In his first public appearance upon his arrival in Chihuahua City on his tour of northern Mexico, Subcommander Marcos announced the Zapatista rebels’ total support for the people of Oaxaca “and their most diginifed representative, the Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO).” Marcos said from the city’s central Revolution Park, “As of today, the federales have killed at least three people, including a minor; left dozens injured, including several Oaxacan women; and detained dozens, who have been illegally held in military prisons.” In a communique, the General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) called for the immediate resignation of Oaxaca’s Gov. Ulises Ruiz, the total withdrawal of all federal police forces, the unconditional release of all the detained, and the apprehension and punishment of the assassins.” The statement said Zapatista militants would begin blocking roads in Chiapas to press these demands Nov. 1. (La Jornada, Oct. 31)
Tuxtla Gutierrez, capital of Chiapas, more than a thousand marched from organizations including Sections 7 and 40 of the teachers’ union, and peasant groups incuding the Independent Rural Campesino Worker Movement (MOCRI), and the Emiliano Zapata Proletarian Organization (OPEZ). (APRO, Oct. 31) However, Chiapas’ newly-elected Gov. Pablo Salazar, of the left-opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), supported the federal intervention in Oaxaca, calling it a “legitimate” use of force. (APRO, Oct. 30)
In Oaxaca, APPO announced that they would not return to the dialogue table until federal police are withdrawn from the state. (APRO, Oct. 31)
In Michoacan, local Section 18 of the national teachers’ union announced an indefinite strike in solidarity with the teachers of Oaxaca, and the 3,000 local teachers would be travelling to Oaxaca to support the struggle there. (La Jornada, Oct. 31)
In Mexico City, 21 APPO supporters entering their third week of hunger strike shared a stage with Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the city’s Benito Juarez monument to protest the repression in Oaxaca. However, the APPO activists declined Lopez Obrador’s offer to help lead the subsequent march to the presidential residence at Los Pinos. (El Universal, Nov. 1)
In another sign of tension between Lopez Obrador’s Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Mexico’s revolutionary currents, PRD Chihuahua state deputy Jaime Garcia Chavez dissented from Marcos’ visit to Cuidad Juarez and the fact that the police provided security for his meeting. “It is as if bin Laden toured the United States protected by arms,” he said. (APRO, Oct. 30)
All sources archived at Chiapas95
See our last posts on the crisis in Oaxaca, the Zapatista response, Chiapas, Michoacan and Marcos and bin Laden.
