From Agencia Proceso (APRO), Nov. 25 via Chiapas95 (our translation):
OAXACA — The Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) has announced the “forced disappearance” of the movement’s spokesperson, Cesar Mateos Benitez, and of Jorge Sosa, cousin of its principal leader Flavio Sosa.
Florentino Lopez Martinez, member of APPO’s Press Commission, placed the responsibility for the disappearances with the government of Ulises Ruiz, and said they would not respond to the provocation.
Before his “forced disappearance,” Mateos Benitez had held a press conference in the APPO encampment, where he reiterated that “the conflict in Oaxaca has not ended, and will not end until the fall of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.”
The Popular Assembly spokesman also announced a plan of action for that Saturday Nov. 25, when a mega-march would be held, with the aim of encircling the Federal Preventative Police (PFP).
Among other actions, he announced plans to occupy toll booths on the highway to Mexico City.
The APPO spokesperson said that the president elect, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa, “still has the opportunity to send a message to the nation and the Mexican people: whether he will resolve political conflicts with the PFP, or truly through the political process.”
In the case of Oaxaca, he said, it is clear that the solution to the conflict is the exit of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and of the Federal Preventative Police.
He questioned the position of the President of the Republic and his Secretary of Government, Carlos Abascal Carranza, because with their actions they have only protected the assassins contracted by Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
Later, the spoksman for the presidency, Ruben Aguilar, contradicted Gov. Ulises Ruiz’s statement that the conflict had ended, and affirmed that the PFP will remain in Oaxaca until governability is restored. APPO responded that “this makes it clear that they have come to protect the sicarios [assassins] of Ulises Ruiz.”
“It is clear that the PFP have not brought tranquility to Oaxaca and the proof of this is the rape of women in the zocalo [central plaza], the robbery of a bank two blocks from where they are stationed, the ransacking of commerical establishments in the historic center, the homicide of a hotel manager, the raiding of houses, the burning of the APPO camp; they are not bringing security to society, they are only assisting those who attack the popular movement,” the APPO spokesperson affirmed.
At the daily press conference in the camp of resistance, APPO repeated its principal demand for the exit of Ulises Ruiz and his paramilitary groups and porros [provocateurs] commanded by Helidoro Diaz Escarraga, Lino Celaya Luria, Jorge Franco, Bulmaro Rito, Manuel Marti’nez and Lizbeth CaƱa Cadeza.
APPO reiterated its demand the genocide charges be brought against President Vicente Fox, Ulises Ruiz and the commanders of the PFP; and called for the intervention of international organizations, and called on the PGR [federal prosecutor] to clear up the assassinations committed in the six months of the conflict.
Meanwhile, five women of the Coordinadora de Mujeres OaxaqueƱas [Coordinating Body of Oaxacan Women] lifted their hunger strike to participate in the Plan of Action for Saturday Nov. 25.
They announced at on Saturday at 10.00 in the morning, a mega-march would leave for the House of Government, located in Santa Maria Coyotepec, to remember the “massacre in this municipality” on Oct. 27, and would then move to the capital and attempt to encircle the PFP camped in the zocalo.
Although the mobilization would be peaceful, another member of the APPO Press Commission, Marcelino Coache, said that they would not respond to provocations but warned that if they were attacked they would respond in similar manner.
He said that the 260 members of the APPO State Council were in charge of security and order on the march to avoid infiltrators, but if there is aggression by the PFP, they would respond.
See our last posts on Mexico and the Oaxaca crisis.
