October 15, 2008
Please Distribute Widely
Dear Colleague,
Ever since the passage of the US-spending bill, The Merida Initiative (better knows as “Plan Mexico”), Mexican President Felipe Calderón has increasingly mobilized the Army to repress social movements. Narco News has documented this growing wave of abuses – in Chiapas, in Atenco, in Oaxaca and elsewhere – and now an emboldened and violent government has turned its guns, tanks and helicopters on unions and community organizations in Morelos.
Last week, Indigenous residents of Xoxocotla, Morelos raised roadblocks in solidarity with a teacher strike that is approaching its second month:
Greg Berger reports:
“The teachers of Morelos and the townspeople of Xoxocotla are united in a common struggle to stop the rapid privatization of public resources. Teachers on strike in Morelos are trying to halt a new set of educational reforms they say would open the doors to the participation of private capital in the public education system. Xoxocotla, on the other hand, is desperately trying to save the aquifer which feeds its municipal water system from being sucked dry from private condominium developers who skirt local zoning laws.
“…Later that night, between 500 and 1000 members of the Mexican Army from the 24th Military Zone barracks in Cuernavaca were given the order from the National Defense Secretary to assist police in their efforts to dislodge protesters in Xoxocotla. Accompanying these soldiers was a vast mobile arsenal, including humvees, tanks, and helicopters. It is important to note that such use of force can only take place under authorization from the executive branch of the Federal government.”
“…Demonstrating the short-sighted nature of the government's strategy, another woman whose brother is among the missing echoed a sentiment I heard many times. ‘Before today many of us didn't even support the teachers' strike. But now we are all with them.’”
Read the entirety of Berger’s report, along with a corresponding video report, online at Narco News:
From somewhere in a country called América,
David B. Briones
Webmaster
The Narco News Bulletin
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