By Sean Donahue, the Narcosphere — In southern Mexico they say “The Spanish were the invaders, but the Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Jesuits were the conquerors.”

Those words echo through my mind as I look at the police encampment beside the Santo Domingo cathedral in the Zocalo, the historic center of the city of Oaxaca City, capitol of the state of Oaxaca.

The guide books speak without irony of the beauty of the city’s colonial architecture. Colonial is the operative word. The architecture is a triumphant monument to violent attempts to subjugate the Zapotec and Mixotec people of the …

DECEMBER 22nd URGENT ACTION FOR OAXACA

WHEN: DECEMBER 22nd 2006

WHAT: The EZLN (Zapatista National Liberation Army) has called for worldwide solidarity and demonstrations, in support of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) and to protest against the brutal police repression they continue to face.

WE DEMAND:
* The removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz
and the Mexican Federal Preventative Police from Oaxaca City.
* The release of all political prisoners.
* Answers for those who have disappeared.
* A stop to government funded pirate radio station “La Ciudadana” that calls …

Tthe following is (presumably from the end of October) by Brenda Norrell, UN Observer and International Reporter

MAGDALENA, SONORA, Mexico – Subcomandante Marcos was welcomed as a hero of the indigenous rights movement, as Tohono O’odham, Mayo, Navajo and other indigenous told of the oppression that threatens their survival.

During the northern Indian borderlands tour of the Other Campaign, Marcos listened as Tohono O’odham opposed encroachment on their lands in Mexico, the Bush administration’s planned border wall which is threatening the survival of their ceremonies and a proposed hazardous waste dump and the cancer it would bring.

O’odham in Mexico Lt. Gov. …

Comandanta Grabiela: “We Are Here Because We Have Completed Our Work. Now We Get to Return, but You All Will Not Remain Alone”

By Amber Howard- December 3, 2006

Today, after a long journey into the forgotten corners of the country of Mexico, the Zapatista Other Campaign tour begun on January 1st finally came to an end… and a new beginning.

To celebrate, adherents of the Other Campaign met together Mexico City to compare notes and shed light onto some of the results of the tour. The theme, the Other Campaign and the Anti-Capitalist Struggle, brought together eight panelists who addressed these topics …

INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN OAXACA (OIDHO)
Saturday, November 11, 2006.

“And the old vulture lies in wait, high on his rock. He fixes his bloodshot eye on the advancing giant, still unaware of the causes of the insurrection. Tyrants don’t understand the right to rebellion.” (From Regeneración, September 10, 1910.)

Download the OIDHO Proposals as a pdf

en español: Propuestas para el Congreso Constitutivo de la APPO

THE NATIONAL AND STATE CONTEXT

Recent political events like the approval of the “Televisa law,” the vote fraud in the presidential election, and the refusal of the national Senate to declare the removal of …

The Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca-Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM) is a social and democratic organization formed by 26 indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, comprised of about 2,000 members. They follow libertarian and indigenous ways and customs. The CIPO-RFM is a grassroots movement whose members work in their communities in the defense of human rights, on communal projects and environmental conservation, and in the provision of basic social needs.

For updated reports on the current uprising in Oaxaca visit The Narco News Bulletin

Liberty, Justice, Autonomy: Building a Magonista Reality

“When the People Have the conscience That they are stronger
Than their rulers, There …

ASSEMBLY OF THE ZAPOTECO, MIXE AND CHINANTECO PEOPLES OF THE SIERRA JUÁREZ

GUELATAO DECLARATION

The municipal and communal authorities, representatives of community and regional organizations, citizen men and women from the communities and municipalites of San Miguel Cajonos, San Francisco Cajonos, Santa Cruz Yagavila, San Baltasar Yatzachi, Villa Hidalgo Yalalag, San Juan Analco, Calpulalpan de Méndez, San Juan Yetzecovi, San Juan Yalahui, San Juan Atepec, San Cristóbal Chichicaxtepec Mixe, San Juan Tabaá, Santa María Yavesía, Ixtlán de Juárez, Tanetze de Zaragoza, Asunción Cacalotepec Mixe, Villa Alta, Macuiltianguis, Ayutla Mixe, Tamazulapan Mixe, San Juan Teponaxtla, San Miguel Tiltepec, Guelatao de Juárez, Santa María …

It’s not usually my style to take on anything that ‘conservative people’ would say, but today I was introducing myself to the world of blogging and I stumbled upon the following the article that I really had to respond to. My commentary follows…

Monday, November 06, 2006
Oaxaca, Mexico: President Fox to crawl in gutter with APPO leadership

UPDATE!
Reforma now reports that presidential spokesman Rubén Aguilar said this afternoon that President Fox would not be meeting with APPo leadership as had been announced by the office of the Secretary of the Interior. Aguilar said that Carlos Abascal, Secretary of the Interior, …

Oaxaca’s APPO Forms Permanent Government; Announces Escalation of Resistance
3,000 Delegates Meet in the Midst of State Repression and Reorganize for the Struggle Ahead

By Nancy Davies
Commentary from Oaxaca

November 14, 2006

Three thousand Oaxaqueños responded to the first call of the Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca (Popular Assembly of the Peoples’ of Oaxaca, or APPO) on Friday, November 10, to forge a new constitution for Oaxaca. The APPO sprang into life in the two days following the attempted eviction of striking teachers from their zocalo encampment on June 14, 2006. It has guided the social movement in …

By George Salzman - After some weeks of relatively quiet nights, beginning Friday 27 October with the by-now infamous attack on one of the barricades in Santa Lucia del Camino,[1] the entire relatively peaceful complexion of the struggle [2] has become badly tainted by the presence of the so-called Federal Preventive Police (PFP in its Spanish initials). Under PFP ‘protection’, and with PFP participation, the combined level of the dirty war by the Oaxaca PRI contingent of Ulises Ruiz and the PFP mushroomed — so intolerably in fact that the church offered asylum to members of the popular movement …