Following the standard now synonymous with Canadian mining, Vancouver-based Continuum Resources has reactivated the historic “Natividad” mine site, an area of Oaxaca that’s been looted since before the 17th Century. Largely on Zapotec land, the site is reported to be Oaxaca’s richest gold and silver mine.

Historically, thousands of Zapotec have worked the mine, but today the consequences of development are too well understood. Over the course of 230 years, more than a million ounces of gold and 23 million ounces of silver have been extracted from the site, but …

Here’s an article which looks at the struggles of the People of Xanica, Oaxaca. Many people from this region are principally involved in the general struggles of Oaxaca, but they too have have their own local problems, which they tend to with equal heart and diligence.

If they did not do this, how could they a part of the greater struggle? After all, struggle itself is not just an event we plan out or a place we go to party and get laid, or whatever . It is a part …

August 3 and 4 there will be a “Grassroots Trial in the Zocalo of Mexico City against CRIMINALS ULISES RUIZ ORTIZ, VICENTE FOX QUEZADA, CARLOS ABASCAL, illegitimate president FELIPE CALDERÓN and all those who are responsible for committing crimes against the humanity of the people of Mexico.”

You may recall, back in June 2006 Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO) was symbolically tried, sentenced, hung and burned in effigy by Section 22 (the Oaxaca teachers’ union), social organizations and the people in general. A week after this mock trial, URO sent …

On July 16, violence again broke out in Oaxaca—by the same forces that carried out the widespread torture, illegal detentions and assassinations in 2006. This time, as noted by Rights Action, it was in the name of protecting tourism. The Oaxaca Solidarity Network (OSN info@oaxacasolidarity.org) has sent out the following information regarding the attacks.

July 16, 2007 — URGENT ACTION
REPRESSION AGAINST POPULAR MOVEMENT OF OAXACA

This Monday, June 16th at approximately 11:30am, “security” officers with the Mexican Army, Federal preventative Police, Federal Agency of Investigation, Preventative Police and the Oaxaquan Municipal Police, …

Through personal testimonies, this 28 minute documentary examines the origin and transformation of the Teachers strike into into a popular Pacific Democratic insurgency in Oaxaca, Mexico.

On May 22, 2006, Teachers in Oaxaca went on strike in protest low funding and to additionally call for the resignation of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. 3000 police were sent to break up the occupation in the early morning of June 14, 2006; A street battle ensued which lasted for several hours, resulting in hundreds of injuries but no fatalities. Ortiz declared that he would not resign.

In response to this attack on the unarmed …

I just received this a few minuted ago, it’s a communique from one of the CIPO (Consejo Indigena Popular de Oaxaca) communities in Oaxaca asking for urgent support. Emails you can write to follow.

Indigenous Visitor to (Six Nations) Reclamation site sought by Mexican Authorities
On Sunday June 17 their community was attacked by another community supported by paramilitaries. Up to now six people have been killed and several others detained.

There is a protest in the region over clearcutting the Yyusuni forest. The community of San Isidro wants to prevent the erosion of the forest and preserve the water for …

Here’s a few updates about what’s been happening in Mexico this month. A quick overview:

Chiapas - Government linked to Viejo Velasco Massacre; Violence continues.
Mexico City - Murder of Activist shows grim face of illegal logging.
Oaxaca - Anniversary March held; Government apologizes for Oaxaca repression; Brother of Flavio Sosa (the Director of APPO) released form jail.
Veracruz: police raid peasant land occupation

Chiapas - Government linked to Viejo Velasco Massacre; Violence continues
The Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center (Frayba) in Chiapas reports that it has received a document prepared …

From NarcoNews, April 26 - The bureaucrats did what the APPO didn’t: On Wednesday, April 25 they broke the police barricades and entered the Oaxaca zócalo.

More than 2,000 delegates from the Sindicato de Burócratas, which I interpret to mean the office workers and administrators’ union, in a rage over the new Social Security law for government employees, shoved aside the barricades and the police guarding the zócalo. They strung their anti-ISSTE reform banners on the kiosko, and denounced their union leader Joel Castillo. They repudiated him for trying to impose agreement to the pension law which will affect all …

From the WW4Report, April 21 — The Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) has joined with members of the Union of Mexican Jurists in a “Popular Court” to judge the repression and rights violations in southern Mexico’s Oaxaca state over the last year of social conflict. The Popular Court is to collect evidence on “crimes against humanity perpetrated against the people,” and submit the findings to national and international legal bodies. APPO Spokesman Florentino Lopez said that over the course of the conflict, police violence has claimed 27 lives, while 43 activists remain in prison-including APPO leader Flavio Sosa, …

The following is the first essay in a compilation of three essays and two declarations by Indians of the northern Sierra of Oaxaca, which can be found here: Communality and Autonomy

Autonomy and self-determination: The past and future of and for our peoples.
by Jaime Martínez Luna
translation by George Salzman and Nancie Davies

Note:. Where a term may be unclear, I included, in italics, a numbered explanatory note, as e.g. [3] followed by the note.

Perhaps at no moment of our history have the indigenous peoples been at such a historic juncture, in which the analysis of our self-determination was the most certain …