Workers Solidarity Movement

In light of the tragic events of 27 April 2010, when a solidarity caravan of observers bound for the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala (Oaxaca, Mexico) was subjected to a cowardly attack by paramilitaries linked to governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, resulting in the death of comrade Beatriz Alberta Cariño Trujillo and Finnish comrade Jyri Jaakkola, we, the undersigned organizations, declare:

1. Our total solidarity with the families of these dear comrades murdered in such a vile way. Our thoughts are with those who today suffer the irreparable loss of their loved ones.
2. Our political support for the grassroots organizational processes of the people of Oaxaca which, despite State terrorism, are making progress in this struggle for the autonomy and liberation of the peoples of Oaxaca. Our political support goes especially to those organizations that were the direct victims of this attack: the Center for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS - Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos) and Oaxacan Voices Building Autonomy and Freedom (VOCAL - Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad).
3. Our sympathy and support for the Autonomous Municipality San Juan Copala, which is now surrounded by UBISORT paramilitaries, who have cut off electricity, are preventing food supplies to the population with roadblocks and have been killing and harassing the population with impunity for several years.
4. That the paramilitaries act with the full complicity of local bosses, in the political service of the corrupt PRI's mafias, the party of the current tyrant of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
5. That this is not an isolated event, merely the latest in a long series of threats and attacks by the State against the peoples of Oaxaca and the resistance organizations that are part of the social fabric of this essentially libertarian struggle. Since 2006 the repression has been escalating, and the authorities have amply demonstrated their brutality - this crime is part of the process of State terrorism, and has been a harsh blow, though hardly a surprising one.

In consequence of the above, the signatories of this statement demand:

1. Clarification of the events that led to the murder of our comrades, followed by the trial and punishment of those materially responsible and the politicians morally responsible for this crime.
2. An end to the criminal siege of the Autonomous Municipality of San Juan Copala by the paramilitaries.

We have no illusions about the authorities cooperating in these demands, since we know that in the end they are the ones who are responsible for the murders, with the paramilitaries simply doing the dirty work.

Satisfaction of these demands will only come through the struggle of the people, through the pressure that the popular organizations can exercise and through their capacity for mobilization from below. We take this opportunity, therefore, to express our solidarity with this people, and express our readiness to support and assist future efforts to break the siege and to defeat the alliance of political gangsterism, the mafia-like paramilitarism and oligarchic despotism. The struggle of the people of Oaxaca is our struggle too.

We extend one hand to our comrades, the other raised in a defiant fist against the tyranny!

Organización Revolucionaria Anarquista –Voz Negra (Chile)
Estrategia Libertaria (Chile)
Revista Hombre y Sociedad (Chile)
Unión Socialista Libertaria (Peru)
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (Italy)
Red Libertaria Popular Mateo Kramer (Colombia)
Workers Solidarity Alliance (USA)
Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland)

First published on Anarkismo.net
Background article on the events