Teaching Rebellion

Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca

Diana Denham, C. A. S. A Collective, Diana Denham, C. A. S. A Collective

• Publisher: PM Press
• Year: 2008
• ISBN:
  9781604861648
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Sostegno politico

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico, came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and earned the admiration of communities organizing for social justice around the world. The show of international solidarity for the people of Oaxaca was the most extensive since the Zapatista uprising in 1994. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers" strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800, 000 people, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, called for statewide labor and hunger strikes, held sit-ins, reclaimed spaces for public art and created altars for assassinated activists in public spaces. In the now legendary March of Pots and Pans, two thousand women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks. Barricades that were built all over the city to prevent the passage of paramilitaries and defend occupied public spaces, quickly became a place where neighbors got to know each other, shared ideas and developed new strategies for organizing.

Despite the fierce repression that the movement faced—with hundreds arbitrarily detained, tortured, forced into hiding, or murdered by the state and federal forces and paramilitary death squads—people were determined to make their voices heard.

"Once you learn to speak, you don"t want to be quiet anymore, " an indigenous community radio activist said. Accompanied by photography and political art, Teaching Rebellion is a compilation of testimonies from longtime organizers, teachers, students, housewives, religious leaders, union members, schoolchildren, indigenous community activists, artists, journalists, and many others who participated in what became the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca. This is a chance to listen directly to those invested in and affected by what quickly became one of the most important social uprisings of the 21st century.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE POPULAR UPRISING

PILLARS of the STATE

Image III

JUNE 14, 2006

At 4:30 am police attempt to displace the teachers’ plantón in the city center, using tear gas, firearms and helicopters in the attack. Thousands of people from around the city come to the teachers’ aid and after 5 hours of confrontation, the zócalo is retaken from the police. The union’s radio station and voice of the movement, Radio Plantón, is targeted. Police brutalize station operators and destroy the broadcasting equipment. The movement’s radio transmission continues from Radio Universidad at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO) until the end of November.

JUNE 22, 2006

Ulises Ruiz convenes a march of support for the government, bribing and blackmailing people to participate. Such blatant corruption is denounced, many calling it the “March of Shame”. This tension produces confrontations in several parts of the city.

JULY 2, 2006

Presidential elections are held in Mexico. Conservative PAN candidate Felipe Calderón wins by a slim margin over centerleft PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, amidst numerous reports of irregularities. In state elections in Oaxaca, the PRI loses the majority of state districts for the first time in history.

JULY 22, 2006

The studios of the movement’s new voice, Radio Universidad, are shot at with bullets by armed unknowns.

AUGUST 8, 2006

In another day of confrontations, Marcos García Tapia, professor of dentistry at UABJO, is gunned down in the city’s historic center.

AUGUST 9, 2006

In the Putla region of the state, members of the community organization MULTI (Independent Triqui Movement for Unification and Struggle) are ambushed by gunmen and three of the group’s members are killed including 35 year-old Andrés Santiago Cruz, 70 year-old Pedro Martínez Martínez and 11 year-old Pablo Octavio Martínez Martínez. (Image IV)

Image IV

AUGUST 10, 2006

Snipers attack a peaceful march convened by the teachers’ union, killing mechanic José Jimenez Colmenares as he accompanies his wife, a member of the teachers union.

AUGUST 16, 2006

Retired teacher Gonzalo Cisneros Gautier is assassinated in Zaachila.

AUGUST 22, 2006

Public official and APPO sympathizer, Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes is assassinated by state police forces near La Ley radio station.

SEPTEMBER 18, 2006 The PRI produced documents requesting the intervention of national security forces from the government. The teachers’ union agrees to return to classes immediately if Ulises Ruiz would resign. (Image V)

Image V

SEPTEMBER 30, 2006

Oaxaca becomes increasingly militarized as Army and Navy helicopters circle the capital city. 30 military trucks are deployed in the isthmus and reinforcement troops arrive by sea in Huatulco. This military presence makes the possibility of negotiation between the APPO and the government still more unlikely. (Image VI)

Image VI

OCTOBER 2, 2006

Police open fire on the topiles in San Antonio de Castillo Velasco with AK-47’s, killing Arcadio Fabián Hernández Santiago.

OCTOBER 3, 2006

While marching from Oaxaca to Mexico City, José Manuel Castro Patiño, a professor and member of the Ixtlán section of the teachers’ union, dies from cardiac arrest as the march passes Amilcingo.

OCTOBER 14, 2006

APPO militant Alejandro García Hernández is assassinated by a soldier.

OCTOBER 18, 2006

Gunmen attack members of the APPO returning from an assembly, killing teacher and APPO leader Pánfilo Hernández.

OCTOBER 27, 2006

A statewide strike begins in the morning and the barricades are installed early in the day. A wave of violent and coordinated attacks are unleashed against the movement, and armed confrontation at barricades lead to the murders of at least 5 members of the movement: Emilio Alonso Fabián and Estebán López Zurita in Santa María Coyotepec; Esteban Ruíz and Bradley Roland Will in Santa Lucia del Camino; and Eudcacia Olivero Díaz en route to the hospital. The federal government uses these attacks as a pretext to send in Federal Police to Oaxaca, despite previous claims that the troops would not be sent.

OCTOBER 28, 2006

The federal government gives the APPO an ultimatum: “hand over Oaxaca or we will take it.” Thousands of troops from the Army, Navy and the Federal Preventive Police are deployed.

OCTOBER 29, 2006

Confrontations erupt throughout the city in resistance to the arrival of the Federal Preventative Police. The violence results in three more slain activists: José Alberto López Bernal dies from the impact of a tear gas canister; Fidel Sánchez García is stabbed by a group of masked men and Roberto López Hernández falls in a confrontation at the Brenamiel barricade.

OCTOBER 31, 2006

Federal Police begin to take down barricades in the city, and their presence reinforces the intelligence and coordination of paramilitary groups carrying out attacks on the movement.

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

Around 2,000 demonstrators from the teachers’ union and the APPO march to celebrate 106 years of resistance in Mexico. A confrontation breaks out and, during 4 hours, police launch tear gas and marble bullets at protestors who defend themselves with rocks. More than 53 protestors are reported injured and many more are detained and tortured.

NOVEMBER 25, 2006

Hundreds of thousands attend the Seventh Megamarch to demand the departure of Ulises Ruiz and the Federal Police. Protestors encircle the PFP in order to hold a vigil in the city center for 48 hours. Fierce police repression leaves more than 140 injured and hundreds arrested, disappeared and tortured. Numerous buildings are destroyed by fire—purportedly set by infiltrators as a pretext for the repression. (Image VII)

Image VII

NOVEMBER 26, 2006

Protected by heavily armed police and helicopters, Ulises Ruiz holds a press conference in Santo Domingo to denounce the damages supposedly caused by protestors. Federal police raid houses in which APPO leaders are thought to be hiding; arbitrary detentions continue over the following days.

DECEMBER 3, 2006

Shortly after the announcement that negotiations would reopen between the APPO and the federal government, Marcelino Coache Verano, Ignacio Garcia Maldonado, Flavio and Horacio Sosa Villavicencio are arrested on their way to the negotiation table.

APRIL 13, 2007

David Venegas Reyes, APPO representative and member of VOCAL (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty), is detained by plainclothes officers who plant drugs on his person as a pretext for his arrest.

JUNE 14, 2007

Thousands march to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the violent attempt to displace the teachers’ plantón, and the subsequent formation of the APPO. Numerous aggressions are reported, including an attack against recently released former APPO spokesperson Marcelino Coache.

JULY 14, 2007

In preparation for the second annual People’s Guelaguetza, state and federal police, together with the military, construct roadblocks leading to the Guelaguetza stadium to prevent the event from being held. The APPO declares a red alert and announces that the Guelaguetza will be held in the Plaza de la Danza.

JULY 16, 2007

Thousands march to celebrate the People’s Guelaguetza when violence breaks out at the military and police blockade the Guelaguetza stadium. More than 60 are arrested and at least 50 are injured. Emeterio Marino Cruz is nearly killed and suffers permanent brain damage from the impact of a tear gas canister.

PILLARS of the PEOPLE

MAY 22, 2006

Teachers from the historically active Section XXII of the national teachers’ union officially initiate a strike and a plantón, occupying 50 blocks in the city’s center to demand more resources for education and better working conditions.

JUNE 2, 2006

The First Megamarch is convened when the government fails to act in response to the teachers’ demands; thousands take to the streets to demand a trial for repressive state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

JUNE 7, 2006

Between 120,000 and 200,000 people participate in the Second Megamarch. Various social and neighborhood organizations, unions and communities that have survived government repression hold a popular trial for Ulises Ruiz.

JUNE 15, 2006

Though a curfew was imposed in the city the previous night, teachers from Section XXII return to the...