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Protesters in Oaxaca, Mexico Killed and Kidnapped

09:18 H | Topics: Activism - Justice - Mexico

So much attention has been focused on what's been going down in Mexico City with the presidential election chaos that protests and deaths in Oaxaca, Mexico are being ignored by the mainstream media. Every year since 1980 union members of the state teaching profession; Section 22 of the National Syndicate for Education Workers, have taken to the streets. They grew into the thousands and were joined by a wider sector of the Oaxacan social justice movement, specifically Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) all demanding an improvement to wages and rural education facilities. Additionally there have been calls to oust Oaxaca’s widely unpopular head of state, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, accused of electoral fraud and state-initiated repression.

Things reached a fever pitch last week when acording to the The Sydney Morning Herald:

Made up of 33 different social organisations, the integrants of the APPO have successfully taken over the three seats - Executive, Legislative and Judicial - of state power, forcing legislators to instead convene in a hotel conference room. In the days following this occupation, female members of the Popular Assembly (after banging pots and pans in a street protest to demand the resignation of Ruiz Ortiz) drove workers from the state-run television network, Canal 9.

José Jiménez Colmenares, a mechanic by profession married to teacher, was shot in the street while participating in a march organized by APPO on August 10. The state has officially condemned the death and denied any involvement, but the people are not convinced.

Via / The Sydney Morning Herald, Narco News

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