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<h1><font size=4><b>Oaxacan Political Prisoners Find New Hope in
Zapatistas' Other
Campaign</b></font></h1><font size=1>
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/oaxacan-political-prisoners-find-new-hope-zapatistas-other-campaign" eudora="autourl">
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/kristin-bricker/2009/06/oaxacan-political-prisoners-find-new-hope-zapatistas-other-campaign<br>
</a></font><font size=3>Posted by
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/users/kristin-bricker">Kristin
Bricker</a> - June 14, 2009 at 5:16 pm <br><br>
<b>Subcomandante Marcos' 2006 Visit to Imprisoned Loxichas Inspired a New
Movement; One Prisoner is Already Free<br><br>
</b>On February 9, 2006,
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue40/article1611.html">Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos entered Oaxaca's Santa María Ixcotel jail</a> to visit
indigenous political prisoners from the state's Loxicha region.
When he left the prison, he called upon Other Campaign adherents in
Oaxaca to launch a national campaign to demand freedom for the political
prisoners. <br><br>
That national campaign never happened.<br><br>
However, a Oaxacan group called the Zapatista Collective stepped
up. As adherents to the Other Campaign, they took Marcos' words to
heart and made political prisoner accompaniment a central focus of their
organization's work. Soon after Marcos' prison visit, the
collective approached one of the Loxicha political prisoners, a woman
named Isabel Almaraz, and asked her how they could help her fight for her
freedom. They worked with her for over two years, with her fighting
from within the prison walls and the Zapatista Collective fighting from
outside. On July 17, 2008, Almaraz won her freedom.<br><br>
Throughout Almaraz's fight for her freedom, other Loxicha political
prisoners and their families watched with interest. They'd had more
than enough experience with outsiders wishing to "help."
Outsiders tended to begin campaigns without properly consulting with the
prisoners. Even worse, they would use the prisoners for their own
political gains, such as securing a letter from the infamous Loxicha
political prisoners to be read aloud at a conference or event.
<br><br>
But the Zapatista Collective was different. Their political
prisoner work is guided by the principle of, "Don't struggle for
[political prisoners]; struggle with them." The collective
accompanied Almaraz in her fight for freedom rather than launching a
campaign on her behalf--and it worked. <br><br>
When Almaraz was released, other Loxicha political prisoners invited the
Zapatista Collective to collaborate with them on their fight for
freedom. After years of initial struggle following their arrests in
1996, the movement had grown quiet. The Loxichas were ready to
fight again, but this time it would be them leading the struggle for
their freedom.<br><br>
The Loxichas have begun this new phase of struggle with a protest caravan
from the Loxicha region to Mexico City. Along the way, they march
though towns in Oaxaca and Puebla. The caravan, comprised of
approximately 70 Loxichas, made a stop in Ocotlan, Oaxaca, the site of
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue57/article3522.html">an ongoing
battle between Canadian mining company Fortuna Silver Mines and the
autonomous town of San Jose del Progreso</a> in the Ocotlan municipality.
The Loxicha caravan arrives in Mexico City for a protest in front of the
Ministry of the Interior on June 15.<br><br>
<b>Struggle and Repression<br><br>
</b>The Loxicha struggle, like most indigenous struggles, has been a long
and constant one. Up until 1984, the Loxicha region was dominated
by <i>caciques</i>--outsider mestizo political bosses who ruled the
majority indigenous region through repression and corruption. The
region was (and still is) horribly underdeveloped. The twelve
Loxicha political prisoners told supporters in an open letter written for
the caravan, "The Loxicha region is one of the poorest regions in
the state of Oaxaca. It is in a state of complete marginalization
and extreme poverty, and [the people] have been totally abandoned.
Malnutrition and hunger are widespread. Adults and children die of
curable diseases because of a lack of economic resources... This
situation forced us as residents to organize ourselves in a peaceful and
civil manner."<br><br>
To improve their standard of living, the Loxichas ousted the undemocratic
and unresponsive political bosses. In 1984, for the first time in
recent history, the president of the San Augustin Loxicha municipality,
Alberto Antonio Antonio, was a Loxicha, not a <i>cacique</i>.
Residents elected him through traditional governance mechanisms called
<i>usos y costumbres</i> ("uses and customs"), not the corrupt
government electoral process that had been used to impose caciques upon
them for decades. For ten years, Loxichas controlled their own
destiny through <i>usos y costumbres</i>, electing authorities who
responded to their needs.<br><br>
Then the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) made its first public
appearance. On June 28, 1996, during the commemoration of the first
anniversary of a massacre in Aguas Blancas, Guerrero, where the Mexican
military murdered 17 peasants, armed members of the EPR arrived
unexpectedly and presented the group's first declaration. They told
those gathered at the ceremony, "We have sprung forth from the
sorrow of orphans and widows, from the absence of loved ones disappeared,
from the pain of the tortured, from the anger of those unjustly
incarcerated, from those who suffer from political and social
persecution, from the situation which daily kills with repression,
misery, hunger and disease, such as the abandoned children on the
streets."<br><br>
A month later, the EPR carried out its first armed attack in the
neighboring state of Oaxaca. On August 29, the EPR took over the
town of La Crucecita and engaged in a battle with the military and
federal and local police. Eleven government agents died, as well as
one or two members of the EPR. The government claims that one of
the EPR casualties was Loxicha. "And that was the pretext for
all of the repression that followed," Erika Sebastian Luis, the
daughter of Loxicha political prisoner Alvaro Sebastian Ramirez, told
Narco News. <br><br>
On September 25, 1996, then-president Ernesto Zedillo sent police and
federal soldiers to invade San Augustin Loxicha. They arrested over
500 residents, including the entire city council, without an arrest
warrant, claiming that they were members of the EPR. The majority
of the detainees were released after 72 hours of questioning, but 130-155
Loxichas remained imprisoned. Their wives and other family members
formed a <i>plantón</i>, or protest encampment, outside of the governor's
office to demand the prisoners' release. After over four years of
the women's <i>plantó</i>n, the government released all but twelve
prisoners.<br><br>
Other Loxicha political prisoners have entered and left Oaxacan prisons
since the September 25 repression because the government aggressions
against San Augustin Loxicha never ended. 1996 and 1997 were
particularly difficult years full of human rights abuses, disappearances,
and politically motivated arrests. The government attacked San
Augustin Loxicha with numerous joint operations--that is, operations that
included the military and police from various levels of the government,
just like today's joint operations in the drug war. Sebastian Luis
told Narco News that many of these operations were led by members of the
caciques' private armies, known as "white guards." The
white guards told the police and soldiers where organizers lived so that
they could be arrested. In 1997, Lucio Vasquez, a <i>cacique</i>
whose family is full of prominent white guards, took advantage of the
constant government raids on San Augustin Loxicha and the detention of
community leaders and authorities. He declared himself municipal
president, and <i>cacique</i> rule returned to San Augustin
Loxicha.<br><br>
<b>Stigmatization and Hope<br><br>
</b>The Loxicha case is filled with irregularities and abuses. Many
of the prisoners, including Sebastian Luis' father Alvaro, were
tortured. Sebastian Luis says the torture included the
<i>tehuacanazo</i> (squirting mineral water mixed with chile up the
victim's nose), beatings, and sexual abuse. Through torture, many
prisoners were forced to sign blank pieces of paper (in Sebastian
Ramirez's case, over 200 pages) that were later filled with confessions
invented by the authorities. All of the remaining twelve Loxicha
prisoners are accused of homicide.<br><br>
Despite the painfully obvious injustices and abuses in the Loxicha case,
the political prisoners have not enjoyed the national or international
support that other political prisoners and indigenous groups do.
The lack of solidarity is likely due to the government's accusation that
the Loxicha prisoners belong to the EPR, according to a member of the
Zapatista Collective. The EPR has not enjoyed the civil society
support that the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) has.
On the contrary, it has been thoroughly demonized, thanks in large part
to former president Zedillo's creation of a
"<a href="http://www.jornada.unam.mx/1996/08/30/cocopa.txt.html">
good guerilla, bad guerrilla</a>" paradigm. Following the
appearance of the EPR in 1996, Zedillo stated that while the EZLN had a
social base, did not resort to terror, and agreed to dialogue with
government, the EPR lacked a social base and used terrorist means to
achieve its goals. Zedillo never elaborated on the difference he saw
between the EZLN's armed uprising, in which it attacked military and
police targets and threatened to overthrow the federal government, and
the EPR's attacks on military and police targets. The demonization
of the EPR has given the government a permanent pretext for repression:
it can accuse any social organization or organizers that oppose it of
being "EPR terrorists" and unleash unthinkable violence upon
them.<br><br>
Even though the Loxichas deny that they belong to the EPR, the damage has
been done. Throughout most of their struggle, they've been largely
abandoned by civil society. They hope that with Subcomandante
Marcos' statement that they have a place within the Other Campaign, they
can overcome the stigmatization caused by the government's allegations
that they belong to the EPR. Marcos has gone so far as to say that
when Oaxacan organizations do present a proposal for a national campaign
for the Loxicha prisoners' freedom, the Zapatistas will promote the
campaign. This is exactly what the Loxichas want. They hope
to receive support and solidarity at a level that they've never before
enjoyed, relying upon the international network of indigenous rights
supporters created by the Other Campaign.<br><br>
The Loxicha caravan, a first step towards a national campaign, comes at a
critical time for the Loxicha prisoners. Four of them are scheduled
to complete their 13-year sentences within the coming months. The
other eight have been sentenced to 32 years. Sebastian Luis told
Narco News that if the four prisoners are left to serve their full
sentences, it will be much more difficult to argue that the other eight
shouldn't serve their full 32-year sentences. <br><br>
Despite the odds against them, the Loxichas are hopeful. By
choosing to lead the campaign themselves rather than allowing
non-prisoners to direct a campaign on their behalf, the prisoners have
chosen a tried-and-true political prisoner solidarity model. Over a
year ago, the Chiapas state government
released<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue51/article3045.html"> over
forty political prisoners</a>, including many Zapatistas, after the
prisoners kicked off a campaign for their freedom with an indefinite
hunger strike. The Chiapan prisoners led the campaign throughout
the hunger strike, using phone cards to call members of civil society and
instructing them on how to plan marches and what to paint on banners that
called for their release. <br><br>
So far, the Loxicha caravan has been met with support from Mexican civil
society. Oaxaca's Section 22 teachers union has declared its open
support for the Loxichas and has joined them in the demand for the
prisoners' freedom. Likewise, Omar Esparza from the Network of
Community and Indigenous Radios of the Mexican Southeast reports that
teachers from Puebla's Section 23 and Section 51 unions have received the
Loxichas with open arms in that state. On June 11--just two
days before the Loxicha's arrival--Puebla governor Mario Marin ordered a
brutal police operation against Section 23, resulting the arrest of 15
teachers and human rights observers.<br><br>
The Loxichas say that the caravan is only a first step in their renewed
campaign for freedom for their political prisoners. They are
expected to announce more actions in the coming days. <br><br>
<br>
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