Today In Oaxaca: Two Reports of Today's Action

[Wiley50]

The First is from a female US doctor (western/naturopath) now in Oaxaca
helping out where she can on the front lines.
(I have posted other reports below from her
and will post future ones as I get them)

The second is from a US film maker also in Oaxaca.

Today was the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution
and The Popular Assembly of The Peoples of Oaxaca
were feeling, well, revolutionary!

From Dr. Xochitl's 8th Day in Oaxaca:
Once again, here I am as a witness of events in Oaxaca. The real struggle, the real risks, the real revolution is with the people of Oaxaca.

Nov 20, 2006

Greetings friends,

Today I needed to rest a bit, so things didn't started until a bit late for me.

As I approached Santo Domingo all was very tranquil. It was a beautiful day, with white/grey clouds floating above and the mountains surrounding the city with cloud-shrouds at their peaks. The temperature was absolutely perfect. People were out in the streets walking, doing shopping.

As I approached Santo Domingo I began to see more people, and hear occasional the occasional "pop!" from afar. The closer I got to Santo Domingo the more people I saw with face masks around their necks, prepared for tear gas. When I turned the corner to the planton, there were crowds of people, most looking down the hill, towards the line of police and the crowds of people who had recently marched into the city. Just then I saw an Canadian woman who is staying at the same hostel, and she looked at me, then down towards the chaos near the zocalo, and she asked "Do you know if I can get into the zocalo? I want ot get something to eat." It was surreal.

Today's march celebrated the Mexican Revolution and the National Strike called by the Zapatistas. The march was intended to be peaceful and tranquil, but nonetheless demanding the removal of URO (the corrupt governor, Ulisis Ruiz Ortiz) from power, demanding the departure of the PFP (federal police) from the city, and demanding justice for the people of the city and state.

When I arrived there was a bit of a standoff, with the police stationed about 2 blocks down the street at the entrance to the zocalo, and the people standing near a just-constructed barricade near Santo Domingo. People chanted and yelled, while the barricade was reinforced. The police occasionally shot tear gas canisters into the crowd from far away, and some police even used slingshots to shoot rocks at the people.

Alongside the new barricade there was a building being remodeled, with tall walls of corrugated metal around the construction site. After pulling and pulling and pulling the people pulled down one part of the wall and used the metal to reinforce the barricade.

Despite all of this, things were pretty calm, so I went up to the first aid station near Santo Domingo to see if there was anything I could do to help. When I arrived I saw two women sitting on a cot. The younger woman was pale, and looked very tired. Her companion explained to me that she hadn't eaten or drank much all day, hadn't been sleeping, and had been badly scared by something during the march. I sat down and talked with her, and offered some cookies I had just bought.

Her name was L, and she looked exhausted and stressed. I began to explain that I had some medicine that might help calm and relax her, and help her to gather her strength. I had trouble explaining flower essences to her, but after a moment she said "de Bach?" Hooray! She was familiar with them! I am still a little shy about offering flower essences to people, and time and time again when I offer them they are accepted with much appreciation. So bit by bit I am overcoming my own hesitation and offering medicine that can make an enormous difference for people.

So I gave her some, and she seemed to relax a bit. We sat and talked for a while, then I went across the room to talk with J, one of the people who had gone to the morgue with me the first day I was here. I returned to L and she was looking stressed again. I gave her some more Rescue Remedy and she lay down. While I rubbed her back, she fell asleep.

I headed back over to the new barricade near Santo Domingo, and found my friends there continuing the stand-off with the police. Young masked men wandered around with small rockets. Word came that there might be some trouble at the university, so I headed over there with some companeros.

After I left the Santo Domingo barricade things began to get more heated. Some people shot off rockets in the direction of the police, some even hit police. The police advanced toward Santo Domingo, shooting off tear gas directly at the crowd. Some people were hit directly and injured, how badly I do not know. I have heard (unconfirmed) that there were 11 people seriously injured.

Movement people responded with more rocks, slingshots and rockets. One friend of mine, J, saw old women (70 or 80 years old) gathering rocks to be thrown at the police. One woman commented to J, "look at all these men standing against the building watching. The women are doing the real work here."

Throughout today's events there were discussions about the use violence, and strategies for confronting the police. This is a diverse and complicated movement, with many different groups and even more different stategies. This march was planned as peaceful, but some used rockets, slingshots and rocks against the police. Did they use these weapons after tear gas was shot at the crowd? Or before? And what is the difference? Were they "violating" the plan? Who is responsible for deciding what people should and should not do? And does that obligate everyone to follow this plan? These are only some of the questions that were hotly debated today, and, I imagine, many other days.

By the time things got intense again at Santo Domingo, I had arrived at the University. Everything was calm when I arrived -- despite the rumors that the police were using the confrontation at Santo Domingo as a distraction to attack the University.

Then I ran into L, who I had helped treat earlier at Santo Domingo. She said, "I have a song for you." I sat down next her and she started clapping her hands in a syncopated rhythm, and in a soft, sweet, beautiful voice she started singing a song about the strength and power of the people fighting for justice, the beauty of the flowers, and of the valor of the fight. As she sang she became more confident, singing with great emotion and passion. Others sitting near us turned and listened. She finished, turned to me, and said "A song for you."

We sat, we ate delicious mole and green beans and tortillas, we talked about the day's events and the tear gas, the pepper spray, and which was worse. They thought pepper spray was worse, I explained the long-term bad effects of tear gas. "And hey!" I said, "I have some herbal medicine that will help your body clean itself of the tear gas." I went and prepared some bottles, not sure if they would want it, if they would actually take it. When I got back to the table where we were eating I explained the medicine, and handed it to one companero. He took a dropperful, then passed it around to everyone at the table, each person taking some. I asked one person to keep the bottle, and keep giving it to companeros, three times a day.

Emboldened, I went over to the fence guarding the Radio Universidad compound, and offered the herbal medicine. Companeros/as lined up in front of me, opened their mouths like baby birds, and I gave them dropperfuls of the herbal remedy. And then we had a discussion about who should keep the bottle of medicine, to continue to give to our fighting friends.

The young people in the movement here are so amazingly kind and sweet. They are not hardened revolutionaries. I am sure that they fight like hell when they have to, but when they aren't fighting they are laughing, dancing, singing, playing soccer in front of the Radio Station, telling stories and debating philosophy.

So, that is all for today. Tomorrow, who knows what will happen?

Please hold the people of Oaxaca, and all those struggling for justice and dignity, in your hearts.

Cuidense,
Xochitl

Also, if you would like to donate money or medical supplies, we are working on a way to make this work. Please contact me about that too.



Here's the second from Jill Irene Friedburg:

i was there with the march when the first gases were fired), the part about the PFP responding to insults and yelling ain't quite how it happened. Infact, like it or not, the PFP responded to a fairly rowdy bunch of fellas who came well prepared with slingshots and rocks, and from where I stood, the kids launched the first blow. I saw rocks flying at the PFP and knew the gas would come shortly afterwards, as it did.

this felt different to me than the Nov 2nd stand-off at the University. In that case, the police were clearly advancing towards the university, and folks had to come out and defend the radio, as well as university autonomy. Today, there wasn't anything to defend. The PFP weren't on the offensive. Had the march passed by without incident, they probably would have just kept standing there. Or maybe not. Maybe it was only a matter of time before the PFP lost their temper. Yesterday they sprayed the women's street theater with chile water, and a few days before they gassed a teachers' march when a couple of folks threw plastic bottles. But the important distinction is that, in both those cases, the victims of the PFP agression responded by organizing themselves quickly and moving on, not by firing back. The movement had made a democratic decision not to physically confront the PFP, and folks stuck to that, even though they were real damn mad that the PFP gassed and sprayed them. They came away with the moral highground.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not defending the PFP. We all know that a few thousand riot cops with helicopters, water tanks, and high-powered fire arms don't need to react to a handful of chavos with slingshots. They are well-armored, with shields and helmets. They could have just stood there and waited for the kids with rocks to get bored and go away. But they are waiting for a provocation. Especially after three weeks of pretty limited "action." And I'm fairly certain that the kids with rocks knew what reaction they'd get too. Maybe they were porros actually sent to provoke a smackdown or maybe they were just kids looking for some action and (understandably) mad at the PFP. The results are the same...a bunch of people got injured, and an unconfirmed number of people were detained. Other people who had come in the march with their toddlers and their elderly mothers were there, not throwing rocks, and they got a good dose of gas too.

Very few people want the PFP in Oaxaca. Every day that they are here, the anger over their presence grows, and to be honest, I don't really blame the kids for being so mad that they decide to launch rocks at the PFP. But it's a tricky scenario when the movement has made a democratic decision not to physically confront the PFP, and then a small group of folks decide to do it anyway and everyone pays the consequences. The PFP almost took Santo Domingo, and I don't think anyone in the movement wants that to happen.

The root of the problem is that the PFP is in Oaxaca at all. If they weren't here, none of this would have happened.

But just wanted to set the record straight for whatever it's worth. The indymedia account, in my opinion, left some things out, and it's important, i think, to get the whole story.

Jill

[Wiley50]

1. Dr. Xochitl's 7th Day in Oaxaca

At 9 am i arrived at Radio Universidad, ready to give another 1st aid class. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the class last night, and 9 am was the only time we could meet because of the women's march at noon.

No one was there. I was sad, but not surprised. People here are up very late, and work so hard, that I couldn't begrudge them a little sleep, But I admit, I was a little frustrated that absolutely no one showed up.

I swept up outside the 1st aid station, then wandered over to the kitchen area. There was a group of people sitting there, and when I arrived they said, "Let's do the class!". I had been in the wrong place. That'll teach me to assume things.

"I want to learn about how to pull out bullets." one companero said. "And give injections," another said.

There is a bit of a romantic/dramatic component to the movement here that I don't really know what to think of. It is there, I think it probably sometimes gets in the way of some good decisions..... don't know. Just something I have observed.

Well,, rather than bullets and injection. Instead, we started with the basics, and they were very willing to wait until I had covered a whole bunch of stuff until we got to these questions. Though we will talk about them, mostly what not to do, and when to get help.

And that is, in fact, exactly what we started with.... do no harm, know you limits, wear gloves...and then we covered initial assessment and more.They were excited, energetic, curious, engaged. Thank god, since I did forget some things and like most good people in a workshop, they asked questions and made comments that magically filled in the gaps. Once again, adult learning theory proves itself.

We were just finishing with cuts when B and T came up, "Let's go! We're leaving for the march." They climbed into the ambulance, an actual ambulance that they procured from the medical school, which is affiliated with the university. I followed in another car. When we got there, I checked out the supplies. And let me tell you, they have got their shit together.

They have supplies for all kinds of injuries, and though I haven't had to see them in action, I'd bet they know how to use them, in a second, while tear gas is billowing around them.

Today's action was expected to be low key and non-provocative, though you never know.... Women had gathered at Santo Domingo for a march and demonstration denouncing the PFP for many sexual assaults of Oaxaqueno women. During a 1 1/2 hour meeting the day before, a group of about 30 women had planned everything -- from flyers to spray painting messages on the street, to street theater to raising money for supplies. As women arrived first aid workers handed out vinegar soaked cloths and masks to cover the mouth to anyone who wanted them, just in case the police used tear gas or pepper spray.

I saw women ranging age from about 15 to 85, in all kinds of dress. Many carried pots, pans and other noise makers. Others had signs saying "No a la violacion" (no to the rape) and "Fuera URO" (URO leave, the state's governor) and "Fuera PFP" (Leave PFP, the federal preventive police). As they marched towards the zocalo, women ran ahead and painted arrows in the street. With changing, singing and great noise, we arrived at the first group of PFP officers blocking the entrance to the zocalo (where the PFP are stationed, and the only place they seem to be in the city, except for regular night forays to nab APPO leaders and others, taking them from their houses.) The street painters wrote "Violadores" and other words on the street, with more arrows towards the line of police on either side of the enormous trash dumpster that also blocked the entrance. Women went around the sides of the dumpster and held up mirrors to the police, which were inscribed with "Traidores" (traitors) and "Violadores" (literally, violators, meaning rapists) and other words. The police would have to look into the mirrors, see themselves, decorated with these descriptions.

One person started spray painting words on the PFP shields, then stepped back, possibly because he was hit over the head with a police baton (this is unconfirmed). About a minute later, according to a friend/witness, the police moved forward and one man held up a hose from behind the first line officers. The hose looked like one you might use to fumigate, and it emerged from a bright orange canister and ended up above the police's heads. He started to spray pepper spray at the group of mostly journalists in front of them. My dear friend C, who didn't step back quickly enough, was sprayed directly in the face. Why? Who knows? Because he and others were taking pictures and filming video? Because they were just there? Because the police wanted to move, and didn't feel like telling anyone before letting loose with the pepper spray? It is hard not to be outraged, but people have been here are relatively resigned to these, and other police actions. Though when people are killed, they are not resigned at all.

C was okay (though quite stubborn) about getting treated for pepper spray. He kept on filming video throughout, even with his eyes stinging and clenched shut from the pepper spray.

At the next zocalo entrance the women stopped and presented a play to the PFPs. The play started as a family scene -- a PFP father was saying goodbye to his wife and daughter who were going to the zocalo to do some shopping. As the women entered the zocalo, they were sexually assaulted by federal police,

One journalist commented that, when he came up close to the federal police, he saw some trying not to cry.

After the play, much more chanting and noise making, we walked back to Santo Domingo, where C finally accepted full treatment for his pepper spray injuries. The red/orange stains on his cloths and skin smelled like paprika, and he said it tasted like tabasco. Maybe that's what it is! (street medics in the states are currently working to find out what is in the water sprayed at protestors here, to figure out how best to treat it. Anyone who has more information about this liquid, please contact me.)

I then headed back to Radio Universidad, where I made up an herbal remedy for a young man with a prolonged cough after being tear gassed 2 weeks ago. I had an amazing meal at the Radio kitchen, where I talked with a young man who was grabbed and beaten up by the PFP 6 weeks ago. He is okay now. In fact, he seems completely fine, if not too nonchalant about it all.

Tomorrow is a gigantic march, to mark November 20, the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, and a national strike called by the Zapatistas. It may be bad, since the protesters plan to take over the Governor's Palace. We shall see...

So please keep the people of Oaxaca, and those in struggles for justice and dignity throughout the world, in your hearts tomorrow, or whenever you read this.

Cuidense,
Xochitl

[Wiley50]

2. Dr. Xochitl's 4th Day in Oaxaca

The following is a report from a US citizen, in Oaxaca to witness the events here. Please remember that I am just a US person here to show solidarity. The real work, and the real revolution, is with the Oaxacan and Mexican people.

November 16, 2006
Oaxaca City, Mexico

Once again, the day's action started at the Derechos Humanos (human rights) table at the Santo Domingo planton (encampment). The planton moved here 2 weeks ago, but the people have settled in. As you approach the area, which is in the large cobblestone clearing in front of an enormous stone church, you hear a confusion of sound. Different groups have set up under tarps, some showing videos of movement events, filled with people chanting, marching, guarding the barricades, and standing peacefully, hand in hand, in front of lines of riot police. Other groups play music, radical songs written for this, and other revolutionary struggles. CDs and DVDs are for sale.

Everywhere there are banners and posters and graffiti, proclaiming the justice and strength of the movement, and the corruption of the government.
Different organizations have tables where you can get information, talk with people, and learn about this movement's many faces. People break out in spontaneous chants every once in a while "El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido" (the people united will never be defeated) is a common refrain.

As I passed through I met C, who has been with the movement since June, giving up his work as the jefe (boss) of a taxi company to be here. I recently learned of several groups interested in sending money or supplies to support the people here, so I was curious how he thought we could organize the just distribution of these donations. Rather than go through any organization, he suggested that people find a way to get money and supplies directly into the hands of the people doing the day-to-day work of the movement. For example, we could find a way to buy food for the cooks, who work tirelessly to feed hundreds of people, for free, every day.

C suggested that we talk with La Doctora Berta, who has quite literally become the voice of the movement (not just APPO, but of the entire movement, which is larger than APPO or CEAPPO). According to C, La Doctora is familiar with all aspects of the struggle. She started working as a doctor with the popular movement, then became the primary announcer on Radio Universidad. For months she has been a source of inspiration, strength, wisdom, and political insight, all through Radio Universidad.

We started to walk to C's car, when we met J, C's friend who had been detained by the federal preventive police (PFP) 2 weeks ago. He was held for 7 days, the first 4 with only water, no food. He was handcuffed tightly and tied up, left face down in a cell. When needed to use the bathroom he was sometimes allowed to get up and use the toilet, other times he was forced to wait until he dirtied himself. It all depended on whether he had a "nice" or "mean" guard. He was beaten, and still has bruises and sore muscles, as well as pain in his hands from the handcuffs, one week after being released.

I gave him some salve that I had made with friends in the US, in honor of our dear friend Meg who died while working with the people of New Orleans, after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Then our talk turned to other detained people, specifically the two men who were snatched from from the zocalo yesterday. They had been released last night, after the Human Rights lawyers had found where they were jailed and demanded their release.

C and I then continued on our way. After driving in what seemed like circles to go around barricades, we arrived at the Radio Universidad planton. First we approached an iron fence, covered with banners. C entered the gate first, passing into a tarp-covered antechamber. He explained to the five men guarding the entrance that I was a doctor, there to speak with La Doctora about how I could help the movement. I entered the area, filled with sofas and a few guitars, and after they looked me over, we were allowed to pass.

We walked toward the Radio Universidad building, where the people had built a wall of loose bricks in front of a fence which encircled the building. After passing through the guarded gate, we approached the building, protected by walls of sandbags and other blockades.

C explained our purpose, and the man at the door asked us to wait -- La Doctora would be available soon. As he spoke she appeared in the doorway. I hesitate to describe her, only because it seems impossible not to be trite. Because yes, she is charismatic and yes, you can feel her power and generosity and commitment within seconds of meeting her. Or even before, seeing her across the sandbags.

For seconds is all we had. She was off to a meeting with the barricadistas. Could we wait just an hour, until she returned? We would talk then.

C and I sat in the yard in front of the radio, listening to the news and analysis of the current situation. This is a difficult time now. People are tired, they have been protesting for 5 - 6 months without jobs, sleeping at the barricades, on floors, in cars. Food is becoming scarce, and people in the town of Oaxaca are tiring of the inconvenience, and the interruption of the tourist trade, that has come with the movement.

Interspersed with the commentary the radio played music -- Silvio Rodriguez, Mercedes Sosa and contemporary musicians who sing of the desperation of the people and the valor of the struggle.

Sitting outside the radio station, with a direct audio feed, the sound was clear. But the signal, which previously could be heard throughout the city and surrounding areas, has weakened because of government-sponsored vandalism. The satellite dishes have been damaged by gunshots, and the people at the radio station are constantly vigilant for further attacks.

There are no classes at the University now. Classes actually started last Monday, but according to C the radio was again vandalized almost immediately, so university officials cancelled classes to protect the radio.

We waited.... listening to the music, watching young men practice driving a motorcycle, enjoying a mother dog playing with her puppies.

Across from the radio is a kitchen area, where food is cooked for the people protecting and working in the radio. A woman stepped out from under the tarps and, with one hand held high, a waterfall of beans fell from a bowl into a bucket. Small pieces of grass blew away in the breeze while the beans cascaded down. She then sat and began studying the bucket of beans, picking out small bits and throwing them to the ground.

After playing with the puppies myself, I went over to see what she was doing and to offer help. There were many small rocks in the beans (lentils, actually) and E was picking them out one by one. I joined her, and as we worked we talked a bit. She has been with the movement since the beginning, working at one of the barricades nearby (in her own neighborhood) until it was taken down and she moved to the Radio. Food, which was previously abundant, was running low, so they were cooking these rocky lentils. "It is a good thing they cook fast," she exclaimed, "because this work is going to take a long time."

M, a 4 year old girl, approached and asked what we were doing. She was full of life, curious, gentle, very sweet, and she wanted to help! She enthusiastically looked through the lentils, very seriously picking out each rock and putting it on my knee, where I had put rocks to show her what they looked like. She surveyed the cleaned lentils in her small hand, then transferred them to mine, making sure that I got every last lentil.

The work was good, but the wait was long. After more than 2 hours La Doctora had not reappeared. C and I decided to return to Santo Domingo, and try again at Radio Universidad tomorrow. I bid goodbye to E, and M insisted that I stay and play with her. I promised to try and return tomorrow, we traded cheek-kisses, and I went on my way.

Xochitl

If you haven't received the first 2 reports (First and Third Days in Oaxaca) or don't want to receive them at all, please let me know.

Also, if you want to donate money or supplies, please email me here.

CORRECTIONS:

I mentioned in a previous report that a friend G had mentioned the bodies in the morgue, but I actually learned about them from people at the Human Rights table.

Also, I mentioned a report of 20 bodies removed from the Zocalo on Nov 2. A friend and lawyer told me this, based on a first-hand account from a close friend. Many journalists who were on the scene have reported that there were no deaths, and in fact no fighting in the zocalo that day and that APPO ceded the area peacefully. I don't know what actually happened, since I wasn't there.


Thu Nov 16, 2006 11:02 pm

[Wiley50]

3. Dr. Xochitl's 3th Day in Oaxaca

Third day in Oaxaca

Hold on for the ride. If you didn't get the first day report, please let me know and I'll send it on to you. And I am sorry that these messages are so long, it is just that they days are full and there is so much going on here. I want to help all of you understand at least my experience of the revolutionary movement here in Oaxaca.

Today was a big day for the protestors. Apparently, today is the day that URO, the governor of the state, had to demonstrate "governability" to prove to the national government that he could not be removed from office. As a result, there were many different marches. Of course, I didn't know this until mid-day, so today again began slowly, but not for long. Today main project was performing a basic survey of the medical and first aid services that are available here to protestors, and figure out what supplies are needed. I have had several requests for lists of supplies, so I wanted to gather that information as quickly as possible.

After breakfast I wandered over to the Santo Domingo planton (encampment) to find out how I could start to gather information. While I was at the table of the human rights observers, a woman ran up saying that she had been sprayed with some chemical and that the police were beating people and spraying chemicals in the zocalo (town square). Me and some friends started towards the zocalo, but all was calm there. I went back to the human rights table, when another person came running, saying that police were beating people down another street. We ran towards it, and found all was calm. I still don't know exactly what was happening.

I then met some friends of Brad Will, who are trying to find a copy of the autopsy report on Brad. There is now a disinformation campaign, with newspaper and television reports stating that Brad was killed by APPO people. This is in direct contradiction to eye-witness reports and the video that Brad himself was filming when he was killed.
Since I am now buddies with the director of the Red Cross, because of our morgue visit, I hope to help find the autopsy report.

I met up with some friends from that same morgue visit, and they offered to take me to the the barricades at Cinco Senores. These barricades protect the University, and the radio station that is an essential organizing tool for the movement. Universities in Mexico are autonomous, meaning that the federal and local police cannot enter without explicit permission from the university officials. On November 2 the federal preventive police (PFP in Spanish) tried to enter the university, and after a 7 hour battle they were pushed back. The next day, after enormous outcry from the university and surrounding communities, the PFP stated they were not trying to enter the university, only to secure the streets in the area.

We arrived at the barricades after a 15 minute walk. There are burned out buses blocking each of the 4 roads that enter the intersection. People walk around with home-made rockets. Many are masked with bandanas, one with a silver professional wrestling mask (my favorite). There are bottles lined up in the center of the intersection, ready to be filled to make molotov cocktails.

We walked over to the kitchen area, where a group of people were discussion radical philosophy. What is the goal of APPO? they were asking. Are they willing to continue the fight, (nonviolently or otherwise), while pressure from the state and the countries' wealthy minority mounts? Does APPO want to form an alternative government, or continue in the current protest mode? What is the relationship between the barricadistas (people guarding the barricade) and APPO? What are their responsibilities to each other? How can the barricadistas work more closely with neighbors in the area around the barricades? This is what I understand. The discussion was rich, nuanced, and rapidfire. I couldn't catch it all.

After a bit, my friend Juan introduced me as a doctor, who had been to the morgue 2 days previous, who wanted to present first aid classes. I was thinking that we would talk about when we might present the classes, and arrange for future meetings. But no, they wanted to do it then. Everyone was enthusiastic, and one man went to let others around the barricade know. After various events, discussions and wanderings, the class began.

I haven't presented a street medic training for over 2 years. And never in Spanish. But here we were, behind the barricades, with 20 people who had the most urgent need to know first aid.

I started with the most basic of basics. That everyone knew something about first aid and we could all contribute to the class, that I was there at their service and wanted to help but not impose, and that first, above all, do no harm and know your limits.

Then we got going with initial assessment. Well damn, we just did it. And they were the best most engaged class I have ever worked with. They had tons of questions, had lots of ideas, and were enormously energetic.

People came and went during the class, but that was fine because we'll just repeat it, and expand and continue the class other days.

After initial assessment we talked about burns, which they identified as the most common injuries they had encountered.

Then someone was thought to be disappeared over in another area of the barricade, and a bunch of people ran off. Then someone came by and offered us all dinner. The barricadistas insisted that I eat, and delivered me food, a drink, and a chair. So we sat, and ate, and continued to talk about different first aid problems they have encountered, and what they have heard to do to treat them, and what I know.

Then a woman came running up to the table we were sitting. She had just seen 2 young Oaxaquenos (Oaxacan men) who were taken away by the federal police (PFP).
They were taking photos, and a police offer walked up to them and told them to stop. Then the police took away their backpacks. The woman who witnessed all this approached the police and said that the men were within their rights, that they were Oaxacan citizens, and that it wasn't right what the police were doing. A group of police officers surrounded the woman, in what seemed like an effort to intimidate her. They then surrounded the two men and started kicking and hitting them, and then took them away in a police car.

The police then took many photos of this woman, and followed her as she headed towards Cinco Senores to report the abduction.

It appears that these two men were abducted for absolutely no reason. This "dirty war" is growing in Oaxaca, with paramilitaries, disinformation in the press, intimidation, and repression of all forms of political speech. People are likening it to the wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

I called a friend who could get this woman in touch with the human rights observers, and she talked with him for a long while, describing the situation, the abducted men, and the car (with the license plate!) that took them away. She got off the phone and continued to express her absolute outrage and disgust with the police.

Dusk was appoaching, and I wanted to get closer home before it got much darker. Night is the most dangerous time in Oaxaca, when the paramilitaries and PFP are most dangerous. I went over to J, who had accompanied me to Cinco Senores, and asked him what was the safest way to get me home. He called out to find someone to accompany me, and we found a taxi (my barricadista friend said "please take the companera to Santo Domingo" the first time I've been called a companera. I can't tell you what that meant to me.)

After a stop to Santo Domingo, where I checked in with the human rights folks and other friends, I headed home. I stopped off at G and N's house, where we talked about all of the recent events, and the absolute astonishing beauty of the movement and the truly revolutionary nature of the work that is going on here. This is true mutual aid -- all that I needed was provided to me. When I said I would need some supplies to teach a particular first aid skill, one barricadista said, "get us a list and we will get the supplies so you can teach us." I ate, drank and laughed with my companero/a barricadistas, and we were protected by others around us. They were showing a movie at the barricade tonight, for the neighborhood and themselves, but I couldn't stay that late.

So, that's it for now. If you want to send money or supplies to support the movement, please don't hesitate to contact me at this email address.

Solidarity,
Xochitl

[Wiley50]

4. Dr. Xochitl's 1st Day in Oaxaca

*written Nov 13*

Dear friends and family,

I came to Oaxaca, where there is a people's movement demanding political, social and economic reform. For more general information about the situation here, see Narco News, Indymedia, La Jornada and Noticias newspapers, Oaxaca Libre! website, APPO website, and more. Here is my first day's report:

The day began quietly enough. I went down to the zocalo (central town square), walking between lines of federal police who are now camped there, in place of the teachers who were there for 5 months. I sat at a cafe along the border of the central square, and had mole tamales and coffee and a delicious plate of fruit while small children selling gum and older folks selling various crafts passed by asking did I want any of their wares. When I said no, some would ask no, really, do you want any?

I wandered around looking for a place to buy a phone, then called George, my friend from Massachusetts who lives here. He said "I've been trying to get in touch with you! There are bodies at the Red Cross (which is the equivalent to the public health system and ambulance services in the US), and we think they may be some of the disappeared, but we have not been able to see them. They have refused us entry. Maybe with your doctor credentials you can get in."

Afte some more discussion, he instructed me to go to the Human Rights Observers' table in the planton (emcampment) which had moved from the zocalo to the courtyard outside Santo Domingo chuch, after being forcibly evicted by the federal police. (and don't believe the reports that APPO willingly ceded the zocalo to the police. One person saw more than 20 bodies being carried away from the area by the police, most of them appeared dead).

I walked over there and sat for a while.....I met people, talked about the current situation, wandered around to see the wonder of mutual aid there, with food, medical care, bathrooms (which were working until they ran out of water), music and lots of information about what has happened over the last 5 months.

After a while K appeared, and explained what was going on with the Red Cross. We were waiting for the lawyers, who had applied for official permission to enter the morgue and view the bodies. Our first goal was to identify the bodies, because based on the best available information 130 - 150 people have been disappeared. Secondarily, we wanted to gather what details we could about cause of death. K, who is from North Carolina but lives most of the time in Oaxaca, has some experience with forensics. The next member of our team was Hinrich, a German photographer (he took one of the best photos I have seen of Brad Will in the Oaxaca zocalo just a few days before he was killed). Next we needed some strong people to help move the bodies, because they were stacked like pancakes in the morgue.

I went over to where some of the teachers who are still on strike (many have still refused to return to the classrooms, despite what we hear in the US), and asked if they knew anyone who might help us. After much laughter and silliness about who was the strongest, they found us two men who also had some medical training and could help us out.

But we had no lawyers, and no official permission. And according to our information (which turned out to be incorrect), the bodies were not preserved and were decomposing quickly, so if we didn't get there quickly there would be little hope of identification.

So we decided to go and try to gain entrance, and if we were denied, to try again later with the lawyers. We gathered our group, which was about 8 people by then, and went to the Red Cross, where the bodies were.

When we first arrived, we were told that the director was not there, and that we should return in 2 hours.

Two hours later we returned, waited a while, and finally talked with the director. First he said that the bodies were definitely not associated with the protests, that they were unclaimed dead people who were there waiting for some family member to come and identify them and either bury them or give permission that they be used for anatomy classes at the local medical school. He told some stories, and then we asked again. He said that they definitely were not anyone from the protests, and that he couldn't let us enter. More stories, more requests, more stories, more requests. I said that if they were not any of the disappeared, we should be able to tell APPO, the teachers and others that this was definitely true, because word of the bodies was spreading quickly and many people believed that these dead ones were their disappeared family members. No he said, more stories. Then, finally, yes.

But wait. We had to be accompanied by two of his assistants, one of whom was not there. We would have to wait until he arrived to enter the morgue. Four hours (yes, four hours waiting in the rain), as darkness fell, finally the all-important assistant arrived and we entered the morgue.

It looks like, for most of the 24 corpses that were there, he was telling the truth. Most had been there for months (embalmed, thank god), but a few were more recent deaths. With masks and gloves on we went through the slow process of moving each of the corpses from a pyramid-like-pile, photographing, looking for other identifiying marks, and asking about cause of death, estimated age, and when they arrived at the morgue.

We will now compare these photos with the videos and photos that people had managed to take earlier (one short video taken through a window with a camera held over the head of the videographer for a few minutes before he was chased away), to make sure that no bodies were removed from the morgue before we got there (maybe while we waited 4 hours??). And we will turn the photos over to the organizers of the popular movement, to see how they want to distrubute them, to see if any of the corpses are the disappeared.

So, that was my first day in Oaxaca. There are, of course, millions of other details that I can't possibly related right now, but more than anything, I would like to leave you with thoughts of the beauty of this movement, the generosity of every person I have met so far, the vibrancy of the encampment, the astonishing commitment to this struggle, the extraordinary demonstrations of mutual aid, and the willingness of everyone to contribute what they can.

I can't imagine what tomorrow will be like.

[Wiley50]

5. .

[Wiley50]

6. Wow,no kicks. You Folks usually like my Oaxaca threads n/t

[Wiley50]

7. .