Oaxaca

Contemplating Leaving

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My one year visa in Mexico expires August 8. After visiting my son Greg in Las Vegas I should be back in Oregon by the middle of August…driving from Oaxaca to Queretaro to pick up my friend Patty who will be my traveling companion along the way. I have mixed feelings of course. Returning to my home country will be the measure of things great and small. In the fall I will return to Asia to visit son Josh and his wife Amy in Beijing and son Doug and his wife Luk in Thailand.

In the meantime I am reading my irreverent, indepensible, if tattered, “The World’s Most Dangerous Places” by the consummate journalist Robert Young Pelton. After Asia, maybe a visit to Syria? Or…? Then maybe a return to Oaxaca to get that language down after all.

A regular columnist for National Geographic Adventure, Pelton produces and hosts a TV series for Discovery and the Travel Channel and appears frequently as an expert on current affairs and travel safety on CNN, FOX and other networks.

“The United States has a very comprehensive system of travel warnings,” says Pelton, “but conveniently overlooks the dangers within its own borders. Danger cannot be measured, only prepared against. The most dangerous thing in the world,” he says, “is ignorance.”

Welcome to Dangerous Places…”no walls, no barriers, no bull” it says in the preface. “With all the talk about survival and fascination with danger, why is it that people never admit that life is like watching a great movie and–pooof–the power goes off before we see the ending? It’s no big deal. Death doesn’t really wear a smelly cloak and carry a scythe…it’s more likely the attractive girl who makes you forget to look right before you cross that busy intersection in London…

It helps to look at the big picture when understanding just what might kill you and what won’t. It is the baby boomers’ slow descent into gray hair, brand-name drugs, reading glasses, and a general sense of not quite being as fast as they used to be that drives the survival thing. Relax: You’re gonna die. Enjoy life, don’t fear it.

To some, life is the single most precious thing they are given and it’s only natural that they would invest every ounce of their being into making sure that every moment is glorious, productive, and safe. So does “living” mean sitting strapped into our Barca Lounger, medic at hand, 911 autodialer at the ready, carefully watching for low-flying planes? Or should you live like those folks who are into extreme, mean, ultimate adventure stuff…sorry that stuff may be fun to talk about at cocktail parties, but not really dangerous…not even half as dangerous as riding in a cab on the graveyard shift in Karachi.

[A big part of] living is about adventure and adventure is about elegantly surfing the tenuous space between lobotomized serenity and splattered-bug terror and still being in enough pieces to share the lessons learned with your grandkids. Adventure is about using your brain, body and intellect to weave a few bright colors in the world’s dull, gray fabric…

The purpose of DP is to get your head screwed on straight, your sphincter unpuckered and your nose pointed in the right direction.”

I love it.

Just Intimidation?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

By Nancy Davies:

Saturday Noticias printed an article saying an attack in the Zocalo was “suspended.” Two organizations are involved: Consejo Ciudadano para el Progresso, which was quoted as saying, “the peaceful expulsion planned for this Saturday was cancelled at the request of the governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz ‘to maintain the peace’.” The other group, Organización Independiente de Comerciantes Establecidos (OICE) has thus far not announced their agreement with the CCP.
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News From Mexico

Posted on by Laughingnomad

MEXICO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
WEEKLY NEWS AND ANALYSIS
JUNE 18-24, 2007

4. SUPREME COURT WILL INVESTIGATE OAXACA GOVERNOR AND FORMER PRESIDENT

The Supreme Court will investigate Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz, ex-President Vicente Fox and 15 other federal and state officials for human rights violations and excessive use of force by police during a popular uprising in Oaxaca last year. The investigation will cover May 2006 to January 2007, which could also implicate the Calderon administration. Ruiz tried to derail the court decision at the 11th hour by submitting a statement claiming he complied with recommendations issued by the National Human Rights Commission last year, but judges rejected the appeal as flatly untrue. At least 26 people died at the hands of police and paramilitary forces under the control of Ruiz, more than 200 people were arrested, and an unknown number of people remain disappeared. The Supreme Court initiated a series of special investigations during the past year, including the May 3 and 4, 2006, police actions in Atenco and the arrest of journalist Lydia Cacho by Puebla Governor Mario Marin, leading many experts to question the functionality of a justice system so highly politicized that state and federal Attorneys General are incapable of carrying out investigations that involve political actors.

Meanwhile, the APPO (Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca) and teachers from Section 22 of the SNTE continued their permanent encampment in the historic center of Oaxaca City, recalling events that led to two massive police operations last year that eventually dislodged protestors from the city center. And an international human rights commission condemned recent dramatic increases in arrests of APPO activists.
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Oaxaca Zocalo Planton 2007

Posted on by Laughingnomad

There are no uniformed police in the Zocalo where a new planton (encampment) of teachers and the APPO constructed its plastic awnings and banners on Monday June 18, but there are plenty of undercover police. You can tell…beefy well-fed hombres…nice new polished shoes…cell phones in use or on hips.

Teachers have not closed the classrooms this year. Teachers and APPO have established a rotating presence in the Zocalo…there are no tents and participants retire elsewhere for the night. But the Zocalo is alive with vendors, disco music, crowds of people watching video replays of government attacks.

Less confrontational now, civil society groups just seem to be keeping up a slow steady pressure.

Mexico’s High Court Acts

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Local watchers are watching cautiously. Nancy, a local expat, explains: “The Supreme Court of Mexico has decided to appoint a commission to investigate serious violations of human rights which occurred in Oaxaca between May 2006 and January of 2007.

Those violations included the attack on sleeping protesters on June 14, 2006, and the subsequent murder of at least 25 sympathizers of the popular movement, along with 575 arbitrary detentions and more than 300 wounded. No-one has been charged with any of those crimes. The alleged murderers of the American Brad Will were jailed and promptly released.

According to Noticias of June 20, the Court justices rejected the attempt by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, (URO) to prevent the investigation after, he said he “accepted the recommendations” of the National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH). URO’s lawyers argued that such “acceptance” was sufficient.

The Court stated it is not. Nor is the court limited by CNDH recommendations, nor is it limited to wrongdoing by state officials –federal persons such as the Federal Preventive Police were also denounced by the aggrieved APPO activists for violations including sexual assault and torture.
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Oaxaca June 14, 2007

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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by Diana
June 16, 2007

It’s 4am in Oaxaca on June 14, 2007, which marks one year since the protesting teachers were violently evicted from the zócalo. And this year, no one is going to sleep through it. Firecrackers sound throughout the city, one louder than the next, a steady crescendo that lasts several hours. All over the city, the dogs howl.

Last year at this time exactly, a thousand police armed with dogs, clubs, rubber bullets and indiscriminate quantities of teargas invaded the teachers’ sit-in and violently evicted protestors as well as destroying the radio that represented them, Radio Plantón.

Teachers had camped out in the center of the city, demanding government investments to improve quality of public education in Mexico. The attack on the teachers union sparked one of the biggest, most inclusive social movements in Oaxaca’s history, which, in spite of continuous repression, has bravely mobilized over the last year demanding the resignation of state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and attention to collective discontent over lack of transparency, accountability and basic human rights.

La lucha sigue…

A year later, despite the arbitrary arrests, torture, and assassinations as well as divisionism, infiltration and attempts of political parties to co-opt the APPO, the popular movement commemorated their triumph in the face of last year’s repression in an impressive show of numbers.
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Birthday Fiesta

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Even though my birthday was last wednesday, I had preferred to stay in the zocalo to watch the June 14 commemoration. So last night I picked up friends Sharon and Max and we went to Mica and Bardo’s for cena (afternoon meal eaten at 4pm). Sharon brought a gift of a big jar of chopped garlic from Sam’s Club for Mica as the garlic cloves here are tiny and labor intensive to peel. Max brought a gallon of helado (ice cream.)

I had requested Mica’s shrimp sauteed in olive oil, chili, tomato salsa, garlic, oregano and the juice of oranges…cooled and eaten with fingers…heads and all. mmmm! We also had a juicy mixture of tuna, tomato, chili, garlic and I don’t know what all…wrapped in a flour tortilla and sauteed…also eaten with fingers. mmmm. We all ended up muy satisfecha (satisfied) and muy lleno (full). Mica had bought a chocolate cake soaked in rum with strawberries and my name written on top. We decided six candles were sufficient…I am 63 now. (Wow, how did that happen? Sounds old!) They didn’t even push my face in the cake…mordida…the price you pay for the fiesta…or cake…or your birthday? But they did sing a very long birthday song in Spanish. I felt like a very respected third-ager (last third of your life-span) and very celebrated.

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Just For Fun

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Meri and Mary Rain, volunteers at the Casa de los Amigos where Barbara and I stayed in Mexico City came to visit me this week. They were great fun and kept me company on my birthday as we sat in the zocalo to watch the march and commemoration activities of the June 14, 2006 police attack. Mary Rain, incidentally, is from Oregon and will begin a graduate program in urban planning & community development at Portland State in August. Meri will take a consulting position in San Francisco with the Bridgespan Group, a nonprofit providing leading-edge management strategies, tools and talent to help other nonprofits and foundations achieve greater social impact.

After siesta yesterday, we spent the evening with Mica and Bardo and a Zapotec weaver from Xachilla and one of his 10 young sons. Over mescal, beer, tacos and ranchero songs, and many laughs, Meri and Mary Rain inspired them with their fluent Spanish to expound on Uses & Custumbres, village life and Mexican politics. Bardo, baracho by this time, kept getting Meri and Mary Rain (who calls herself Lluvia…Spanish for rain) mixed up so Meri solved the problem this way:

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Anyway, Meri turned me on to this web site:

Guy named Matt dances a goofy dance all over the world.

From “About Matt” on his website:
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June 14 Symbolic Strike

Posted on by Laughingnomad

On June 14, this thursday, there will be a megamarch at 10:00 am (daylight savings time) from the crucero of the aeropuerto to the zocalo.

There will be a symbolic strike encampment in the zocalo, the teachers say 10% of their number, which mean 7000 people. There is no info on how long they plan to stay.

Barricades, installed from 17:30 to 21:00, will be installed in commemoration of last year’s blocking of several major streets.

The Popular Guelaguetza will take place on Cerro del Fortin on July 16.

Tourists!!!: Come for the Popular Guelaguetza, it’s free!

Below is an excerpt from the historic chronicle of the movement, translated by Nancy Davies from the book by Victor Raul Martinez Vasquez.

The teachers movement in 2006 and the 14th of June, 2006 (book text page 60)
by Victor Raul Martinez Vasquez

As in every year, in 2006 Section 22 on the first of May presented its annual document of demands, this time containing 17 general points and others relative to each specific education level and methods.
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Heading Off Another Year Of Unrest?

Posted on by Laughingnomad

This morning’s news…for the benefit of the English-speaking reader…
El Universal
Lunes 28 de mayo de 2007

High ranking judge calls for inquiry

Federal, state and municipal authorities committed grave violations against fundamental civil rights during the Oaxaca conflict that began in May 2006, Supreme Court Justice minister Juan Silva Meza said Sunday.

Silva Meza recommended that the Court create a committe to investigate the public officials responsible for the violations.

Among the high-ranking public officials who could be investigated are former President Vicente Fox, Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz and Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora, who served as Secretary of Public Safety in 2006.
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