Even as the Mexican federal government is starting to release some of the hundreds detained during the Oaxaca protests, new harassment and repression is reported from the conflicted state. On Dec. 18, Florentino Lopez Marti'nez, spokesman of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), and two other members of the organization were seized by local police as they left a meeting in Oaxaca City. They were released after several hours, apparently following intervention by the Federal Preventative Police who remain in the city. They reported that they were beaten in custody. (La Jornada, Dec. 19) Meanwhile, APPO director Flavio Sosa, who remains at the top-security Altiplano federal prison at La Palma, Mexico state, was formally charged with "sedition," "criminal association" and "property damage" on Dec. 19. (La Jornada, Dec. 20)

Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz reacted dismissively to the release of a preliminary report on the repression by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), finding that in Oaxaca "the necessary conditions do not exist for the respect and observance of fundamental rights." Ruiz Ortiz said that the report, which counted 20 dead, 349 detained and 370 injured in the conflict, should be treated only as the results of an investigation in progress "and not the complete report." (La Jornada, Dec. 20)

Sources archived at Chiapas95

See our last post on Mexico and the Oaxaca crisis.