On September 19th, 20th, and 21st of 2008, the extended plenary meeting of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI, Congresso Nacional Indígena) took place in the indigenous community of Cacalotepec, in the municipality of Santos Reyes Pápalo, home to the Cuicateco people, who are located in the highlands of the Región Cañada in the state of Oaxaca.
The meeting, which was organized by the Popular Indigenous Council of Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM, Consejo Indígena Popular de Oaxaca Ricardo Flores Magón), was broken down into plenary meetings as well as four themes of discussion: 1.- Our path as indigenous peoples in the face of capitalist projects; 2.-The strengthening of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI); 3.- The situation of indigenous women in the face of capitalist projects; 4.- The repression of indigenous peoples.
Representatives from the following peoples participated: the Cuicateco people; the Mixteco people from both the coast and the highlands; the Zapoteca people; the Mixe people; the Tsotsil people; the Tseltal people; the Nahua people; the Purhepecha people; the WIX’ARIKA people; the Triqui people; the Chinanteco people. In addition representatives from various NGOs and social organizations participated. Members of SIPAZ attended as international observers.
On September 19th and 20th, the National Forum “Construyendo Caminos y Articulando Proyectos para la Transformación Política” (“Building Paths and Developing Plans for Political Transformation”) occurred in Oaxaca. According to the organizers, the meeting was a gathering of 240 people; this included men, women, representatives and members of seventy-three social and civil organizations, including social movements from Chiapas, Morelos, Oaxaca, Guerrero, and the state of Mexico, as well as representatives from Australia and the United States.
The final political declaration emphasized that “this event is occurring within the context of a serious institutional crisis and of a fragile democracy, in which we as a country are immersed; it is occurring within the many experiences of struggle and resistance from many diverse social movements in Mexico and through the necessity of re-articulating the social and political processes of the people of Oaxaca in the face of the authoritarianism of the government”.
The proposed objectives of this event were: to generate a space of discussion for the diverse range of social movements in the country; to identify common elements between the national and local settings, as well as to reach a consensus on the priority courses of action within the social agenda.
The European Social Forum (ESF) is a meeting for social movements in Europe, a force of regional coordination integrated in the framework of the Global Social Forums. In the case of Europe, it first took place in Florence, Italy in 2002.
This year, the Forum took place in Malmö, Sweden and according to the organizers 20,000 participants attended and around 200 activities took place, among them seminars, workshops, and debates. Under the slogan “another Europe is possible”, the participants included members of unions, organizations for the environment, women’s rights, the defense of indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights in general, as well as leftist movements linked to political parties as well as independent groups.
SIPAZ participated in two workshops under the theme “Chiapas, 14 years after the Zapatista uprising” as well as a debate about social movements in the south of Mexico
with members of Radio Plantón (a community radio station run by members of the teachers trade union in Oaxaca) and the Finish boat Estelle which works in solidarity with the zapatistas.
Workshop on the Finish Boat Estelle
Among the cultural program, which included more than 400 activities including concerts, movies, and photography exhibitions, one of the exhibitions which was very successful was “la Otra Mirada” (the other vision) which was organized by a group of independent photographers from Mexico. Their exhibition about La Otra Campana (the Other Campaign) and Subcomandante Marcos’ tour in 2006 was very popular.
For More Information about the European Social Forum or the Finish boat Estelle:
During the European Social Forum, one of the most popular exhibitions was “la Otra Mirada” (the Other Vision) which consisted of 12 photos from the tour of “la Otra Campaña” (the Other Campaign) in Mexico. According to the organizers of this event, this tour “allowed the possibility to make visible the great number of individual and collective struggles; the long list of injustices and robberies perpetrated by small governments or by huge transnational corporations; as well as the great range of willpower fighting to recreate hope, with the firm resolution to never surrender. Struggles which were not aware of each other because of geographical distance, are beginning to discover and become aware of each other”.
In addition they explain that “In this process, the alternative media, also made up of active individuals in the movement, is given the task of recording through reports, sound recordings, photographs, and videos, the testimonies and experiences of all those who have participated, spoken up to denounce, and shown strength during the tour”.
Through this exhibition, the organizers attempted “to portray each of these struggles through alternative means of communication, which later would allow one to get to know them and understand how they feel, how they smell, and to know how they live and struggle in each of the different parts of our country”.
According to a report from the Oaxacan offices of the Mexican League for the Defense of Human Rights (Limeddh, Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos)on September 8, 51 activists within the Oaxacan social movement were released by an order from the Third District Court. All of the activists were detained by agents from the Federal Preventative Police (PFP Policía Federal Preventiva) November 25, 2006 in the Historic Center of Oaxaca City.
In their last communiqué, Limeddh stated that, “The individuals who were illegally arrested on November 25, are a clear example of the victimization that innocent people suffer within a corrupt justice system that acts under orders from the executive branch.”
The Committee of Relatives of the Assasinated, Disappeared and Political Prisoners of Oaxaca (COFADAPPO, Comité de Familiares de Asesinados, Desaparecidos y Presos Políticos de Oaxaca,) circulated a communiqué the same day in which they announce that the former detainees will bring a case against those authorities responsible for the abuses.
Members of CECOP in opposition to the hydroelectric dam project La Parota
On September 3, 2008, Jacinto Solís Vázquez, a member of the Council of Ejidos and Communities Opposed to the dam La Parota (CECOP, Consejo de Ejidos y Comunidades Opositores a la presa La Parota), was detained by agents from the Ministerial Police (PIM) who transported him to the Las Cruces detention center in the municipality of Acapulco, Guerrero. Solís was detained under a warrant which had been cancelled in 2004 after an appeal was made. After 20 hours in police custody, he was released despite the fact that the Sixth Court (of the penal branch ascribed to the detention center in Las Cruces) justified the arrest stating that the PIM agents were unaware of the fact that the arrest warrant was no longer valid.
According to the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of the Montaña (CDHM Tlachinollan, Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña “Tlachinollan”), these events are just one example of how the government continues in its intent to hinder the CECOP movement. It is important to remember that on July 30, during a visit to Acapulco, the Secretary of the Interior, Juan Camilo Mouriño Terrazo, declared that the hydroelectric dam project, La Parota, would continue in force. His comments seem to confirm the fact that neither the federal nor the state governments have taken the position of the CECOP or the recommendations made by the UN to suspend the project, into consideration. The CDHM Tlachinollan considers the arrest of members of CECOP, such as that of Solís, El CDHM Tlachinollan considera que las detenciones de miembros del CECOP, como la de Solís, part of a “strategy that the state government has been following in order to generate an confrontational environment in response to its plan to sujugate, silence and criminalize those in opposition and resistence to the construction of la Parota.”
The Director General of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples, Luis H. Álvarez
During a scheduled trip to Juchitán de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, the Director General of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI, Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas), Luis H. Álvarez, stated that the state of Oaxaca has the highest percentage of indigenous people in the prison system in the country (26%).
The Director General of the CDI also reiterated the conclusions outlined in an investigative report carried out by a team commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mexico in conjunction with the CDI (Informe del Diagnóstico sobre el acceso a la justicia para los indígenas en México. Estudio de caso en Oaxaca [2007]).The report determined that for every 100 indigenous people in Mexico charged with a crime, 82 do not have access to a interpreter.
Footage of the eviction recorded by members of the August 11 Women’s Group
On August 28, 2008, at approximately 3 in the afternoon, the Grupo de Mujeres 11 de agosto (August 11 Women’s Group, affiliated with OCEZ-RC) from Pujiltic in the municipality of Venustiano Carranza, were violently assaulted by a group of some 600 workers from the Pujiltic sugar refinery, members of Section 42 of the Sugar Workers’ Union. The workers were threatened with a 40 day work suspension if they did not participate in the eviction of the women which was headed by the sugar union leaders Abel Morales Arguello and Manuel Lievano Arguello. Also present at the eviction were members of the State Preventative Police as well as Regional Delegate Limber Capito Juárez, and other officials from the Venustiano Carranza municipal government. According to the denouncement issued by the Grupo de Mujeres 11 de agosto, “the municipal agent from the Obrera district of Pujiltic, Juan Martínez Gutiérrez, arrived at the scene discharging tear gas and acting as the authority in the aggression.”
On August 29, SIPAZ conducted an interview with a member of the Grupo de Mujeres 11 de agosto in which she describes the events of August 28. To view the interview (in Spanish) click on the link below.
Posted by SIPAZ 
Posted by SIPAZ 
Posted by SIPAZ 
