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In 1996 the attack by the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) in La Crucecita served as a pretext to justify the repression against the indigenous population in the Loxicha region in the southern mountains of Oaxaca. During the previous years there were at least 200 cases of illegal detentions, 150 cases of torture, 32 illegal raids, 22 extra-judicial executions, 22 cases of forced disappearances, 137 persons detained as political prisoners or prisoners of conscience and an undetermined number of sexual abuses, harassment, death threats and irregular penal proceses.
Also see: http://www.laneta.apc.org/rio/loxicha/represion.htm (in Spanish)
Article in English: “The Untold Story of the Low Intensity War in Loxicha”
- On political prisoners::
Web site: “Viento de Libertad” (Wind of liberty). Information about the political prisoners and prisoners of consciende in Oaxaca (in Spanish)
“Notes from the Other Oaxaca” (article in English)
Report from the Caravan of Observation of the Rights of Indegenous Population and the Freedom of the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Oaxaca (2003) (in Spanish)
“Oaxaca, third place in femicide” (Article in Spanish)
Also see the Reports of the Oaxacan Human Rights Network (in Spanish)
The most recent one (January 2006) presents a brief diagnostic of the situation with the following subjects:
- Violations against Human Rights,
- Justice administration and promotion,
- Montoring of public human rights bodies,
- Violence against women,
- Projects on Development and the Rights of the Indegenous Population,
- The National Reform,
- Agrarian Conflicts
- The teachers’ movement/APPO 2006 – documents in Spanish
Chronology of the movement
Report by the RODH regarding the intented removal of the sit in of the teachers in Oaxaca June 14, 2006
Various declarations
Independent medias – Written documents, audio and videos: [1] and [2]
Urgent Actions by Amnesty International (in Spanish): [1] and [2]
Documents by Amnesty International (in English): (August 25)
Urgent Action by the World Organization against Torture (in Spanish)
The popular movement in Oaxaca, not explicable without the indigenous presence (article)
Information in English:
Indymedia Webpage
México Solidarity Network Web Page
State denial and repression in Oaxaca
Revolutionary Oaxaca: From Teachers’ Strike Towards Dual Power
Violence flares in south Mexico
People and Media Critical of Ulises Ruiz are Under Attack
Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law of the Club" - Barbarous Oaxaca
According to the Secretary of Agrarian Reform, nine of the 60 agrarian situations that existed in Oaxaca at the beginning of president Fox’s administration were declared as “red alerts” and 51 as “yellow alerts”. At the end of 2005 it is believed that six of the “red alerts” and 29 of the “yellow alerts” have been resolved. Oaxaca is considered to be the most sensitive state in the country in this respect. Civil organizations identify 656 agrarian conflicts. Behind this problematic are the various underlying factors with structural and historic characteristics.
The massacre in Agua Fría
On May 31 2001, 26 farmers from Santiago Xochiltepec, of the Santiago Textitlán municipality in the southern mountains of Oaxaca, were ambushed and then asassinated with more than 100 gunshots in Agua Fría. They were given the coup de grace in the head or in the genitals with high caliber firearms, as well being robbed of the money they were carrying. 16 people from the nearby village of Santo Domingo Teojomulco were detained.
In this region, which is one of the poorest in the state, six villages exist that suffer from ancient territorial disputes regarding thousands of hectares of forest land and fertile sowing land.
For more information see:
Agrarian-Forest Conflict in the Chimalapas
This conflict dates back to March 1967 when 28 communities from Chiapas were settled on territory that historically had belonged to the people of Oaxaca. They acquired 594,000 hectares of land through a presidential resolution.
In 1991 the villagers of the Chimalapas initiated a reconciliation process, “farmer to farmer”: the land owners from Chiapas that had arrived after 1967 were invited to stay in exchange for their recognition of the Chimalapan communities and acceptance of converting themselves into “comuneros.” The state and municipal authorities, mainly in Chiapas, were accused of boycotting this negotiation process by putting pressure on the majority of the land owners to continue to be part of Chiapas.
On the other hand, the federal environmental authorities pretended to found a Biosphere Reserve in the Chimalapas. This is contradictory to the interest of the “comuneros” who intended to create a Peasant Ecological Reserve to support policies designed for them and with the support of ecological organizations, once the agrarian problems were resolved.
To this day the conflict has not found an end. Adding the agrarian problem to the interstate border conflict between Oaxaca and Chiapas results in a particularily complex situation.
For further information (in Spanish) about this problematic you will find an introduction on: (http://www.geocities.com/chimalapasmx/) as well as a series of articles on the same topic on http://www.geocities.com/chimalapasmx/articulos.htm.
Other articles in English:
“Chimalapas montane forests”
“The Social Construction of Deforestation in Mexico: A case study of the 1998 fires in the Chimalapas Rain Forest”
- The agrarian problematic and PROCEDE
Oaxaca is the state with greatest number of communities that have not entered into PROCEDE (Certification Program of Rights Regarding Ejidos and the Terrain on which Houses are Built)
See (in Spanish):
The focus in SIPAZ Newsletter Vol XI number 3, July 2006, focus on PROCEDE (in English)
Mexico: Impacts of Procede in agrarian conflicts and the concentration of land (2003) (in Spanish)
Also see:
“The Reform of Article 27 and PROCEDE”
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