Abductions in Oaxaca

Another street abduction took place October 1 in Oaxaca. Pedro Garcia Garcia, identified as a student activist and law student at Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca (UABJO), as well as an adherent to the popular teachers social movement, was snatched at 2:20 in the afternoon, in full view of observers. The group who took him were driving in a black Ford Lobo, and the witnesses jotted down the license plate number.

Despite broadcasts of the event, with license plates and car description repeated several time during the day and evening, Garcia was not spotted. Unidentified plainclothes thugs, presumably PRI hired by the governor, were initially reported to have snatched two others at the same time, one of them a woman with a infant, with whom Garcia was walking, but this has not been confirmed. In events related to the ongoing PRI assault on Oaxaca, at 10:00 PM the same night Radio Ley, a radio station in possession of the popular teachers movement, broadcast several alarms and calls for assistance in Brenamiel, a northern area bordering the city, where one of the vital  radio antenna is located. The Asamblea Popular de Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO), through Radio Ley, called for reinforcements from all the nearby neighborhoods, emphasizing that shooters were present, as well as thugs beating and attacking the APPO barricades and viciously beating the people on guard there.

The PRI is just another word for nothing left to lose.  Oaxaca has been subjected in the past few days to acts of  random violence perpetrated by the all-but-destroyed governor. The sounds of gunfire and helicopters were heard all night on October 1. In response, a general response of  the citizens of Oaxaca is underway.Apparently federal intervention is on hold once again, despite the immediate circling of a helicopter during the Brenamiel attack. Perhaps the Secretary of Internal Affiars does not want to re-commemorate October 2 with a government attack on citizens.

Ulises Ruiz Ortiz may believe that if he’s going down, he’ll take with him as many as possible . On the other hand, if URO believes that the federal government will fully intercede,  URO himself might experience real restraints. Militarization, as apparently is happening right now throughout the state, might also imply a federal presence which would not permit URO to target teachers and the APPO for murder and/or imprisonment,  because the federal government must remain conscious of the bigger situation the country.

The news of the situation in Oaxaca has spread to other states and other nations as well. Telephone calls from Mexicans residing in the United States were broadcast live on Radio Ley during the evening of October 1, asking for the Mexican government to cease the militarization of Oaxaca. As happened in 1994 with the Zapatistas, word is spreading.  Civil assistence might arrive too late for Pedro Garcia, but it seems like it's on the way.