Radio Raided in Oaxaca, Mexico Members Beaten and Jailed
Topic: police state
Members of Community Radio in Oaxaca, Mexico Beaten and Jailed

http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/09/111910.shtml

At 6:13 in the morning of the 14th of september, several police units, including forces of the UPOE (Special Operations Police), policia preventiva, turism police, police of the state of Oaxaca, the Federa Agency of Investigations (AFI), and plain clothed officers numbering a sum of 200 violently evicted members of Guetza Radio and the Popular Indigenous Counsel of Oaxaca - Ricardo Flores Magon (CIPO - RFM) with tear gas, cuncusion grenades and water hoses. To this date seven people remain in jail.

The repression marks the most recent attack by the government of Oaxaca, under Governor Jose Murat, against the Indigenous people of Oaxaca and the CIPO in particular. The CIPO, with the Indigenous National Congress, recently organized the first National Encounter of Autonomies, the participants of which included student activists, labor unions and indigenous communities, in order to facilitate a discorse between the problems of each community and formulate proposals in the spirit of mutual aid. Guetza Radio transmitted and archived the encounter.

Guetza Radio, along with the CIPO, is a voice in the city of Oaxaca which continually demands justice for indigenous people and political prisoners of the region. The raid of the radio marks one more step in the history of repression against free radio in mexico. It is also part of the current political trend toward fascism throughout the country, as displayed by the examples of recent violence against demonstrators in Guadalajara and the growth of power throughout the country of the PAN, party of the ultra-right.

Guetza Radio continues transmiting from a new location and in a new frequency. They demand the following rights:

1.-immediate and unconditional liberty of all political prisoners.

2.-an end to the harrassment and repression of community radios throughout the country

3.-constitutional recognition of community radios and the peoples proposal for radio and television

4.-the return of confiscated equipment

Send letters of Solidarity to: Guetza Radio or CIPO-RFM