Friends of Brad Will declare dry hunger strike at Sen. Clinton's office
Friends of Brad Will, an organization founded by friends and family of murdered Indymedia journalist Brad Will, has declared a four-day dry hunger strike and vigil in front of Sen. Hillary Clinton's Manhattan office to demand that she take action on Will's case. During the hunger strike, the protesters will not drink or eat.
Will was murdered in Oaxaca, Mexico, on October 27, 2006, while covering the popular uprising there. Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Mexican government has blamed members and supporters of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca for the murder. It has already arrested three people in the case, and says it has arrest warrants for eight more. All are APPO members or supporters.
Witnesses, journalists, ballistic evidence, the autopsy results, video evidence, and photographs all point to Juan Carlo Soriano, municipal police officer; Manuel Aguilar, council personnel chief; Able Santiago Zarate; and Pedro Carmona, mayor of Felipe Carrillo Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino as the most likely culprits.
The Mexican government's own National Human Rights Commission (CNDH in its Spanish initials) has strongly condemned the government's investigation of the case, saying that Will died of two long-range shots, not two short-range shots fired by APPO members standing around Will, as the attorney general claims. According to the CNDH, "We are concerned because the person the Attorney General's office detained as the person allegedly responsible for the homicide of US journalist Brad Will could be charged without evidence, and he runs the risk of being convicted."
On October 16 the Mexican government arrested APPO activist Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno as the intellectual author of the crime and Octavio Perez Perez as a co-conspirator. A day later it arrested Hugo Colmenares Leyva as another co-conspirator. The government claims that Martínez Moreno pulled the trigger as he stood to the side of Will, even though the first shot Will received came from straight-on.
This is not the first time Martínez Moreno has faced problems for his activism: in 2007 he was kidnapped along with two other APPO members while performing election observation in Santa Lucía del Camino, where Will was murdered in October 2006. The kidnappers beat the three APPOistas severely in the face and abdomen under a bridge and then dumped them in a community 38 kilometers from Oaxaca City.
Friends of Brad Will has decided to target Sen. Clinton because she supports the military aid package to Mexico called the Merida Initiative, also known as Plan Mexico. Plan Mexico will provide training, resources, and armament to the Mexican government, military, and police forces to continue its highly controversial war on organized crime, which has already resulted in skyrocketing drug-related homicide rates and human rights abuses. Robert Jereski, a member of Friends of Brad Will who is on his third day of hunger strike, told Narco News, "Clinton's supporting a security package that's arming the security forces who killed a US journalist who worked in New York City."
The hunger strikers delivered a list of six demands to Sen. Clinton's office yesterday morning. They include:
- That Hillary Clinton issue a public statement demanding protection for witnesses to Will's murder, the arrest of the government agents filmed shooting at him, and a public statement opposing the Merida Initiative. Witnesses in the Will case claim they and their families have suffered harrassment, including being followed and having their homes watched.
- That the Mexican government arrest the real killers in the Will case.
- That the the charges against Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno and Octavio Perez Perez be dropped. FoBW calls these charges "an absurd attempt to divert attention from the real killers."
- The end of the "corrupt brutal rule by Ulises Ruiz" Ortiz, the current governor of Oaxaca whose destitution was the central demand of the 2006 uprising.
- An end to the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and Plan Puebla Panama, now known as the Mesoamerica Project.
- No to the Plan Mexico military aid package, officially known as the Merida Initiative.
Thus far Clinton has not met with the hunger strikers, even though she was reportedly in her Manhattan office yesterday. She has also not responded to the demands, which were delivered directly to her staff and are also being faxed to her office by protesters all over the United States.
Friends of Brad Will is undettered. They are encouraging supporters to continue calling Sen. Clinton's office at (212) 688-6262 to support the hunger strikers' demands. According to Jereski, "It is our duty to stand up for human rights in solidarity with the victims of those security forces, and not with the perpetrators of human rights violations....US tax money will be used to send lethal aid to Mexico to wholely unaccounatable police and military forces there. We have a resonsibility to take action." Jereski says that U.S. weaponry and training have been used by Mexican officials to violently repress dissent and leftist and indigenous movements, "the very actions that journalist Brad Will was exposing."
Calls on Thursday to Sen. Clinton's press office for a comment on the hunger strike went unanswered.
Email this page
Full list of demands from Friends of Brad Will
Submitted on October 23rd, 2008 by Kristin Bricker1) Arrest the Killers.
When Brad was killed, the people photographed firing guns at the protesters were police, police commanders, and operatives and bodyguards for the PRI party, including Pedro Carmona, Able Santiago Zarate aka “El Chino,” Juan Carlo Soriano aka “El Chapulin,” Commander Manuel Aguilar Coello, and Juan Sumano. They are directly linked to the corrupt Governor Ulises Ruiz, and we demand their arrest.
2) Drop False Charges, Release Political Prisoners.
Since Brad’s death, Ulises Ruiz’ government has been attempting to bring charges for Brad’s killing against Brad’s friends, APPO people, witnesses, and those who risked their lives trying to get Brad to a hospital. We join the National Commission on Human Rights, and Reporters Without Borders in finding these attempts to be an absurd and outrageous attempt to divert attention from the real killers. We demand an end to this smokescreen and the punishment of innocent people including Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno, Hugo Colmenares Leyva, and Octavio Perez Perez.
3) Justice for Brad, Freedom for Oaxaca.
Brad is only one of dozens of activists, reporters, civilians, and unarmed people killed by the State response to the Oaxacan movement for justice and freedom. Friends of Brad Will not only demands justice for them, but demands what they demand: the end of corrupt brutal rule by Ulises Ruiz.
4) No to Neo-Liberalism and Femicide
We join in solidarity with the friends and family of Marcella Sali Grace Eiler, an international solidarity activist working with CIPO, Colectivo Mujer Nueva and with the witnesses of Brad’s death who was found brutally raped and murdered September 26th 2008 in San Jose del Pacifico in the state of Oaxaca. Her death is part of an escalation of violence against women in an era of neo-liberal trade agreements and drug wars. We demand an end to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), and Plan Puebla Panama (now known as the Mesoamerica Project), and to the the cultural and political systems that have permitted the raping and killing of women.
5) No to Plan Mexico
A year almost to the day after Brad was murdered, the Bush Administration announced the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico), providing at least $1.6 billion in US armament, training, and resources to the same police and military forces that killed Brad and many other activists and journalists in Mexico and Central America under the pretense of stopping narco-trafficking. Already the weapons have been used in massacres and repression of activists in Morelos and Chiapas. Along with the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers, Tikkun, Wespac, Witness for Peace, Cispes, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, The Friends of Brad Will demand and end to the Merida Initiative.
Statement from witnesses in Brad Will case
Submitted on October 23rd, 2008 by Kristin BrickerIn Spanish and English:
Oaxaca, October 21, 2008
Faced with constant threats and harassment against us and our families, we write this letter so that the men and women of Mexico and the world are made aware of the abuse of power exercised recently by institutions such as the Federal Attorney General.
We have a right to live in peace, as do our families. From the very
beginning, we five witnesses voluntarily came forward to contribute to the resolution of this case.
We gave statements before the Federal Attorney General, contributing information, we supplied testimony based on the real events, and we presented counter arguments to that of the State Attorney General, given that the information and investigation led by this institution has always been full of irregularities, ambiguities, and omissions.
All of this comes days before the 2nd anniversary of the murder of our comrade Bradley Roland Will and the impunity that surrounds the case. The Will family has expressed their anger and indignation about thesituation understanding that yet another injustice has been committed with the detention of Juan Manuel Martinez Moreno and Octavio Perez Perez, innocent people, as well as, the arrest warrants issued for us.
We are men with great dreams and social activists but that does not make us murderers. Those responsible are other people and there is sufficient proof of this in the recommendations of National Commission for Human Rights(CNDH), FHR International Forensic Program of Physicians for Human Rights and Reporters without Borders. All of these reports are based on serious investigations with substantiated arguments that debunk the claim that the shots that killed Brad were fired from close range.
For this reason we do not demand justice in terms of money, but rather the incarceration of the architects and the perpetrators of the murder of our brother Brad Will, we are referring to the Governor of Oaxaca Ulisis Ruiz Ortiz, the ex-President Vicente Fox and the current President Felipe Calderon. We also denounce the impunity in the case of over 26 murders that occurred in the year 2006 when more than two million people mobilized to show their disapproval of a corrupt and ineffective government.
This is why we say enough!
Enough with this war against honest and dedicated social activists.
Enough with the corruption and cover-ups!
Leonardo Ortiz Cruz - Gualberto Francisco Santiago Navarro - Gustavo Vilchis Ramírez - Miguel Cruz Moreno - Alberta Guadalupe Navarro Hernández
All adherents to the OTHER CAMPAIGN and fighters in defense of human rights
(Translated & distributed by members of Solidarity Without Borders)
*******************************
Oaxaca, 21 de octubre de 2008
Al Pueblo de Mexico,
Al Glorioso y Combativo Pueblo de Oaxaca,
A los adherentes de la Sexta Declaración y a la Otra Campaña,
A las ONG´s de Derechos Humanos de Mexico y el Mundo:
Antela situación de permanentes amenazas y hostigamiento hacia nosotros ynuestras familias es que redactamos este pronunciamiento para que hombres y mujeres de México y el Mundo sepan del abuso de poderejercido en los últimos tiempos desde organismos como la ProcaduriaGeneral de la Republica.
Tenemosderecho a vivir tranquilos y nuestras familias también. Desde unprincipio cinco testigos nos presentamos de forma voluntaria paracontribuir a la resolución de este caso.
Declaramosante la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR),
contribuyendo conla información, brindamos testimonios basados en los hechos reales ehicimos contrapeso a los argumentos de la PGJ, ya que la información yla investigación manejadas por este organismo, en todo momento hanestado llenas de irregularidades, ambigüedades y omisiones.
Enestos momentos a pocos días de cumplirse dos años del asesinato e impunidad de nuestro compañero Bradley Roland Will estas hostigaciones se han incrementado hacia nosotros.
Lafamilia Will ha manifestado su enojo e indignación por esta situaciónal entender que se comete otra injusticia al encarcelar en la pasadasemana a Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno y Octavio Pérez Pérez personasinocentes, como así también por las órdenes de aprehensión dirigidashacia nosotros.
Somos hombres soñadores y luchadores sociales pero eso no nos transforma en homicidas.
Esos son otros y para muestra basta con leer el informe de recomendaciones de la CNDH, FHR International Forensic Program de Physicians for Human Rights y Reporteros sin fronteras.
Todosestos informes son de investigaciones serias y con argumentos sostenibles en la cual descartan que fueran disparos de corta distancialos que provocaron la muerte de Brad Will.
Porlo tanto, exigimos no una justicia con signo de pesos, sino cárcel a los autores intelectuales y materiales que asesinaron al hermano Brad Will, nos referimos al Gobernador de Oaxaca Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, al ExPresidente de la Republica Vicente Fox y al actual Presidente de laRepublica Felipe Calderón, así como también de la impunidad de más de 26 asesinatos que se llevaron a cabo en el año 2006, cuando se movilizaron mas de dos millones de personas que demostraron su descontento ante un gobierno ineficiente y
corrupto.
Por eso decimos basta!
Basta a esta guerra contra los luchadores sociales, solidarios y honestos.
Basta de corrupción y encubrimientos!
Leonardo Ortiz Cruz - Gualberto Francisco Santiago Navarro - Gustavo Vilchis Ramírez - Miguel Cruz Moreno - Alberta Guadalupe Navarro Hernández –
Todos adherentes de la otra campaña y luchadores por la defensa de los derechos humanos
(Translated & distributed by members of Solidarity Without Borders)
Video from Friends of Brad Will hunger strike
Submitted on October 27th, 2008 by Kristin BrickerHere is a video from the hunger strike: