Photos from the 7th Megmarch Oaxaca November 25th

Submitted by rochelle gause on Sun, 11/26/2006 - 7:56pm

The march was yet another incredible showing of support for APPO and for the removal of both the corrupt governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and the Federal Preventative Police who have been in Oaxaca for almost a month now. And yet the day ended with immense repression...

The crowd was incredibly diverse. People came out from their homes applauding the march and many handed out sandwiches, fruit, and water...

After marching for 5 hours from a town outside the city, the march began to circle the main square, which the federal police have occupied since their arrival. The police were in full riot gear at each of the entrances to the main square. In many of the entrances a police officer could be seen on top of the armored vehicles armed with live ammunition. Within half an hour street battles broke out between the movement and the police in atleast two of the entrances. Some members of the movement, armed with rocks, maltov cocktails and fireworks, faced off with the police who used an an incredible amount of tear gas, rocks and marbles shot with slingshots. After awhile the police pushed the people north up the hill, at one point taking over the Santo Domingo plaza where the movement has been centered since the police forced them out of the main square. The police continued to fire teargas into the crowd and burnt the tarps and other items in the Santo Domingo plaza. The report from APPO's most recent Constitutive Congress were scattered all over the ground. During this time plain clothed police were detaining people in the streets. After the police retreated back to the main square, many movement members regrouped in Santo Domingo as night was falling...

All of a sudden the police lines began advancing back up the hill on multiple streets at once forcing the crowd to run up the hill. I took this last photo as I was running from the police with hundreds of others. Medics were running behind me with a man on a stretcher clenching a blloody cloth against his head. They slid into the makeshift clinic that was set up weeks ago in the Santo Domingo plaza closing the door behind them.
The police advanced over eight blocks forcing the crowd to continue running north of the main square. Paramilitary groups also arrived on the scene shooting into the crowd as people ran for their lives. Throughout the next few hours federal police and plainclothed gunmen continued to attack members of the movement who had taken cover in various locations. Three movement members are dead, over 100 detained, and over 200 injured (40 with live amunition). These people are guilty of simply demanding justice and trying to organize an alternative to the corrupt and repressive leadership that governs their state. The Mexican federal government's response, supposedly to restore peace, has instead attempted to maintain the exploitive status quo through further repression and with no regard for the true root causes of this conflict, the extreme poverty and injust government policies that benefit a few at the cost of the majority. Please continue to take action in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca!