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Major State Repression In Oaxaca: Several Killed, Dozens Wounded And Detained

Above Photo: itsgoingdown.org

The looming federal police attack on the people and striking teachers of Oaxaca, Mexico has begun. There are reports of between six and eight demonstrators killed Sunday morning at the teachers-peoples highway blockade in Nochixtlán, northwest of the city of Oaxaca. The eight dead that the movement is confirming are Oscar Aguilar Ramírez, 25, Andrés Sanabria García, 23, Anselmo Cruz Aquino, 33, Yalit Jiménez Santiago, 28, Oscar Nicolás Santiago, Omar González Santiago, 22, Antonio Perez García, and Jesús Cadena Sánchez, 19. They were shot and killed when police opened fire with live ammunition on the blockade. At least 45 others have been hospitalized with injuries, the majority gunshot wounds, and 22 have been disappeared.

BACKGROUND ARTICLES:

This piece will focus on currently developing events. For information on what led to this situation, please see the following articles:

After four hours of clashes, the police broke through the blockade in Nochixtlán. The highway blockade had been in place since June 12, and was successful in preventing hundreds of federal police from entering the city of Oaxaca. Here’s a video of the epic police traffic jam created by the blockade. State and federal police also attacked the blockade at Hacienda Blanca. There was a livestreamer on the scene using Periscope. Police fired tear gas from the ground and helicopters, including into the school that had been converted into a medical center. Armed police in civilian clothes were also taking up positions.

Hacienda Blanca was another blockade preventing federal forces from entering the city of Oaxaca. On June 15, a bus filled with riot gear tried to drive through the blockade and the people guarding it. The bus was stopped and the riot gear removed and set on fire.

The expectation is that upon breaking the highway blockades ringing the city of Oaxaca, federal forces will carry out an assault on the city in the coming hours, as they have already entered parts of the outlying neighborhoods of the city. Blocked from reaching the city by land, for days now the federal police have been flying planes full of cops into airports in Oaxaca city, Huatulco (on the coast) and Ciudad Ixtepec (in the Isthmus). There are numerous reports of power cuts in many areas of the city, as well as a curfew being imposed. Public transit has been suspended and will be tomorrow as well.

For the past week, as the people of Oaxaca responded to the latest police attack and commemorated ten years since the June 14, 2006 uprising that led to the five-month long Oaxaca Commune, dozens of blockades and barricades have been constructed around the state. In the Isthmus of Tehuantepec alone, the teachers union (CNTE) reports controlling 37 major highway intersections, of which the police have removed eight. As police rain tear gas down from helicopters, protesters have responded by shooting fireworks at the attackers.

To protest the attacks in Oaxaca, thousands marched on Televisa (the major private, pro-government TV channel in Mexico) and throughout the week, thousands of teachers have been arriving from Chiapas, Michoacán and elsewhere to reinforce the encampment in the capital.

A march on Friday, June 17 in Mexico City was met with an extreme display of police force.

We will try to continue to provide updates as we are able as well as on Twitter. Please spread the word from wherever you are – let those resisting know you stand in solidarity with their struggle. And let those doing the oppressing, primarily President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Governor Gabino Cué of Oaxaca, that people are watching.

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Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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