massacred thirteen people in a Torreón drug rehabilitation center on Wednesday. The massacre occurred less than twenty-four hours before poet Javier Sicilia and his Citizens Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity were scheduled to arrive in Torreón for a rally against the drug war. The rehabilitation center is located just three blocks from the rally site.

Despite suspicions amongst some caravan participants that the massacre was an attempt to scare them away from Torreón, Sicilia refused to cancel the event in that city. “The march absolutely will not be postponed,” Sicilia told a press conference in Monterrey just before the caravan left for Torreón.

When the caravan arrived in Torreón, puddles of dried blood still filled the bullet-ridden rehabilitation center and ran out the door onto the sidewalk.

Sicilia had no choice but to hold the event as planned in Torreón. In a city ravaged by massacres, military abuses, journalist assassinations, and disappearances, residents risked their lives by simply organizing the anti-war rally.

According to participants, the massacre did have an impact on turnout though. “We live in constant fear,” said one protester. “There were people who wanted to be here today, but yesterday’s attack made them want to stay shut inside their homes.”

Olga Reyes Salazar, who has suffered the murder of six family members over the past two-and-a-half years in Ciudad Juarez, told Torreón residents that they can’t let fear overcome them. “We’re all afraid,” she told the crowd. “But if they keep intimidating us, we’re all just going to lock ourselves in our homes, and they’ll go there to kill us. So let’s leave our homes now and raise our voices against this government that is cruelly killing us.”

The Disappeared, Presente

One of the main organizers of the event was the United Effort for Our Disappeared in Coahuila (FUUNDEC), an organization of disappeared persons’ families that is based out of the Juan Gerardi Human Rights Center located in that state. In a scene reminiscent of Mexico’s Dirty War, mothers of the disappeared carried banners with their children’s photographs.

But the forced disappearance of their loved ones took place far more recently.

Of the more than 180 disappearances that FUUNDEC has documented in Coahuila, all but a handful occurred after President Felipe Calderón deployed the military to combat organized crime in December 2006.

The most terrifying aspect of the disappearances is that no one knows why they are occurring. Some of FUUNDEC’s cases are disappearances committed by the military or the police, but many persons have disappeared without a trace or were abducted by unidentified gunmen.

Some FUUNDEC families received phone calls demanding ransom after they went public about their relatives’ disappearance, but they don’t know if the call came from the real kidnappers or someone looking to profit from the families’ hardship. “We reported the extortion to the authorities, but they didn’t do anything,” complaints Ramona Ortiz Reyes, whose son and grandson disappeared in Torreón on May 12, 2008. “We gave them their names. These were the people who said they had them, and the authorities did nothing.”

Concepción Hernández says that when her son disappeared two years ago, the State Attorney General’s Office said that they would investigate the disappearance, but only if Hernández was willing to finance the investigation with her own money.

According to the Fray Juan de Larios Human Rights Center, which collaborates with FUUNDEC, Coahuila’s disappeared fit the profile of Mexico’s typical drug war victim: the majority are males between the ages of 17 and 40 years old. Nonetheless, the disappearances FUUNDEC has documented do not match the drug war victim stereotype that the government promotes. Whereas the Calderón administration has argued that most drug war victims were in some way associated with organized crime, the Fray Juan de Larios Human Rights Center notes, “The common profile that characterizes all of the disappeared persons is that they are everyday citizens and workers. There is no data that identifies them has having an activity or interest in common, and there is certainly no data that indicates that they were involved in illegal activities.”

FUUNDEC’s task is daunting. According to Ortiz Reyes, FUUNDEC has yet to find a disappeared person alive. “They’ve found a lot of dead people, but none of ours,” she says. “The problem is that they’re looking for dead people, not live ones.”

FUUNDEC doesn’t just looked for the disappeared; it works to transform the Mexican justice system so that disappearances stop occurring. “We don’t want the authorities to spend their time to looking for clandestine graves instead of looking for our family members,” says FUUNDEC member Rosalina Zapata Contreras. “[The disappearances] are not isolated incidents, so the strategy must be a coordinated response from all levels of government whose only objective must be to find our loved ones alive.”

Military Abuses

As the rally in Torreón began, a group of about twenty people—most of them masked teenagers—arrived at the event. They took their place among the crowd with a banner that listed the names of their friends and neighbors who were killed by soldiers and police. When press photographers and cameramen attempted to film them, they shooed them away because they were afraid of retaliation. They agreed to an interview with the Americas Program on the condition of anonymity, and only then because we assured them that we weren’t from a local media outlet.

The group is from poor neighborhoods located in the outlying areas of Torreón. The military and Federal Police are permanently deployed in the area at the governor’s request. They were supposed to bring security to Torreón, but instead, members of the group say they terrorize the city’s poorest residents.

One woman explained why the teenagers came to the rally despite the fact that they were afraid to show their faces. “There’s a lot of 13- and 14-year-old teens here because they don’t want to live a life full of violence like they are now with the soldiers and the Federal Police.”

“The soldiers steal from houses, they’ve killed people, they beat and abduct taxi drivers,” she explains. “They killed a 14-year-old boy from the southeast side. They grabbed him and they shot him in the right temple.” The military eventually admitted that they killed the boy, she says, “but they say it was because he ran.”

“They run because they’re scared!” interrupts a second woman.

“We see them [the soldiers and police] grab boys and girls, and where are they?” asks the first woman. “We saw them! But then they don’t show up, or they show up in a ditch somewhere, and then they blame other people who didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“They’re the problem there,” she continues. “They entered my brother-in-law’s home. They stole money from him and they made a mess of his home. They saw my niece naked in the bathroom because the soldier opened the door when she was showering. And they put a bag over my brother-in-law’s head. It was the soldiers!”

The second woman, a mother of two, recounts how soldiers raided her home: “They told me they wanted to come inside, and I asked them why. And they said they just wanted to search. And I said, ‘Search for what?’ and they said, ‘We want to check if you have drugs.’ And I said, ‘Why would I have drugs?’ They forced their way in. They stole $1,500 pesos ($125 dollars), a cell phone, a DVD player, and a television, and they broke all of my furniture.”

“And my daughter here, they stopped her on the street and they frisked her. But they didn’t frisk her, they felt her up! They raped a poor girl, too. She doesn’t even live here anymore, she left. But it was the soldiers who did it, because they detained her.”

The second woman calls over a teenage girl. “This is my daughter. She was followed by soldiers. She’s fourteen, and the soldiers tried to put her and my niece in their vehicle. They came home so scared. They also beat my son. He was a student, but now he doesn’t go to school because of the soldiers. He tells me, ‘I’m not going anymore, Mom, the soldiers are out there.’”

“They yell ‘Hey, faggots, what are you doing,’ and then they search you,” says a teenage boy who covered his face with a shirt. “They steal your cell phone, they steal your jewelry, they rip out your earrings, they cut your hair.”

“They even steal their sneakers!” a woman interjects.

“Soldiers beat my cousin, and look at what they did to him,” says another woman, pointing at a fourteen-year-old boy’s colostomy bag. “He was standing on a corner and they picked him up and put him in a truck and they tried to kill him.”

“I was just standing on the corner and they beat me and stabbed me,” explains the young man. “They perforated my large intestine.”

“All of the violence that we’re experiencing, they say it’s ‘insecurity,’” says a thirty-something woman. “But it’s them, the soldiers and the police, that are doing all these things. Instead of coming to help us, they just come to hurt us. Why would we want them here?”

Kristin Bricker is a freelance reporter and a contributor to the CIP Americas Program www.cipamericas.org . F. Santiago Navarro contributed to this report.

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Spain's Kaosenlared.net Under Attack

by Kristin Bricker

[Scroll down for English text of sign-on letter.]

Barcelona City Council member Assumpta Escarp has publicly threatened to begin legal action to close Spanish websites that she believes are "justifying violence," a crime under Spanish law. One of the sites she specifically mentions is Kaos en la Red, a website where I publish my articles in Spanish.

Escarp's statements come in the midst of a Spanish media campaign against Kaos en la Red. One recent television "news" report links Kaos en la Red to riots and "urban guerrilla warfare." The news report argued that Kaos en la Red and other websites help Europe's "anarchist triangle" (Spain, Italy, and Greece) coordinate and organize protests.

Kaos en la Red (kaosenlared.net) is an open-publishing independent media website that is managed by an editorial collective. Articles are filtered through three layers (main page, region/topic page, and open publishing newswire) based on popularity and content. Kaos en la Red argues that, like YouTube, it is an intermediary that allows users to publish content to the web. A Spanish court recently ruled that as an intermediary, YouTube is not legally required to vet and censor material before it is published. Both YouTube and Kaos en la Red remove content that users flag as potentially illegal.

Kaos en la Red is a vital source of information for Spanish speakers all over the world. Users publish news from Spain in both castellano (commonly known outside of Spain as "Spanish") and Catalan (another Spanish language). Kaos en la Red also carries news from the Basque Country in both Spanish languages and Euskara, the language spoken in Basque Country. Kaos en la Red is an important tool for Basques and Basque supporters to denounce the Spanish government's persistent human rights violations and use of torture in Basque Country, one of the many reasons the website is a particularly uncomfortable media outlet for the Spanish government.

Readers all over Latin America, particularly those in México, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Venezuela, turn to Kaos en la Red as one of their primary sources of news and analysis about issues that affect them and their fellow anti-capitalists. That is why I publish my Spanish articles in Kaos: when I ask Mexican activists where they get their news, they always mention Kaos en la Red.

Kaos en la Red is not a threat to the Spanish State because it is an "apologist for violence." Kaos en la Red is a threat because it is an important source of information for anti-capitalists all over the world. And it is precisely for this reason that we must defend it.

I, along with hundreds of other journalists, academics, workers, activists, and organizations, signed the letter below in support of Kaos en la Red, and I urge you to do the same. The letter will be presented at a press conference in Barcelona on October 14.


We are all kaosenlared! No to the criminalization of freedom of expression and opinion

Faced with the constant criminalization of communications media and alternative social movements, and following the Barcelona City Council's petition requesting that the public prosecutor's office evaluate the possibility of opening up a criminal investigation against Kaosenlared.net and other alternative media with the goal of investigating said websites' alleged justifications for violence, we the undersigned wish to express the following:

1. Kaosenlared.net has always maintained a strict posture without inciting any violence in its reporting of information, which has turned it into a communications media that is vital for the dissemination of information published by different authors through its Open Publishing system, as well as by members of its team of collaborators (well-known people from a range of leftist schools of thought from all over the world). This makes Kaosenlared.net an alternative, plural, free, and truthful communications media that never, under any circumstances, protects or promotes any form of violence.

2. In the era of information, Internet, informative globalization, and the proliferation of the so-called fourth generation war--the media war--, the dominant classes are once again trying to criminalize the popular classes' alternative information.

3. We believe that this action is part of a bigger campaign whose ultimate goal is to criminalize social movements--the social movements to whom alternative media gives a voice and a space which is denied to them by the norms of the communications media that are controlled by the lords of the world: capital and the bourgeoisie.

4. The silencing of alternative opinions and of the people who struggle for a better world is evident; one only needs to analyze how those media outlets report any alternative position. Or even how social movements' communiques aren't even published in those media outlets.

5. The communications media that are at the service of the popular and working classes demand peace. Peace which is indivisibly linked to social justice. The people's objectives have absolutely nothing to do with the monstrous pantomimes that we live every day, sustained over a socio-economic structure of submission and modern-day slavery.

6. The leftist anti-capitalist struggle, submerged in labor and social precarity and police and judicial harrassment, needs means of communication against hegemonic power. It is a fundamental part of our right to freedom of expression and organization. A democratic and human right which no civilized person can deny.

7. If Kaosenlared.net and other alternative media were closed, this would violate all Spanish and international law regarding freedom of expression. This legislation holds the articles' authors responsible for imputable acts, not the media that serves as a simple transmission mechanism. There is absolutely no basis for judicial action against the alternative media. "Justifying violence" is only a crime under Spanish Penal Code if it is done for racist, anti-semitic, or ideological reasons (Article 510 of the Penal Code). Kaosenlared.net is exemplary in the defense of minority rights and respect for all democratic ideologies.

8. We express our solidarity and support for Kaosenlared.net and the rest of the alternative media that have been singled out over the past few days, as well as our profound unease over this new attack on freedom of expression.

9. We, the people who work in, write in, and read kaosenlared are against the criminalization of alternative communications media and social movements.

10. Our struggle lies in the battle of ideas and for professional and alternative information. We know no weapon other than the word, reasoned arguments, and critical thinking. We are peaceful people.

-----------

To sign on to this manifesto in support of Kaosenlared and freedom of expression and opinion, send your name, country, and profession to manifiestokaos@gmail.com.


We gratefully request that all of the compañeros and compañeras, readers, and users of Kaosenlared disseminate this manifesto.

Signed:

[To see the full and updated list of signers, please see the Spanish version of the manifesto in Kaosenlared]

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Letter from the family of Bety Cariño, murdered by paramilitaries in Oaxaca aid caravan

To our friends and brothers and sisters

To those who share the pain and anguish 

To the public opinion, saddened and full of rage

The the indigenous peoples of Mexico and the world

To those whose solidarity envelops us with their deepest condolences

To all of you who, with you warmth, solidarity, presence, denouncements, you tell us and dictate the path that we have to and need to follow.  To those whose hearts have suffered the pain of having a loved one taken from you, we want to tell you that the words don't exist to be able to express to you the rage that we feel, the impotence, the anguish, and the desperation of not being able to be with the person who was the compañera, the mother of two children, the leader, the friend, the sister, THE LOVE OF OUR LIFE when hate, brutality, and anger took her life because of the struggle that we undertook for fourteen years.  To all of you and in the name of my children, thank you.

Once again, just like in 2006, [Governor] Ulises Ruiz Ortiz's terrorist, murderous, repressive State seeks to demonstrate its strength, impose its policies, and demonstrate its hatred of that which doesn't agree with it, that which can't be subordinated, that which doesn't give in, and that which is incorruptible, because it is born from below and full of life, because it is built with the brotherhood of those of us who have decided to work towards the construction of a different world, a more human world, where the Earth and the dreams we sow flower every day.  Bety, or Beto as her father called her, or, as she was really called, Alberta Cariño Trujillo, has not died!  Her word grows and gives voice to those who did not have one, and in being a sister to the women of Copala, of the Mixteca, and of the world, in being a woman, your determination as a sister in this autonomist struggle resists against the hatred, anger, and distain of the UBISORT paramilitaries who are lead by Rufino Juarez and Antonio Cruz.

Now it is more difficult to destroy you.  You are alive and burning in the hears of dignified men and women.  You represent the voice of a new path that is called hope for true peace for the Triqui people, for the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.  Those who deny you and judge your path are accomplices of the footmen and mercenaries who do politics giving and taking in exchange for the pain of the Triqui people, negotiating little benefits to submit and exploit the people's condition of poverty.  Those of you who think you are the lords of the revolutionary vanguards, I hope you will save your rhetoric and your empty words.  Even though they say that it was a "tactical error," a questionable and erroneous provocation," isn't it true that when human life is in danger, it is dignified to run the same risks that you did?  TO DEFEND LIFE WITH YOUR OWN LIFE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE HISTORY THAT WE LIVED TOGETHER...

To all of you who keep striving for justice, we want to express our heartfelt thanks.  It is obvious to us who is responsible, he has a name and a face; it is obvious who are his agents.  Our enemies are named Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Evencio Martinez, and the UBISORT paramilitaries.  Where is the government that strives for change?  Where is the respect for life?  For this reason I call upon Section 22 of the teachers union and social and democratic organizations who struggle and resist, that their role be decisive.  I also call upon the Oaxacan community to use all possible means to seize power from the political class and this murderous government.

Brech, like I always told you!  I will not abandon my commitment to do something for someone every day of my life, as we always discussed, and for that which you committed yourself with everything you had.  We will never forget!  God give us the opportunity to help those in need, and that he accompany our two children, Omar and Ita, who are now children of the movement that demands justice.  The brotherhood that we feel is immense.  Your children will surely be disciples of your struggle and commitment to fight injustice and give your life for others because it is necessary and urgent to keep moving forward.  To be taken aback by the pain, the misery, and the injustices that are committed every day and to take a stand for the poorest is a human obligation.  In the name of everyone, we tell you that we love you, that we will always love you, and you will always be in our hearts and minds.  In these days when at times the feet tremble and the soul feels weak, your example lifts us up to say Enough!

Enough silence, with heads lowered, watching as everything plays out.  But there remains the hate, the rage, the fury of not being able to change the false destiny that the corrupt politicians, the police forces, the military and parapolice and paramilitaries, the lords of money, and the putrid political class have forced us to live.  And they make themselves heard through the dialogue of weapons.  The people can change their destiny and construct other paths to autonomy and self-determination, as we have always dreamt and shared in the networks, with the Other Campaign, the Southeast Mexican Radio Network, AMAP, REMA, RMALC, in the indigenous movement, with national and international organizations, with the people wherever we find ourselves, and with our brothers and sisters in the struggle who resist and seek the world for which you decided to give your life.  You took a part of us with you, and we remain here, shaken, outraged, and saddened.

Because you are the flower, and your seed is the fruit of the dignified path we must follow.  We won't forget you.  Omar, Ita, and I say to you, "Until the victory."

Prison for Ulises Ruiz, Evencio Martinez, Rufino Juarez, Anastasio Juarez, Antonio Cruz, and the authorities in La Sabana!

Death to Ulises' bad repressive murderous government!

We must break the siege in San Juan Copala!

Bety will never be silenced, not in death, nor with machine guns!

Land, Freedom, or Death!

With all our love,

Omarcito, Itandewi, and Omar Esparza

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UPDATE: All Disappeared in San Juan Copala are Free

UPDATE: The two missing journalists were rescued late last night.  Scott Campbell has details.

by Kristin Bricker

Contralinea reports that David Venegas and Noe Bautista from VOCAL have made it to safety in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca.  They say they were with missing Contralinea reporters Erika Ramirez and David Cilia.

Venegas and Bautista have a video of Ramirez and Cilia that proves the journalists are alive.  Ramirez is unhurt but dehydrated.  Cilia was shot in his left foot and another bullet grazed his waist, but Venegas and Bautista say that neither are in danger of dying as long as they are rescued soon.

Venegas, Bautista, Ramirez, and Cilia had been missing since the April 27 paramilitary attack on an aid caravan that was headed for the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca.

Cilia's father David is en route to the conflict zone.  He has stated that he will search for his missing son, regardless of the risk it entails.

Likewise, today at approximately 1pm two Triqui women from San Juan Copala whom paramilitaries had kidnapped just prior to the attack on the caravan were released.

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Oaxaca Ambush Survivor: Paramilitaries Said They Had Governor's Support

by Kristin Bricker

In a press conference organized by Section 22 of the teachers union in Oaxaca, APPO counselor Gabriela Jimenez recounted her experience in the international aid caravan that was attacked by gunmen yesterday.  She says that the gunmen identified themselves as members of UBISORT, an organization affiliated with the ruling Institutional Revolution Party (PRI).  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees identifies UBISORT as a paramilitary organization.

Jimenez, who was briefly detained by gunmen following the attack, told the press, "They told us that they were the ones that controlled the area."

Jimenez recounts that a reporter from the caravan offered to interview the armed, masked men that were holding them hostage.  "And they [the gunmen] responded that they would have to interview their leaders, Heriberto Pasos and Rufino Juarez Hernandez."  Juarez Hernandez is the leader of UBISORT.  Pasos is the leader of the Movement for Triqui Unity and Struggle (MULT), an organization that has also allied itself against the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala.

"They told us that they were going to take back Copala.  They said they were going to drive people from their homes.  They said, 'Wherever you walk, this is all UBISORT territory.  In front of you is MULT [territory].  Behind you is UBISORT.  On this side is UBISORT."

Jimenez claims that the gunmen told her that they had the support of Oaxacan governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.  "They said it just like that."

Jimenez says that the gunman took the caravan members' identifications and noted their names on a piece of paper.  She said, "They were going to be watching us, because the MULT and UBISORT's power extends to Oaxaca City."

The paramilitaries also sent a death threat to Oaxacan community organization Omar Esparza through Jimenez: "Tell him that he's next.  We're going to find him, wherever he is, and we will kill him."  Esparza is the husband of Alberta "Bety" Cariño, whom the paramilitaries shot in the head yesterday during the ambush.

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My friend Bety Cariño was killed by Mexican Paramilitaries in Oaxaca

by Keegan Smith


A good friend of mine Bety Cariño (39?) who I lived and worked with in Mexico was killed in southern Mexico by paramilitaries. The paramilitaries acted with the support of the State and National government to eliminate opposition to their plans and their way of thinking. Bety was one of the most charismatic and caring people I have come across in my 27 years. She has 2 young childen and hundreds of friends who have been touched by her passion and courage. She was the leader of the organisation CATCUS  which supported local indigenous communities and in securing projects for small business and agriculture initiatives. Together with the organisation she informed about womens and childrens rights to basic services. She also informed about the dangers of transgenic crops and pesticides and the damage caused by massive mining and damming projects which are proposed for Oaxaca.

Bety participated in various movements and forums in Mexico and Central America and travelled to Europe to increase awareness about the situation in Mexico and particularly the situation Oaxaca. Bety went to every length to make people feel welcome and had amazing power in her spirit to overcome personal loss and illness for the sake of her beliefs. This infectious passion will outlive her many lifetimes over.

This is one of many horrible crimes committed everyday in order to maintain the flow of capital, and the power it holds, in the hands of the few. While I am no longer inclined say eye for an eye and I don't want vengance for the pain this act has caused. The world needs very profound changes. This is not a call to arms but to reflect and change our minds. Our physical world is a reflection of our thoughts.

Our way of life mandates these conflicts. Those who refuse expansion and destruction and call for the right to a dignified life are being exterminated for suggesting change, for creating change or simply not bowing to the demands of capital (the rich). More money more power, get in the way you'll be defamed, mocked and if that doesn't work you'll be killed. I have lived this reality first hand and through history books.

Fortunately ideals and ideas will never be exterminated by the bullet. Bety's death only reinforces that we have no option but to try to live by our ideals. The opposite is self-extermination and condemnation to our own enslavery within this system.

Those who are concentrating power understand that the majority cannot continue to be allowed to consume in the way we are today. Their plan is an economic collapse which will leave the majority dying or on the edge of survival, vulnerable and controlled by police states. Under privitised systems those who can't pay die. Most of the world is now living this reality. Misinformation and the distraction of pop culture are the principle weapons of control. For those who get through the gap like Malcomn X, Che Guevara, Martn Luther King, Ghandi and my dear friend Bety a more sinister fate awaits.

The only option for the majority to escape this fate is to take power and look for a new economic, social and spiritual model which can avoid this genocide. Putting our heads under our pillows is no sollution.

Don't take my word for it. Think it through.. who holds power today? Why are most people not interested in politics, history or economy? What are the plans of those who have money (power)? What about the people who have very little money who are interested in the fate of the world.. why are they invariably anti-capitalist? Why do they buy less stuff? Why do they talk about spirit and love? Why don't they watch so much TV.

A good friend of mine is dead because she believed in a better world. Her two young kids and the thousands of people she influenced now have the responsibility of continuing her struggle. 

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Oaxaca: Paramilitaries Ambush International Aid Caravan, Two Dead

by Kristin Bricker

San Juan Copala, Oaxaca - On Tuesday afternoon at about 2:50pm, people believed to be paramilitaries affiliated with the ruling party of Oaxaca ambushed an international aid caravan en route to San Juan Copala. At least two people are reported dead.

The caravan was carrying food, water, and other basic necessities to San Juan Copala, which has been subject to a paramilitary blockade that has prevented anyone from entering or leaving the community since January. In addition to carrying much-needed supplies, the caravan was meant to accompany teachers who were returning to classes after paramilitaries denied them access to the community nearly five months ago. The caravan included representatives from the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), Section 22 of the teachers union, the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS), Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty (VOCAL), two reporters from the Mexican magazine Contralinea, and international observers from Belgium, Finland, Italy, and Germany.

San Juan Copala has been under constant siege from pro-government paramilitaries since it declared itself autonomous following the 2006 peaceful uprising that shook the state and nearly drove the governor out of office. One such paramilitary organization, the Union for the Well-being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT), warned that the caravan could be in danger if it attempted to enter San Juan Copala. UBISORT leader Rufino Juárez Hernández told press that shoot-outs were a constant occurrence in the region, and that his organization would not be held responsible for “what could happen” to the caravan.

Reports from survivors indicate that at approximately 2:50 pm just outside the community of La Sabana, which is controlled by UBISORT, the caravan reached a blockade of rocks piled on the road. As the vehicles began to turn around to head back, they came under fire from gunmen who were hiding in the brush. “They started shooting like madmen,” says one survivor.

Monica Citlali Santiago Ortiz, 22, was shot in the back. She is being treated in a hospital in Juxtlahuaca. The total number of wounded and dead is unknown. Paramilitaries continue to blockade the area, making rescue impossible.

The paramilitaries did allow police to remove two bodies from the area this afternoon. They have been identified as Alberta “Bety” Cariño, the director of CACTUS, and Juri Jaakkola, an observer from Finland.

Survivors who fled into the brush when the caravan came under attack are beginning to surface as they make their way out of the area and into larger towns. Nonetheless, an unconfirmed number of people are still missing. VOCAL reports that two of its members remain missing after they fled into the brush. CACTUS reports another four missing, including the two Contralinea reporters and Martin Sautan, a Belgian citizen.

Paramilitaries briefly detained VOCAL member, Ruben Valencia. He reports that the gunmen took his identification and cell phone and threatened to kill him before releasing him along the side of a road.

The Oaxacan government has denied all responsibility for the attack, claiming that it had no knowledge of the caravan.

Eduardo Almeida from the human rights organization Nodo de Derechos Humanos said, “We fear that the government will use this as a pretext to militarize the region.”

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Oaxacan Community Organizer Attacked by Soldiers

by Kristin Bricker

A few days ago two soldiers entered the home of Omar Esparza, a prominent organizer from Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, and leader of the Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement (MAIZ).  They appear to have stolen a computer.

When Esparza came home and found them inside, the two soldiers beat him, threatened his neighbors and fellow community organizer Alberta Cariño with guns, and then retreated to their military base.  It is unknown if the soldiers have been sanctioned.

One of the more disturbing aspects of this story is that it appears as though Esparza's nanny let the soldiers in the house and was fraternizing with them, although that hasn't been confirmed.

It is worth pointing out that just a few weeks prior to this incident with the soldiers, local police arrested Esparza for allegedly double-parking his car, an offense he claims he did not commit.  Five patrol cars and about thirty-five police officers carried out that arrest.  Members of MAIZ and the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS)--both members of the Zapatistas' Other Campaign--blocked a road to demand Esparza's release.

Esparza's organization, MAIZ, declares itself against the militarization of the country.  "The country is immersed in permanent violence," it writes, "in a war that personally affects all of us, particularly those of us who seek to change this country."

MAIZ's entire communique, which outlines the incident with the two soldiers, follows:

To the Other Campaign
To the Media
To National and International Human Rights Organizations

On March 23 at about 11:30pm in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, when Omar Esparza, member of the organization MAIZ (Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement) was returning home, he found two drunk and high men in the room that belongs to Nancy Villanueva, the young lady who takes care of his children.  She was also drunk, almost to the point of being unable to stand up.  When Omar attempted to find out what was happening, Miss Villanueva was unable to respond.  Immediately Omar Esparza requested that the two men leave his house.  The men began to insult him, threaten him, and beat him.  During the scuffle, at 11:42pm, Omar managed to call the municipal police so that they would come to his aid.  Neighbors started coming out when they heard the commotion, amongst them the landlady and Alberta Cariño, the director of CACTUS (Center for Community Support Working Together).

Upon seeing the neighbors' response, the two assailants ran from the house and escaped in a blue Volkswagen sedan with license plates from the state of Puebla.  Twenty minutes later the municipal police showed up.  Alberta Cariño and Soledad Bravo went outside to tell the officers what had happened.  Two minutes after the patrol car drove off, the assailants came back, insulting Alberta and Soledad and threatening them with firearms, causing both women to run into the house.  Omar Esparza left in his vehicle to try to find police who would help and because he was afraid that the assailants would come back.  Two blocks ahead, Omar found the assailants' vehicle and began to follow it.  After a little while two white trucks appeared, one a Nissan and one a Ford Ranger, both with emergency lights on their roofs and apparently from the State Investigation Agency [state police from the State Attorney General's Office], who began to pursue the assailants' blue VW.  Five kilometers later, the assailants entered the Mexican military's 23rd Company Independent Infantry barracks, which is located in Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca on kilometer 2.5 on the highway to Acatlima.

Immediately several soldiers came out to help the assailants and let the blue VW enter.  Soldiers and agents from the State Investigation Agency (AEI), the latter being under the command of the assistant director general of the AEI in Huajuapan, Eduardo Lopez Garcia.  Then the soldiers approached the AEI agents and requested a report.  Assistant Director Eduardo Lopez told them that they were following the assailants because of the way they were driving and to aid the victims.  At that moment, at about 12:20am, the presence of the zone's colonel or officer in charge was requested so that he could comment on the issue.  A military official came out.  He appeared to be high-ranking due to his insignia and the fact that he was giving orders to military personnel.  Omar Esparza identified himelf and requested that he be told the assailants' names.  Minutes later they told him that their names are David Bravo Gonzalez and Juan Carlos Bravo Gonzalez, members of the National Defense Ministry's 23rd Company Independent Infantry (CINE).

Upon returning to his home, Omar realized that a computer belonging to Emiliano Gomez Izaguirre was no longer on the table where he had left it.  It is possible that the assailants entered his house and stole it.  Omar Esparza suffered some injuries and threats, and there is fear that there will be retaliation against him, his children, or his family.  For this reason we place hold military officials responsible for any attack or attempted coverup.  Likewise, a complaint has been filed with the district attorney's office and Criminal Investigation 405/HL/2010 has been opened.  Moreover, a complaint has been filed with the National Human Rights Commission.

The Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement makes an urgent call to human rights organizations, unions, solcial organizations, and the people to monitor the outcome of this situation.  The country is immersed in permanent violence, in a war that personally affects all of us, particularly those of us who seek to change this country.

We are against the militarization of the country!
Cease the intimidation of community organizers and defenders!

Zapatista Indigenous Agrarian Movement

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We Are All Camero, Radio is Our Voice

En Español: http://juntosconradiotyl.wordpress.com/

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. June 2, 2009

To all national and international communications media.

To all national and international alternative and independent media.

To all national and international non-governmental human rights organizations.

To all adherents to the Other Campaign.

To national and international civil society.


Compañeros:

Freedom of expression, expressed in the Constitution, is a weapon for those who struggle against the power and the bad government. The bourgeoisie's laws are used in full rigor against organized working people, while the real criminals extort people to fund their costly electoral campaigns of defamation and visual, audio, and mental pollution. How much longer will this go on?

Individuals and collectives in Nuevo Leon issue the following communique in solidarity with the community Radio Tierra y Libertad, "The ultimate in working-class consciousness," and specifically con Dr. Hector Camero Haro. An arrest warrant could be issued against this compañero for the simple crime of participating in a dignified effort to provide information to working people and their families. The investigation against Camero for the crime of utilizing national assets, began as a result of the June 2008 operation were approximately 120 heavily armed agents from the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) violently barged into the building to dismantle the radio. It had been on air seven years and government institutions closed its doors over a permit.

The community radio Tierra y Libertad was a low-frequency radio on 90.9 FM that provided its listeners with cultural and educational content, and even children's programs, from Monday to Saturday. It was work carried out by volunteer support and without profit for the people who ran it, who are activists and members of the Tierra y Libertad Civil Association.

It should be pointed out that days after this raid, Governor Jose Natividad Gonzalez Paras unveiled a sculpture in the Fundidora Park called "Broadcasting," inspired by the Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry's logo. Said act demonstrates the cynicism with which all levels of government authorities operate. While the groups who monopolize and make money off of information and pollute our culture are congratulated, those who give microphones to the voice of the people and provide information with truth and commitment are punished.

From 2006 to date, over 100 community radios that operated without official permission have been closed in various states: Mexico State, Sonora, Michoacán, Oaxaca, Puebla, Chiapas, Coahuila, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Campeche, Guanajuato, Yucatán, Baja California Norte, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Distrito Federal, Guerrero, San Luís Potosí, Tabasco, and Nuevo León.

The above demonstrates the Federal Government's intention to criminalize freedom of expression and delegitimize the right to information and popular organization, based in the laws that go against international treaties such as the Human Rights Pact of San Jose, Costa Rica, which Mexico signed in 1981 and which specifically establishes in Article 13: "The right to expression through indirect means, as well as the abuse of official or private regulations regarding paper for newspapers, radio-electric frequencies, or apparatuses or property used in the diffusion of information or by any other such methods designed to impede communication and the circulation of ideas or opinions is prohibited."

This repressive campaign against community radios has been growing immensely during the Calderon administration. We consider it to be of the utmost importance to denounce one by one the actions used to beat back the power of the people and to not permit that even one of these abuses be hidden behind smokescreens imposed by the commercial and pro-government media, calling them clandestine, pirate, and criminal radios. In the end these companies are in collusion with the government, closing the paths to the voice of the people, publishing incomplete information or disinformation regarding the situation.

Community radios represent the need and ability of the people to exercise their right to free speech. They contribute to community development and collaborate with their participants and listeners in the construction of solutions and alternatives to the problems that each locality experiences. Through them, the country's and world's problems are openly discussed, and there is dialogue between communities to spread and listen to the most vulnerable population. To consider this a crime is the most obvious sign that in this country democracy is not respected by the authorities at all levels of government. In other words, it is nonexistent.

On June 2 we launch the Brigade in Support of the Community Radio Tierra y Libertad in solidarity with its members and in resistance against the blow that the government strikes against the efforts of those who participate in this honest labor.

For this reason we demand that the judge not begin criminal proceedings against Hector Camero and Radio Tierra y Libertad, "The ultimate in working-class consciousness," as well as the return of all of the broadcasting equipment, and that the necessary permit be granted so that all community radios can operate regularly.

Stop the repression against community radios.

Stop the persecution of popular and independent communicators.

For the right to the people's free speech in the world.

Freedom for the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

We are all Camero, the radio is our voice.

We invite you to sign this communique if you agree with what we say above, and if you are truly in favor of free expression. Send signatures to: juntosconradiotyl@gmail.com

“Viviendo la Utopía” Popular Library

Frontera Cero Collective

“La internacional” Grassroots Youth Collective - Communist Youth of México

“Clara Zetkin” Grassroots Youth Collective - Communist Youth of México

Kasakomunitaria Political-Cultural Space

Antonio Hernandez – Biologist and defender of the Sierra Cerro de la Silla against the Arco Vial Sureste

nonself – musician and performance activist, adherent to the Other Campaign

Members of the Tierra y Libertad Civil Association

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