UPDATE - January 30 - See new post.
UPDATE - January 30 - El Enemigo Común has several new statements and communiqués posted regarding the caravan and the arrest of David Venegas. In brief:
- David Venegas is being held at the State Attorney General's Office, falsely charged with "assault, threats and bodily harm to public officials." Supporters will hold a protest in front of the Cathedral in the city of Oaxaca today at 5pm.
- Solidarity reinforcements for the caravan of the displaced will be departing Mexico City at 8pm on February 1.
- Through negotiations with the government, the displaced agreed to send ten representatives to the assembly being held in San Juan Copala to determine whether or not the displaced will be allowed to enter their own town. Aside from the ten displaced, the participants in the assembly will be made up of the paramilitaries currently occupying the town.
- The caravan of the displaced is currently stopped just outside of La Sabana, an UBISORT paramilitary stronghold where the ambush of the first caravan on April 27, 2010 occurred. The police have left the area, placing the caravan members at grave risk of attack from paramilitaries.
UPDATE - January 29 - (via email) - Compañerxs, the dialogue between the government and the displaced from San Juan Copala has been broken off.
The Triqui compañeras are ready to enter Copala, even without safety guarantees.
We ask you to be on alert.
As well, as a result of a direct order from Jesús Martínez Alvarez (state interior minister) the state police have just detained David Venegas Reyes without saying where they are taking him. Please update the media that the caravan to San Juan Copala today hoped to enter their town and negotiations have broken off and we hold PRI-UBISORT and PRI-MULT responsible for the attacks and murders that these organizations have carried out against our brothers and sisters from San Juan Copala.
Autonomy, Autogestion, Direct Action, For the revolution!
Long live indigenous autonomy!
Free Political Prisoners!
UPDATE - January 28 - [Spanish original] - After the caravan of the displaced, members of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala and members from Yosoyuxi left for San Juan Copala, approximately 200 riot people blocked our way today, January 28, about three kilometers from where we had left, in a place known as Barranca de Lodo, at approximately 12:54pm.
The caravan, largely made up of displaced women and children, men, women and children from the region, as well as solidarity activists from several social, political and student organizations from Oaxaca, Mexico City, Mexico state, and other entities, had spent the night in Yosoyuxi, after having been on the highway that runs from Tlaxiaco to Juxtlahuaca, and after hours of negotiations with government authorities, finally after nine in the evening on Friday, January 27, they were able to reach an agreement that the caravan could go to Yosoyuxi, accompanied by a strong police presence.
The displaced put forward their willingness to establish a dialogue with state authorities capable of resolving the matter, such as those from the Interior Ministry, the Indigenous Issues Ministry, the Public Security Ministry, so that some conditions could be established that would begin the work towards lowering the tension in the area.
However, again the state government sided with the paramilitaries, alleging that there could be no agreement to allow the entry of the displaced until tomorrow, when an assembly will happen by those who have illegitimately and violently occupied San Juan Copala since September 2010.
As of this moment, there has been no rapprochement from the authorities, nor overtones about ending the blockade maintained by the state police. The situation is tense and we ask everyone to be alert as there is information that since yesterday, Friday, January 27, hundreds of MULT paramilitaries are occupying San Juan Copala, maintaining blockades at various points on the way to Copala, thereby blocking the entry of the displaced.
Caravan of Dignity for the Dignified Return of the Displaced from San Juan Copala
January 27, 2012
[Spanish original]
Translated by Scott Campbell
Approximately 200 police officers, belonging to the state Department of Public Security, blocked the path of the caravan of displaced Triquis who are trying to return to the cultural and ceremonial center of San Juan Copala. The police positioned themselves at kilometer 7, in the municipality of Tlaxiaco, to keep the children, women and men from entering the Triqui region.
In the group are traveling 71 Triqui women, 24 children and 26 men. As well, there are 47 members of non-governmental organizations, international observers, human rights defenders and members of an alternative media outlet.
Members of the caravan state that a stretch of the highway was dynamited near the village of Santa Catarina in order to block their path.
They say that the police operation is being headed by Víctor Raúl Martínez, coordinator of the advisers to Governor Gabino Cué Monteagudo.
These events occur 24 hours after the displaced were to sign a peace agreement, in the presence of the governor of Oaxaca. However, in meetings held through Thursday morning, members of the Union for the Social Well-Being of the Triqui Region (UBISORT) and the Triqui Movement for Unification and Struggle (MULT) made clear their disagreement with the displaced returning to Copala this week. Given the impossibility of arriving at an agreement, Governor Gabino Cué has said that he cannot guarantee the safety of the displaced.
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