Radio Universidad Attacked

Static crackled for about fifteen minutes while I twirled the dial to see if anybody else was paying attention. Silly me.  It’s now 10:00 PM. The woman teacher at the microphone  is hysterical - the station was populated with women and children for the evening while everyone else was at the people’s guelaguetza in the zocalo. Since the radio station is also used as a collection area for food and supplies, for not only the teachers but now also for the guelaguetza people who have come in from the countryside, there were many elderly women and children in the building.

The single cry for help that made it onto the air brought people from the neighboring streets, but the students and people inside managed to beat back the attackers.

With the station back on the air,  the men now speaking are wild - apparently the teachers’ Radio Plantón also picked up the alarm - a man at the  microphones is screaming for SNTE people from every state to come - the immediate danger is over but the adrenalin is understandably racing. The men on air identify the attackers as thugs brought in by three “camionetas”, about 25 “paramilitares”  carrying “cartuchos”. The arms are the type used only by the military, that is, high powered automatic weapons.

Nobody was shot.

The movement people claim to have a video of the vehicles that the attackers used, one a bus, license plate 410 of public transport, one a white vehicle with plate number 25. The third vehicle is not identified.

“How could they come to attack a place where there are children?” These words after the recovery are all broadcast at panic level - “we are going to die here in Radio Universidad.”, meaning they will die before they give up the struggle.

The announcing voices keep changing as various people arrive. Urgent request: come to help, all society and civil organizations, to reinforce the zocalo and the radio station. Heliodoro Díaz Escárrega (secretary of government) and Jorge Franco Vargas (who held the position during the June 14 attack on the zocalo, and was ‘fired’ as a scapegoat), puppets of Ruiz, have tried to murder youngsters at the university.”

“Here are people to defend Radio Universidad, but maybe it’s a decoy to invade the zocalo ... be careful, go to the zocalo, heads of families. We don’t need any more of this...we need your presence.”

Secetary General of SNTE Enrique Rueda Pacheco asked for reinforcements,  someone else shouted that police patrols are on the road, “everyone go out into the streets to defend ourselves”.

The level of rage is very high, along with the demand for Ruiz to be removed for attempts against their lives. A student broadcaster denounced, “The federal government, (Fox has accepted Ruiz’ assurance that absolutely nothing has been happening in Oaxaca) is also responsible for not paying attention to the situation.

Zaachilla, one of the towns whose palacio was taken over two days ago by movement people, is attending the guelaguetza and somebody arrived at the radio station. He is shouting that Zaachila is “presente” to defend the people and the station -

There are now several thousand people gathered outside the station - it’s now 75 minutes after attack -  people are asked to mobilize in the zocalo. All the radio voices are urgent and agitated. “It is urgent right now to have the removal of powers!” referring to the three branches of  Oaxaca’s stae government, all of which are controlled by Ruiz.

At 11:35 PM people are advised to buy flashlights and batteries, and stay alert. The Director of the Faculty of Law arrived at the station and in a calm voice condemned Ruiz and Heliodoro Díaz Escárrega whom he said is directly responsible for the attacks, and then he denounced the violence perpetrated at the university. It was announced that a press conference with the Rector of the University is scheduled for Sunday July 23 at 11:00 AM. At noon there’ll be another press conference, this one with the People’s Assembly.

Felipe Calderón and Ulises Ruiz are meeting right now, another announcer informs us, in Huatulco (Oaxaca’s rich kid playground on the coast) where Calderon is vacationing.

At midnight the station is settling into sequential denunciations and announcements of emergency meetings for the morning, and of the various calls received from around the state where towns are on alert.

The announcer, now a woman, thanks everyone for their incredible support, and says, “It’s calm.” So I’m going to bed, with the hope that no more bad events happen, and that I can sleep, because that adrenalin rage is contagious.