Two Triqui Community Radio Reporters Assassinated

SAN JUAN COPALA, MEXICO (Universal) - Radio Copala, The voice that breaks the silence, “never will be silenced”, assured two companions of Felícitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino, assassinated in an ambush the past April 7, a crime whose intellectual authors are allegedly leaders of the Popular Unity Party (Partido Unidad Popular, PUP): Heriberto Pazos, Rufino Merino Zárate -ex deputy of the local legislature- and Marcelino Bautista.

“They killed the women because they wakened the people’s consciousness,” agreed Adolfo Ramírez Martínez, while he mopped his tears in a corner of the old house from where the community reporters transmitted.

Radio Copala was created last January, on celebrating the first anniversary of the creation of the autonomous community of this Triqui area. The “crafty ambush,” – says the broadcaster Adolfo Ramírez- “will not silence our voice."

Felícitas and Teresa, 22 and 24 years old respectively, overcame a society marked by machismo, “thanks to the opportunity that the autonomous government gave them.”

They give names of the presumed assassins

“We feel indignant because the police still have not arrested the intellectual and material assassins”, stated don Tiburcio Martínez, father of Felícitas and teacher of the local Center for Social Integration (Centro de Integración Social).

The day they were ambushed, both had been accompanied by the assistant of the Civil Registry for the locality, Faustino Vásquez Martínez, to the community of Llano Juárez, “to promote the first community radio of the Triquis”.

Here, in this town where the young women were struck down in the place where some years ago the post office operated and from where they broadcast by 94.9 FM “The voice that breaks the silence”, everyone knows the names of the assassins.

“The intellectual authors are th leaders of Popular Unity (Heriberto Pazos, Rufino Merino Zaragoza and Marcelino Bautista López) and those who pulled the trigger were the brothers Manuel and Carmelo Domínguez Ortiz, of Rastrojo, and Paulo Guzmán Ramírez, of Paso del Águila”, the companions of the young murdered women affirmed.

In the profound silence and with a glance toward the mountains where the blood of both broadcasters were shed, the father of Felícitas declared: “I do not want vengeance, I only seek justice.”

“They committed no crime, they only were orienting the Triqui people in matters of health, organization and the reclaiming of their resources still in the hands of the corrupt leaders,” the broadcaster Bernabé Cruz explained.

Here, where the people in assembly forbid the presence of political parties “because they only divide us”, The voice that beaks the silence was converted “into a threat for those corrupt leaders, and that’s why they killed them”.

Impunity the norm

In spite of both deaths, which are written intot he climate of violence and impunity that the Triqui region lives, "nobody will silence us", says the broadcaster Adolfo Ramírez. "They will not shut us up nor will they terrorize us", he exclamed defiantly.

The young inheritors of the words spread by Felícitas and Teresa are worried, but they think that the military or police presence "will not solve the problem of violence, only make it worse," they indicated.

"The town does not want soldiers, since years ago they were brutal with the young and stole from the women; the town wants to live in peace and with justice," added don Tiburcio, the father of Felícitas.

Facing the computer "bought with the aid of the people", two boys, almost children, Macario Bautista and Felipe Ramírez, 14 and 16 years old respectively, manage the equipment and send greetings to the communities.

"We are going ahead. It is the best homage we can pay to our companions", they said with amazing seriousness, shut in this building of stone under an abestos roof located near the municipal palace.

The youthful braodcasters, trained withthe aid of the Center of Community Assistance Working Together (Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos :Cactus), of Huajuapan de León, want the federal government to carry out investigations of the deaths.

Meanwhile, says Bernabé Cruz, "with we will continue with our work of orientation, of rescue of our culture and defense of our language. The voice that breaks the silence will go on raising consciousness".