Checkout www.lovinrevolution.org for pictures, other reports, music and more.
Yesterday, pro-government gunmen shot and killed US activist and
journalist Brad Will in Oaxaca, Mexico. Many of my friends knew Brad well,
and tell me that he was well-known and loved in the New York and
international activist scene. For many years, he'd been organizing in and
documenting struggles for justice, from the US environmental and urban
movements, to all over Latin America. He was a shining example of what it
is to "be the media", and died with his camera in hand.
Just as Rachel brought the struggle of Palestinians to the attention of
many Americans, I hope that Brad's death will lead to an increased
awareness and mobilization of the US left around the struggle of
indigionous people in Mexico, Oaxaca in particular. Now is a very
dangerous time for them, as Brad's death illustrates. Two others were
killed yesterday as well, including a school teacher named Emilio Alfonso
Fabián, and eleven others were wounded, and two were dissapeared. The
Mexican Government is threatening to vastly increase attacks and massacres
in order to crush the growing resistance movement in Oaxaca.
Now is the time for us to ACT.
Oaxaca has called for us to contact Mexican consolates and the current
Mexican President Vicente Fox. Below is a sample letter to Fox. Below that
is the call to action from Oaxaca to contact US Mexican consulates. And
below that is an article from Narco News about Brad's assasination and the
Oaxaca situation. www.narconews.com.
Sample letter (please write your own)
vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx
Dear President Fox:
For months we have been worried about the massing of repressive force
threatening the teachers union and APPO in Oaxaca by state authorities of
Governor Ulysses Ruiz. Now it appears they have begun the repression
against people operating radio station Planton and shooting at people in
the plaza. Newspapers are reporting that primary school teacher Emilio
Alonso was gunned down and that Indymedia reporter Brad Will was shot in
the chest and killed in the municipality of Calicante and a photographer
Oswaldo Ramirez was shot and wounded. There are rumors that other teachers
have been shot and killed and that there are many injured.
Is your government planning to repeat the shame of the massacre at
Tlatelolco in 1968, which people around the world still remember? We are
watching with alarm. We urge you in the strongest terms to stop the
repression and violence against the people of Oaxaca and the teachers
union. You must use your power to stop Governor Ruiz from committing a
massacre.
Oaxaca Facing Imminent Attack
http://elenemigocomun.net/127APPEAL FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AID
The word I have now is that there are about 5,000 men wearing army
uniforms who are not army, but police, culled from other states like
Vercruz and Morelia, that is to say, this is a PRI operation, not the
federal troops, altho I don’t know how our source explains the
“naval” helicopters (maybe not?). The “police” are heavily armed, and
the attack is supposed to happen around 10:00 PM Oaxaca time. The
attack, code name cicloncinco, was revealed by the same person who
informed our friend that there would be a drive-by shooting last
night, which came true.
Our friend says there are already a lot of PRD people gathered in the
zocalo, thousands have gathered, apparently including some foreigners
including univision and CNN.
Aid is asked for food, water, telephone lines. Only one radio station
is still operating.
Our friend told us to stay off the streets. Good friend. The one
still operating radio station says, stay calm, not respond to acts of
aggression which are provocations. Our friend says the city is
“surrounded”, not sure what that means.
Anybody who can email should do so, to any addresses you have, phone
calls, faxes, etc. (cabascal@segob.gov.mx) the message is “no a la
repression, si a la destitucion de Ulises Ruiz.”
La Jornada has a live feed running on their site. Please disseminate
news however you can.
There is still a chance that this is psychological warfare, very tiring.
Doesn’t look good right now.
Here is a list of Mexican consulates in the US and Canada:
http://elenemigocomun.net/128Here are people to email or fax:
VICENTE FOX QUESADA
PRESIDENTE CONSTITUCIONAL DE MÉXICO
FAX. + 55 52 77 23 76,
vicente.fox.quesada@presidencia.gob.mx
LIC. CARLOS ABASCAL CARRANZA
SECRETARIO DE GOBERNACIÓN
FAX + 55 50 93 34 14,
cabascal@segob.gov.mx
DR. JOSÉ LUIS SOBERANES
PRESIDENTE DE LA COMISIÓN NACIONAL DE DERECHOS HUMANOS
FAX + 55 56 81 71 99,
correo@cndh.gob.mx
DANIEL CABEZA DE VACA
PROCURADOR GENERAL DE LA REPÚBLICA
FAX: +55 53460908,
ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
LIC. ULISES RUIZ ORTÍZ
GOBERNADOR DEL ESTADO DE OAXACA
Fax: + 951 5020530,
gobernador@oaxaca.gob.mx
Article from Narco News,
http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.htmlBrad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter,
Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the Story
By Al Giordano
October 27, 2006
Brad Will, 36, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New
York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the chest when
pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of
Santa Lucia del Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca, Mexico. He died with
his video camera in his hands.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that Commercial
Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press distort instead
of report: the story of a people sick and tired of repression and
injustice, who take back the government that rightfully is theirs. In that
context, his assassination is also a consequence of what happens when
independent media must do the work that Big Media fails to do: to tell the
truth. My friend and colleague since 1996 when we labored together at 88.7
FM Steal This Radio on New York’s Lower East Side, I bumped into him again
in Bolivia in 2004 during a public reception held by the Narco News School
of Authentic Journalism, and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January
where he came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign –
Brad died to bring the authentic story to the world.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October knowing, assuming and sharing the
risks of reporting the story. His final published article, on October 17,
titled “Death in Oaxaca,” reported the assassination of Alejandro García
Hernández on the barricades set up by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples
of Oaxaca (APPO, in its Spanish initials). Brad wrote:
“…went walking back from alejandros barricade with a group of
supporters who came from an outlying district a half hour away—went
walking with angry folk on their way to the morgue—went inside and saw
him—havent seen too many bodies in my life—eats you up—a stack of
nameless corpes in the corner—about the number who had died—no
refrigeration—the smell—they had to open his skull to pull the bullet
out—walked back with him and his people
“…and now alejandro waits in the zocalo—like the others at their
plantones—hes waiting for an impasse, a change, an exit, a way
forward, a way out, a solution—waiting for the earth to shift and
open—waiting for november when he can sit with his loved ones on the
day of the dead and share food and drink and a song—waiting for the
plaza to turn itself over to him and burst—he will only wait until
morning but tonight he is waiting for the governor and his lot to
never come back—one more death—one more martyr in a dirty war—one more
time to cry and hurt—one more time to know power and its ugly head—one
more bullet cracks the night—one more night at the barricades—some
keep the fires—others curl up and sleep—but all of them are with him
as he rests one last night at his watch…”
Brad Will’s Assassins, identified by El Universal: Juan Carlos Soriano
Velasco (red tshirt), a police officer known as “the Grasshopper”; Manuel
Aguilar (dark jacket), city personnel director; and public safety chief
Avel Santiago Zárate (red shirt)
Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal
Last September 26, Brad, on his way to Mexico, wrote me:
“hey al
it brad from nyc—it would be great to get yr narco contacts in
oaxaca—i am headed there and want to connect with as many folks as
posible—are you in df?—i should be stopping though there and it would
be great
to go out for a drink
solid
brad”
Knowing of Brad’s hard luck covering other stories (he had been beaten by
police in New York and in Brazil doing this important but dangerous work),
his difficulty with the Spanish language, and of the greater risk for
independent reporters who haven’t been embedded over time (and thus known
by the people) in Oaxaca, I pleaded with him not to go, to instead go to
Atenco and report on the story there of the arrival of Zapatista
comandantes:
“Our Oaxaca team is firmly embedded. There are a chingo of other
internacionales roaming around there looking for the big story, but
the situation is very delicate, the APPO doesn’t trust anyone it
hasn’t known for years, and they keep telling me not to send
newcomers, because the situation is so fucking tense… If you are
coming to Mexico, I would much more recommend your hanging around
DF-Atenco and reporting that story which is about to begin. The APPO
is (understandably) very distrustful of people it doesn’t already
know. And we have enough hands on deck there to continue breaking the
story. But what is about to happen in Atenco-DF needs more hands on
deck.”
Brad replied that same night, undeterred:
“hey
thanks for the quick get back—i have a hd professional camera—i have
heard reports about the level of distrust in oax and it is
disconcerting—i think i will still go—i wont tell them you sent me and
i am open to other suggestions on how to spend my time—i dont know
what is happening in atenco in the coming days—i may connect with la
otra capitulo dos somewhere along the way—great to hear from you—do
you have a cell / phone number?
solidaridad
b rad”
I was not surprised that he decided to go to Oaxaca anyway. Brad had
always taken risks: whether riding freight train box cars across the North
American plain, or bunkering in his Fifth Street squat in 1996 when police
and the wrecking ball invaded, his life had been one of courage. I gave
him my cell phone number in case of emergency. He wrote back on October 7,
three weeks ago:
“hey al
brad here—thanks for the contacts and info—i landed in df feeling
pretty ill and then came straight to oax and am plugged in—if you want
to share your contacts down here it would be very helpful—i think I
will stay down here for a month—nancy said you had a contact with a
human rights lawyer who might help journalists not get deported –
please help me with that information as well—i know you are busy and
look forward to seeing more of your work
peace
b rad”
In those emails are the words of a valiant compañero who, knowing full
well that this story could be his last, decided to share the risks with
the people whose cause he reported.
Also sharing the risks today in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca was
photographer Oswaldo Ramírez of the daily Milenio, wounded by gunfire. It
was Milenio reporter Diego Enrique Osorno who confirmed the news of Brad’s
death at 4:30 this afternoon. He also said that in another corner of the
city, outside the state prosecutor’s office, gunmen fired at other APPO
members, that three were wounded, and that one schoolteacher is reported
dead, but was unable so far to confirm that report.
Photo: D.R. 2006 El Universal
Brad Will was known and liked throughout the hemisphere, and in its media
centers from New York to Sao Paulo to Mexico City. Tonight his body lies
in the same Oaxaca morgue he visited and wrote about last week. He will
not go silently into the long night of repression that the illegitimate
governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, President Vicente Fox and his illegitimate
successor Felipe Calderon have created in Oaxaca, and, indeed, in so much
of Mexico. It was inevitable that soon an international reporter would
join the growing list of the assassinated under the repressive regimes of
Mexico (others had already been raped and beaten in Atenco, only to be
deported from the country last May). Tonight it was Brad, doing the
responsible and urgent work, video camera in hand, of breaking the
Commercial Media blockade.
Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe, Sonora,
when the news came in about Brad’s death, Zapatista Subcomandante
Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the day’s events in
Oaxaca, told the public and the press:
“We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they
killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn’t
work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay. He
is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying
the voices of the people from below so that they would be known.
Because we already know that the television news companies and
newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this
person was a compañero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various
parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in
Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they
shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead.
The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened.
Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They
aren’t afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest
this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at
the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries
to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero. We are making
this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media
here in Mexico and in all the world.”
Tonight, from the Oaxaca City Morgue, Brad Will shouts “Ya Basta!” –
Enough Already! – to the death and suffering imposed (as Brad, a
thoughtful and serious anarchist, understood) by an economic system, the
capitalist system. His death will be avenged when that system is
destroyed. And Brad Will’s ultimate sacrifice exposes the Mexican regime
for the brutal authoritarian violence that the Commercial Media hides from
the world, and thus speeds the day that justice will come from below and
sweep out the regimes of pain and repression that system requires. Brad
gave his life tonight so that you and I could know the truth. We owe him
to act upon it, and to share the risks that he took. Goodbye, old friend.
Your sacrifice will not be in vain.
Update, 10:30 p.m. Oaxaca: The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of
Oaxaca (APPO) has confirmed that schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián
has died from three bullet wounds after an attack by shooters for
Ulises Ruiz Ortiz outside the state government palace.
Kristin Bricker reported for this story from Sonora
Article from Narco News,
http://www.narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html
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