OAXACA: KEY DATES
The aim of this chronology is not to cover the complete history of Oaxaca, but rather to give key elements for understanding the most recent events.
INDIGENOUS ROOTS
The history of the indigenous groups of Oaxaca goes back about 10,000 years B.C., with the arrival of the first nomadic groups to the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. The older evidence of the domestication of corn in the valley of Oaxaca dates from the year 5000 B.C., while beans have been grown since the years 4000 or 3000 B.C. The cultivation of these crops brought the definitive transition from nomadic and seminomadic life to a sedentary one.
Two great civilizations marked the pre-Columbian history of Oaxaca. The Zapotec civilization bloomed, since the year 300 B.C., from its base in the area of Monte Albán. Around 1200, the Mixteca civilization prevailed before facing the attempts of domination by the Aztecs in the XVth century and beginning of XVIth. Since 1520, the Spaniards conquered the region of Oaxaca taking advantage of local rivalries. The people of the Sierras (mountain ranges), mainly Zapotecs and Mixes, presented greater resistance. On the other hand, the indigenous peoples were decimated by diseases like smallpox. In the Mixteca region (western Oaxaca), the native population fell from 700,000 at the moment of the conquest to 25,000 in 1700.
It is during the Colonial period that the governmental structures and the cultural patterns that prevail in the indigenous communities nowadays were conformed, as a blend of those of pre-Hispanic origin and the colonial ones. These cultures have shown a great versatility in adapting themselves and absorbing the changes over last five centuries. The lack of formal territorial limits among innumerable indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca at that time continues to be one of the sources of the present agrarian conflict.
:: INDEX
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February 3rd, 1824
Creation of the State of Oaxaca. 
1858-1872: A Oaxaqueño in the presidency of the Republic
Benito Juárez, a Zapotec indigenous man from Oaxaca, becomes a key figure in Mexican history.
Beginning of XXth Century
Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón, two brothers from Oaxaca, founded the journal Regeneración, one of the few media where Porfirio Diaz’s (also from Oaxaca) dictatorship was openly criticized. The Magonista cause gained followers throughout Oaxaca and continues to have influence in the state today.
(1962 - 1968): Government of Rodolfo Brena Torres (PRI)
November 1st, 1965: the Judicial Police of the State was created, part of its staff being ex members of what was known as the Secret Service.
March of 1967: by means of a presidential resolution, 28 communities from Chiapas are moved to a parcel of land of 594 hectares in the region of Chimalapas, a territory historically owned by Oaxaca. The resulting conflict remains unresolved.
(1968 - 1970): Government of Víctor Bravo Ahúja (PRI)
1 of December 1968: Victor Bravo Ahúja takes power as the Governor of Oaxaca. Less than two years later he left the state government to become Secretary of Public Education in the federal government. Luis Echeverria was the president at that time. During Bravo’s mandate, the government of Oaxaca came closer to local businessmen through fiscal benefits and the incorporation of some of them to his cabinet and to the PRI.
(1970 - 1974): Government of Fernando Gómez Sandoval (temporary Governor - PRI)
(1974 - 1977): Government of Manuel Zárate Aquino (PRI)
As soon as he assumed the position, the governor showed his intention to apply a hard policy on the agrarian conflicts, and also against the strikes and the formation of unions that the students’ and popular organizations were supporting. Leaders from the Autonomous University Benito Juárez in Oaxaca had a notorious role at that time.
In 1977, a conflict which was initially a student affair extended to the whole society in Oaxaca. Social, labour, agrarian and political issues were at stake: for instance, there was a labour conflict in the transport companies Oaxaca-Pacifico and Estrella del Valle, a strike was called, there were high increases of the tariffs of transport in the Istmo region, farmers’ and urban precaristas’ leaders were arrested, etc. Oaxaca went into a situation of ungovernability, characterized by a strong social polarization.
n February of 1977 a demonstration was repressed in Juchitán. Several farmers were assassinated. In San Juan Lalana, the state police assassinated farmers who were protesting in front of the municipal prison against the arrest of some people from the town. Given the chaotic situation in the state, the Federal Congress sent a Commission of legislators to evaluate the situation in detail. March 2nd, 1977, while this Commission was still in Oaxaca, a demonstration of university students and workers was repressed by the police. The participants were indiscriminately shot. Two people died and dozens were wounded by bullets. The March 3rd, 1977, nearly the entire city was occupied by the army. The federal government forced the governor and the university deans to resign. Martinez Soriano, a figure who has kept appearing in the following decades (even in 2006), was one of those deans. The federal government impelled the appointment of a temporary governor, General Eliseo Jiménez Ruiz, by the Local Chamber of Deputies.
(1977 - 1980): Government of Eliseo Jiménez Ruiz (temporary Governor - PRI)
The general chosen as the temporary governor, Eliseo Jiménez Ruiz, had disbanded the guerrilla of Lucio Cabañas in the state of Guerrero (also see key dates of Guerrero: http://www.sipaz.org/gfini_eng.htm ). He has been denounced for introducing his methods in Oaxaca, especially a well-known irregular repressive apparatus: the White Brigade (particularly active in 1977, 1978 and 1979), that persecuted "rebels" throughout the national territory.
They arrested thousands of citizens in illegal detentions; some were executed while others remain disappeared. It was part of what is commonly called "the Dirty War" (60s and 70s).
(1980 - 1985): Government of Pedro Vázquez Colmenares (PRI)
Pedro Vázquez Colmenares managed to play a determining role in the containment of popular mobilizations. He also created seven delegations of the state government (one in each region) to represent the executive power and get it closer to the town councils. The delegations provided legal, technical, administrative and financial aid to the town councils, and they also received requests, proposals, suggestions, and complaints from the civil society. Vázquez Colmenares also played an important role in the tourism project of the Bays of Huatulco. He resigned when designated as the General Manager of Airports and Auxiliary Services.
(1985- 1986): Government of Jesús Martínez Álvarez (PRI)
In 1985, while serving as a federal deputy, Jesús Emilio Martínez Álvarez was designated as the Substitute Governor of Oaxaca.
(1986 - 1992): Government of Heladio Ramírez López (PRI)
Heladio Ramirez Lopez is of Mixtec origin and had a long career in PRI. He initiated his life in politics in the farmers’ sections of PRI. In 1976 he was elected as a Federal Deputy. From 1982 to 1986 he was a Senator, and from 1986 to 1992, Governor of the state of Oaxaca: six years of "apparent tranquillity". Nevertheless, he has been denounced for weaving a net of favors and complicities.
August 1990: the governor presented his proposal for reforms related to indigenous rights in the House of Representatives.
1991: the comuneros of Chimalapas initiate a process of agrarian reconciliation, inviting the ejidatarios from Chiapas to become comuneros as well.
(1992 - 1998): Government of Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano (PRI)
January 27th, 1993: the State Commission of Oaxaca for Human Rights is created.
1994: the wind power station of La Venta, in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is built.
August 30th, 1995: the Congress of the State approves the reform to the Code of Political Institutions and Electoral Procedures of Oaxaca, in order to recognize the indigenous uses and customs.
June 28th, 1996: An armed group, the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR), arises in the commemoration of the Aguas Blancas massacre. About one hundred men and women, armed and with their faces covered, present their Manifesto of Aguas Blancas, where they denounce that the "institutionalized violence" is just as active as in the times of Lucio Cabañas Barrientos and Genaro Vázquez Rojas. They declare that they have taken arms against exploitation and oppression: "As opposed to institutionalized violence, the armed fight is a legitimate and necessary resource of the people in order to reclaim its sovereign will and to restore the rule of law". One of their main demands is justice. Later that day, there was an armed confrontation between a group of EPR and state judicial police in Zumpango del Río. Three police officers were injured.
August 29th, 1996: two months after their first public appearance in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, the EPR (Revolutionary Popular Army) mounts attacks in La Crucecita, Huatulco, Oaxaca, and 5 other states.
1996: This confrontation in La Crucecita served as a pretext to justify the repression against indigenous people in the Loxicha Region, in the Sierra Sur (Southern mountain range) of Oaxaca: arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, murder, robbery, rape, and harassment against defenseless inhabitants have been reported. The indigenous communities were accused of numerous federal crimes and supposed ties to the EPR. According to social organizations, in the later years there were at least 200 illegal detentions, 150 cases of torture, 32 unlawful entries, 22 extrajudicial executions, 22 forced disappearances, 137 people imprisoned for political or conscience reasons and innumerable cases of sexual abuse, harassment, threats of death and unlawful penal processes.
December 18th, 1996: a violent police-military operation is carried out in the Zapotec community of Asunción Lachixila, Municipality of Santiago Camotlán. More than three hundred officers from the army, the federal judicial police and the preventive police entered this community and neighboring communities wich were part of the Unión Indígena Zapoteca Chinanteca Emiliano Zapata (UIZACHI-EZ) in 38 vehicles, with the support of three machine-gun amred helicopters, unlawfully entering houses, beating old women and men and illegally arresting 7 farmers.
Starting on June 10th, 1997, the wives, mothers and children of the prisoners of Loxicha stage a permanent protest in front of the city council of Oaxaca to demand an impartial justice process, as well as the punishment of the people responsible for the illegal detentions and executions.
January 8th, 1998: a group separates from the EPR, calling themselves Revolutionary Army of the Insurgent People (ERPI), a movement they want closer to the bases concerning the decision making. The ERPI represents the most important sector of the EPR militants in Guerrero. They keep both military actions and political activities and they are ideologically closer to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN).
April 8th, 1998: Detentions in several places of the state of Oaxaca: 16 members of the Consejo Indígena Popular Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM) are arrested in Tuxtepec. More than five hundred officials of the judicial police, the preventive police and the army participate in the operation. At the same time, 25 members are arrested in the Town Council of Putla de Guerrero and five more in Puerto Escondido.
(1998 - 2004): Government of José Murat (PRI)
1999: a new armed group makes appearance in the region of Papaloapan, with the name of Regional Workers’, Farmers’ and Urban Council of Tuxtepec (CROCUT). They have been denounced for being a paramilitary group, for receiving protection from high level state and federal officials, for carrying powerful weapons (exclusively used by the army), as well as for committing a series of crimes with impunity.
December 1st, 2000: 20 militants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People (FARP) burst in into the town center of Nazareno Etla, 10 kilometers away from the city of Oaxaca. There they hold a political meeting, distribute propaganda and demonstrate against "the neoliberal project" of president Vicente Fox. They declare themselves independent from both EPR and ERPI. According to witnesses, the militants carried large-caliber weapons - apparently AK-47s- and were dressed in black uniforms and skimasks. The incursion took place on the days before the visit of the mayor of Oaxaca city, who belongs to PAN party.
December 8th, 2000: the House of Representatives of Oaxaca unanimously approves an Amnesty law, that mainly benefits 61 imprisoned Zapotecs and 250 others who had warrants against them due to their presumed links with the EPR.
January 2001: Monseñor Arturo Lona Reyes, Bishop of Tehuantepec and supporter of Liberation Theology, signs his resignation letter because he has reached the age limit. He was in charge of his diocese for 30 years.
September 20th, 2001: a commando of the CROCUT composed by more than armed 100 men, enters the Orozco Farm, located in the town Playa de Jícama in San Miguel Soyaltepec. One person was killed.
November 2001: the three main leaders of the CROCUT are detained for common law crimes but are released from prison one year later.
January 1st, 2002: Members of CROCUT assault 46 members of the Consejo Indígena Popular Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM) from the communities of Santiago Yagallo, San Isidro Reforma and Santa Maria Yaviche, in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca.
April 26th, 2002: 2 farmers are killed and 9 are injured in Pinotepa Nacional in the context of a local post electoral conflict.
May 31st, 2002: Agua Fría massacre: on the 31st of May 2002, 26 farmers from Santiago Xochiltepec, municipality of Santiago Textitlán, located in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, are ambushed and assassinated in Agua Fría. More than 100 shots were fired. The farmers were shot to death in the head or the genitals with large-caliber weapons and their money was stolen. 16 inhabitants of the contiguous town Santo Domingo Teojomulco were arrested. In this area, one of the poorest in the state, six towns have old conflicts about the property of thousands of wooded hectares and fertile land. In fact, the conflict between its inhabitants had already caused around 300 deaths before the massacre. Nevertheless, there are other structural, historical and political factors to consider. Most importantly, the negligence from different governments that have refused to address this particular conflict.
October 2002: people from the Loxicha region, in Oaxaca, accuse Diódoro Carrasco Altamirano, ex- governor of Oaxaca and ex- secretary of government, for his presumed responsibility in crimes against humanity, tortures, forced disappearances and abuse of authority, in front of the Special Office of the Public Prosecutor for Past Social and Political Movements.
January 25th, 2003: the AGRARIAN FORUM AGAINST REPRESSION AND PARAMILITARISM is founded in the city of Tuxtepec, with the presence of more than 40 social, indigenous and independent organizations and trade unions from all over the country. They demand the complete stop of repression against communities and social leaders. Although this chronology cannot include all the facts, there is a context of permanent repression against several social organizations like CIPO-RFM, Coordinadora Oaxaqueña Magonista Popular Antineoliberal (COMPA), Frente Popular Revolucionario (FPR) and Comité de Defensa Ciudadana (CODECI).
May 4th, 2003: Carlos Manzo, leader of the Citizen Council of Union Hidalgo and member of the culture section Ojarasca in the newspaper La Jornada, is arrested.
March 18th, 2004: A group of anonymous people shoot José Murat, who gets only slightly injured. Expert tests indicated that the governor of Oaxaca could have planned the shooting himself. There was no judicial decision on the matter.
September 14th, 2004: around 200 police officers, using tear gases, deafening pumps and water canyons, evacuate the permanent protest staged by CIPO-RFM in front of the City Council and the Temple of Santo Domingo in the city of Oaxaca, since the 20th of April 2004.
(2004 - today): Government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (PRI)
January 1st, 2005: people in San Blas expell Agustina Acevedo Gutiérrez and the official authorities from the town council and found the "Popular and Independent Town Council of San Blas Atempa". It has been functioning as a parallel independent town council.
February 2005: social and civil organizations denounce that, since he took power, governor Ruiz has attempted to impose municipal mayors in autonomous communities that had expulsed the political parties from their institutions. In Santiago Xanica, when the imposed PRI mayor took power, the comuneros refused to collaborate with him in the day of communal work (known as "tequio") and preferred to build their own houses. On the 15th of January 2005, preventive police officers surrounded the comuneros while they were doing communal work and opened fire. The comuneros defended themselves with rocks, bricks and shovels. Three comuneros, members of the COMPA, were injured and arrested. As a protest against these events, the COMPA staged two permanent protests: one in the Federal District; the other one in the City of Oaxaca. COMPA approached the President of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) José Soberanes, who promised there would be an interview with Governor Ruiz in the presence of three observers of the CNDH. On the February 3rd, 2005, a commission of the COMPA met the Undersecretary of Government Joaquín Palacios in order to set the agenda for the meeting with the governor. When they left the meeting, the members of the commission were arrested by the preventive police, in the presence of the observers from the CNDH. Two of them were liberated within hours but the third, Alejandro Cruz (from the Alianza Magonista Zapatista) was detained. Hours after the incident, another two members of COMPA, Samuel Hernández and Jaquelina López, were detained in the offices of the CODEP (Comité de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo) in the presence of one of the observers of the CNDH.
June 2005: At the beginning of his mandate, Ulises Ruiz was questioned for his policy of censorship towards the local newspaper "Noticias de Oaxaca". In June 2005, members of the Confederación Revolucionaria Obrera Campesina (CROC), an organization linked with the government, took the newspaper’s offices by force. For 30 days 31 employees were held hostage in the facilities, until they were violently evacuated. Photographs and videos implicate the police in the taking of the facilities, in the robbery of newspapers, in beating spokespeople and in offering protection to the CROC.
July 28: In a communiqué issued by the EPR, the armed organization denounced the following: “Our state of Oaxaca continues to be continues to be plundered by the cacique groups. In the context of the presidential succession, the PRI groups headed by Roberto Madrazo and Elba Esther Gordillo have already been extending their attacks towards our lands for some time, converting them into a boxing ring.”
August: Under the slogan “Tourism and Culture for Development,” and contrary to public opinion and violating national and international legislation and regulations, the renovation of the central plaza of Oaxaca City was completed. The project was condemned by various sectors of the civil society for its attempt to stop the gathering of social protests in the city center.
2006
January: With the aim of “struggl[ing] against governmental authoritarianism and encourage[ing] a culture of respect for human rights,” several well known personalities from civil society, academia and the religious community announced they would act as observers in a citizen’s initiative promoted by the Collective for Democracy (Colectivo por la Democracia). The Collective brings together diverse civil and social organizations from the state of Oaxaca.
February: The Other Campaign, a Zapatista initiative, toured the state of Oaxaca.
May 1: The teachers from Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación) published a document outlining the goals of their movement, among them a pay raise and better working conditions.
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June 14: A sit-in held by Section 22 of the SNTE was violently evicted, leaving 4 people killed and 92 wounded. The protest had occupied the historic center of Oaxaca City since May 22.
June 17-21: In response to government repression, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO, Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca) was created.
July: Influenced by the APPO, popular movements established people’s governments in the councils of almost 30 municipalities. They refused to recognize the elected municipal presidents, the majority of whom were members of the PRI.
August 16-17: The National Forum “Building Democracy and Governability in Oaxaca” hosted some 1500 people from every region of the state. Its principle aim was to analyze the current political situation and propose alternative solutions.
August 30: Six alleged guerrilla groups presented a manifesto in which they threatened to carry out “strong actions” if the state and federal governments used force to suppress the popular movement. Some analysts considered the manifesto a piece of government propaganda, allowing the State to justify repressive actions such as the militarization of the Northern Sierra in Oaxaca.
September 4-8: A civil observation mission in Oaxaca was coordinated by the Oaxacan Human Rights Network (RODH, Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos) and the National Network “All Rights For All” (Red Nacional Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos). Composed of 16 local, national and international organizations, including SIPAZ, the delegation visited Oaxaca City and various municipalities with the objective of documenting the living conditions and human rights violations experienced within the state of Oaxaca.
September: Talks began between the Ministry of the Interior, the APPO and Section 22 of the SNTE, without arriving at any significant results. The APPO and the teachers continued to demand the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz, considering it a non-negotiable point, while the Ministry of the Interior proposed the possibility of a “profound transformation of the state government” without the dismissal of the governor.
October 4: A meeting was held in the Ministry of the Interior in which an “agreement for the governability, peace and development of Oaxaca,” was supposed to have celebrated, however, this agreement was not reached.
October 12: The citizens’ initiative for a dialogue for peace, democracy and justice in Oaxaca began with the participation of some 2000 people. The Declaration of Santo Domingo was approved and six working groups were established:
- 1: New Democracy and Governability (the political crisis)
- 2: Social and Common Economy (the economic crisis)
- 3: Towards a New Education System (the education crisis)
- 4: Harmony, Justice and Social Equality (the social crisis)
- 5: Historical, Cultural and Natural Heritage in Oaxaca
- 6: Communication at the Service of the People
October 27: Several violent incidents occurred in which four people were killed (among them a US journalist) and several other were wounded in different locations in Oaxaca City. According to local human rights organizations, there is evidence that local police were involved, as well as organized groups armed and trained by the state government to carry out these violent acts against the opposition movements.
October 29: The Federal Preventative Police (PFP, Policía Federal Preventiva) were sent into Oaxaca by the federal government. The PFP entered the city early in the morning and took control of the central plaza that night. The APPO cites at least four deaths as a result of the incursion while the federal government claimed that the operation was without casualties.
October 30: Governor Ulises Ruiz reiterated his position that his leaving office "is not up for discussion, nor is it a solution to the political crisis in the state." Later, the full session of the Chamber of Federal Deputies approved – with the exception of the PRI and the Green Ecologist Party of Mexico (PVEM, Partido Verde Ecologista de México) – an agreement to urge Governor Ulises Ruiz to take leave or resign. The Oaxacan government immediately appealed the agreement in order to overrule the members of the Chamber.
The Senate of the Republic which previously had rejected the dissolution of power in Oaxaca, unanimously (including the PRI) asked Governor Ulises Ruiz “to reconsider leaving office in order to contribute to the reestablishment of governability, normality and peace.” The senate invited all sides of the conflict to contribute to the establishment of peace within the state.
November 2: The entrance of the PFP marked a change in the prolonged conflict in Oaxaca without leading to a concrete solution. After this date, there were violent confrontations around the university city of Oaxaca between the APPO and the PFP, with the control of the University Radio a major point of contention.
November 6: Guerrilla groups detonated several bombs in the national capital, attacking banks, the electoral tribunal and the PRI offices. They justified the actions as protests against electoral fraud and the repression in Oaxaca and Atenco.
Later that week the APPO intensified their actions, calling for a “new general offensive” and initiating a round of massive popular mobilization (bringing together tens of thousands of people), demanding the fall of Ulises Ruiz and the withdrawal of the federal troops from Oaxaca City. Expressions of solidarity with the APPO were demonstrated in several cities across Europe, North America and South America, as well as in Mexico City.
However, the Minister of the Interior decided to allow Ulises Ruiz more time, asking that he utilize this opportunity to present his “reconciliation plan.”
November 13: The APPO presented its plan of action, proposing the creation of a 250 member council, the reinstallation of the street barricades and the retaking of public buildings. They would also attempt to prevent the assumption of power by Felipe Calderón on December 1, if Ulises Ruiz did not fall before that date.
November 25: PFP agents confronted members of the APPO who were marching towards the historic center of Oaxaca City. The result, according to the Mexican newspaper La Jornada, was more than 140 people wounded, three of whom were journalists, 140 arrests and the burning of numerous public and private buildings as well as vehicles.
November 27: Members of the APPO, arrested during the confrontations of November 25, were transferred from the Miahuatlán prison in Oaxaca to the Center for Social Readaptation (CERESO, Centro de Readaptación Social) in San José del Rincón, Nayarit. Other activists were taken to the Federal Maximum Security Center in Matamoros, Tamaulipas. (The latter two prisons are located more than 2000 miles from Oaxaca City).
December 1: Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began his term as president of Mexico, sparking major protests at the Legislative Palace. It was subsequently beseiged by security forces amid a climate of tension and confrontation. In Oaxaca a march was carried out with the attendance of some 5,000 people.
December 4: Flavio Sosa, one of the 264 council members of the APPO, and three others were arrested in Mexico City. The arrest warrant was issued by a federal court and detailed the crimes of sedition, attacks on transportation routes and inciting violence. The APPO councilor was taken to the Altiplano maximum security prison, before La Palma, in Almoloya de Juárez, state of Mexico.
December 16: The PFP withdrew from the historic center of Oaxaca City, passing control on to the state police.
December 17: Forty-three prisoners were released alter having been arrested by the PFP and taken to the medium security prison in San José del Rincón, Nayarit.
December 18: The CNDH presented its preliminary report on the violent events of the conflict in Oaxaca. According to the commission, “In the state and especially in the capital, the conflict situation continues, and the necessary, adequate conditions for the enforcement and observance of fundamental rights do not exist.” The 1,211 complaints received by the CNDH related to the “supposed use of unwarranted force, arbitrary detentions, lack of access to communication, disappeared individuals, damages to people and property, threats and illegal searches.” After considering the events since the beginning of the conflict the commission produced the following statistics: 349 people arrested, 370 wounded and 20 killed.
December 22: A new teachers’ union section was created in Oaxaca, Section 59, comprised of teachers in opposition to the Section 22 and their “mobilizations and constant strikes.” The new section was linked to the controversial union leader Elba Ester Gordillo (ex Secretary General of the PRI, who was expelled from the same party in 2006).
2007
January 5: Representatives of the indigenous Triqui region of Oaxaca announced that since January 1 of the previous year, 20 communities in the region had integrated into the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copala, that they would govern under the principles of usos y costumbres (in which indigenous communities practice their own forms of government, organizing by their normative systems, known as uses and customs) with the objective of avoiding corruption and violence embedded in the official party system. The leaders of the communities form part of the APPO had denounced death threats against them made by the state authorities of Oaxaca.
January 17: The National Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN, Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación) gave priority to the appeal registered by Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz, over the plea made at the end of October by the Chamber of Deputies in which they asked him to leave office or resign.
January 24: The Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union created a special commission of legislators to verify the human rights violations as well as the legal and political situation of those imprisoned by the Ulises Ruiz government as a result of their participation in the APPO.
February 12: The APPO decided not to participate in the elections due to be conducted later in the year for Oaxaca’s state congress and municipalities. They did, however, agree to promote a “punishment” vote against the PRI and PAN parties for their roles in the repression of the movement.
February 23: Section 22 of the SNTE occupied more than 30 state government offices for a period of two to three days. The union demanded that the agreement negotiated with the federal government in October 2006 be respected.
March 18: The sit-in held opposite the Mexican Senate by the APPO since October 9, 2006, was evicted. Participants in the sit-in reported acts of aggression and theft during the eviction and accused the PRD government of Mexico City of being an accomplice of Ulises Ruíz.
March 22: Government Secretary Ramírez Acuña made assurances that Felipe Calderón’s administration would fulfill the agreements which were signed with the APPO and Section 22 during Fox’s presidency.
The APPO initiated another sit-in at the Federal Attorney General’s Office as both a show of solidarity with the family of Brad Will and a demand that the homicides perpetrated during the 2006 conflict be resolved.
April 3: The Peoples’ Assembly–Mixteca Region, supported by the APPO, was formed in an area with one of the largest indigenous populations in Oaxaca.
April 6: The internal divisions in Oaxaca’s PRD were exposed for the first time. Members of the PRD met with electoral authorities, presenting themselves as two independent coalitions: one supported by the state PRD office and the other by the national office. The State Electoral Institute (IEE, Instituto Estatal Electoral) received only the first group, arguing that the PRD’s national office wasn’t authorized to sponsor a coalition in Oaxaca. The national PRD, accusing the state office of acting under the orders of Governor Ulises Ruíz, registered a motion to contest the claim and considered the expulsion of the “rebel” Oaxacan PRD members. Eventually, the motion was accepted and representatives of the Broad Progressive Front (FAP, Frente Amplio Progresista) –the coalition with national PRD support– participated in the elections.
April 20 and 21: The Third Internacional Forum in Defense of Human Rights in Oaxaca took place in Oaxaca City (See the SIPAZ blog).
May 25: According to denunciations by the Revolutionary Popular Army (EPR, Ejército Popular Revolucionario), two of their members were forcibly disappeared in Oaxaca City: Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez (See the SIPAZ blog)
June 14: Teachers participating in Section 22 and members of the APPO conducted a march to commemorate the violent eviction of the teachers’ union protest that occurred exactly one year before. A new sit-in was established in the main plaza Oaxaca City on June 18.
June 19: A land dispute which can be traced as far back as 1941 resulted in two dead, six wounded and eight disappeared. This toll is a result of a confrontation between the municipality of San Miguel Aloapán, associated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional), and the municipal agency San Isidro Aloapán, linked with the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca– Ricardo Flores Magón.
June 27: A negotiating table was opened between Section 22 of the teachers’ union, the APPO and the general secretary of the Oaxaca State Government, Manuel García Corpus. Among the topics to be discussed in the following weeks were the revision of the warrants for those who remain in detention; the legal situation of the majority of detainees, who were only granted provisional liberty; the handover of schools under the control of Section 59 (the sector of the teachers’ union in contention with Section 22); and the cancellation of existing arrest warrants.
July 5: The Triqui Movement for Unity and Struggle (MULT, Movimiento de Unificación y Lucha Triqui) denounced the disapearance of two women in the Mixteca zone of Oaxaca: Virginia Ortiz Ramírez and Daniela Ortiz Ramirez, sisters aged 14 and 20 respectively (See the SIPAZ blog).
July 10: The EPR claimed responsibility for eight explosive charges detonated in the PEMEX (Mexican Petroleum) pipelines located in Guanajuato and Querétaro. They stated that the explosions formed part of a campaign to demand the safe return of two EPR members who had been forcibly disappeared in May.
July 16: Confrontations between members and sympathizers of the APPO and police officers resulted in 60 people wounded and 42 detained. The clash occurred as 10,000 people celebrated the Guelaguetza Popular, a traditional holiday in Oaxaca City.
July: Two Triqui women were forcibly disappeared from the Mixteca area of Oaxaca. Virginia Ortiz Ramírez and Daniela Ortiz Ramírez were sisters aged 14 and 20, respectively.
July 31: Amnesty International (AI) published a report on the human rights situation in Oaxaca: “Oaxaca: Clamour for Justice” (See the AI report)
August 1: Alleged members of the EPR launched a small explosive (petard) in the south of Oaxaca City. They demanded the safe return of EPR members Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sánchez.
August 5: State Congress elections were carried out in relative calm across the state of Oaxaca. Over 70% of those eligible to vote abstained and the PRI maintained its majority in congress.
August 8-11: The president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHRC) Florentín Meléndez -also the Special Rapporteur for Mexico and Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons Deprived of Freedom for the Organization of American States (OAS)- conducted a visit to Oaxaca (See the SIPAZ blog)
October 7: The 152 Oaxaca municipalities governed by the political party system held elections. Voter participation was the same as in previous elections (64%), although this figure neutralizes a broad variation in the participation across the state. The PRI won the majority of these municipalities.
November 2: With well-attended marches, the APPO commemorated the incursion of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) in Oaxaca City. Other mobilizations were held in the Mixteca, Cañada, Isthmus and Coastal regions of the state.
November 20: APPO leader Horacio Sosa Villavicencio was released after almost a year in prison.
December 30: Chatino indigenous leader Lauro Juarez, a fifty-year-old member of the social organization Union of Poor Campesinos-Popular Revolutionary Front (UCP-FPR, Unión de Campesinos Pobres-Frente Popular Revolucionario), disappeared after participating in a protest that was being held along the highway between Oaxaca City and Puerto Escondido (See the SIPAZ blog).
2008
February: The International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation (CCIODH, Comisión Civil Internacional de Observación por los Derechos Humanos) conducted its sixth visit to Mexico, which included the state of Oaxaca. The Commission stated “with preoccupation that one year after the previous visit, the human rights situation in Oaxaca remains in an extremely critical condition. Social, economic and political marginalization continues in indigenous and campesino communities and a large part of the urban population, thus constituting a scenario that propitiates generalized human rights violations.” (See the SIPAZ blog)
March 6: After 11 months in jail, APPO council member David Venegas Reyes, “El Alebrije,” was freed from the Santa María Ixcotel Prison. He won an appeal against the committal to prison which was handed down in the First Instance Mixed Court in Tlacolula de Matamoros. (See the SIPAZ blog)
April 7: Teresa Bautista Merino and Felícitas Martínez Sánchez, both Triqui indigenous women and presenters at the community radio station “The Voice that Breaks the Silence,” were assassinated in the autonomous municipality of San Juan Copalá as they traveled to a community radio conference in Oaxaca City. (See the SIPAZ blog)
April 20: APPO councilor Flavio Sosa Villavicencio was freed after a year and a half in prison.
May 5–12: The Caravan “Path of the Jaguar: for the regeneration of our memory and the defense of territory,” organized by the Gathering of Young People in the Oaxacan Social Movement, visited communities in the Isthmus region of Oaxaca.
May 16: Some 70 thousand members of Section 22 of the National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación) held a strike and marched on the capital of Oaxaca calling for a solution to their demands. Among the demands is a call for the National Executive Committee (CEN, Comité Ejecutivo Nacional) to publish the petition for a change to the state government leadership and the handing over of schools occupied by members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, Partido Revolucionario Institucional) as well as members of the union Section 59.
May 20: Two years after the conflict, the dissidents and Section 22 of the SNTE began a sit-in in the central square of Oaxaca City.
July 22: Thousands of Oaxacans, as well as national and international tourists, attended the “Popular Guelaguetza” organized by Section 22 of the SNTE in the Technological Institute of Oaxaca’s stadium. The celebration was an alternative to the Guelaguetza organized by the state government. On this same day Adán Mejía López, member of the APPO and Marxist Militant Tendency was released from prison. He had been detained on July 17, 2007 (See the SIPAZ blog).
July 27: Shots were fired by unknown gunmen at the house of radio presenter Melesio Melchor Ángeles from Zaachila Radio. The same day, Jorge Aragón, member of the same collective, was assaulted (See the SIPAZ blog).
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