From Cuba’s Prensa Latina, Nov. 24 (we’ve annotated, and clarified their typically poor English):
Members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) charged national leaders with genocide and force[d] disappearance at the [federal] Attorney General’s Office [PGR] Friday.
President Vicente Fox, the ministers of government, Carlos Abascal; federal public security, Eduardo Medina; national defense, Gerardo Clemente Vega; and Oaxaca’s governor Ulises Ruiz appear on the list of allegedly responsible parties for those crimes.
Illegal arrests, organized crime, torture, abuse of power, and denial of justice were other charges included in the APPO text.
Felipe Canseco, of the APPO Press Committee, declared the lawsuit is linked to the over 17 people reported dead in actions against the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) in Oaxaca, and the over 30 since Ruiz was sworn in as governor.
According to the report, those people, along with the PFP Commander Hector Sanchez, Oaxaca’s attorney [general] Rosa Lisbeth Caña, and Oaxaca’s government secretary Heliodoro Diaz, act like an organized group.
All of them have tried to partially or totally wipe out a human group disagreeing with State policies, both local and federal, the text added.
Much as we support APPO’s struggle and would love to see Ruiz brought to justice, we do have concerns about the dumbing-down of the definition of genocide. There may be a legitimate genocide case against former president Luis Echeverria. We’re not so sure about Ruiz.
See our last posts on Mexico and Oaxaca.
