Posted on 10/28/2006 9:28:34 AM PDT by ARealMothersSonForever
OAXACA, Mexico - President Vicente Fox announced Saturday he was sending federal police into the violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a U.S. journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The clashes occurred Friday as leftist protesters barricaded streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor.
Fox's office issued a declaration saying that the federal forces would concentrate in Oaxaca on Saturday. His office later clarified that he was referring to federal police, not troops, but did not specify how many were being sent.
The president earlier had refused to send such forces to the city, insisting that the dispute should be resolve through negotiations. The conflict has been one of the biggest challenges for Fox, whose six-year term ends Dec 1.
Gunfire erupted Friday in a rough Oaxaca neighborhood when armed men tried to remove a blockade set up by protesters demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, according to state officials and witnesses. Both sides fired but it was not clear who shot first.
Bradley Roland Will, 36, from New York City, was shot in the abdomen and died later at a Red Cross hospital, police, witnesses and friends said. Will worked for Indymedia.org, an independent Web-based media organization and sold video footage on a freelance basis, said friends and Indymedia colleague Hinrich Schuleze.
Oaxaca Attorney General Lizbeth Cana blamed the violence on the leftist protesters, whom she has compared to an urban guerrilla group. She said the armed men were angry residents defending themselves.
"The people are fed up with permanent violence, threats and kidnappings," Cana said.
However, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said the armed group may have been police. The Mexico City newspaper El Universal on Saturday published photos identifying some of the men firing at protesters as local officials.
"It appears that Mr. Will was killed during a shootout between what may have been local police" and protesters, Garza said in a written statement.
Protesters have taken over the city since for five months, building barricades, driving out police and burning buses. The protesters accuse the governor of rigging the 2004 election to win office and using violence against his opponents.
They accused the governor of sending the armed men against them.
"Ulises Ruiz is trying to massacre our people," said protester Antonio Garcia.
An Associated Press video taken at the scene shows people ducking for cover as shots rattle out from many directions. A group of six men are seen running through the street with Will.
Esteban Zurrita, a resident of Oaxaca, also was shot dead in the clash, said Cana.
The third victim was identified as Emilio Alonso Fabian, whose bullet-ridden body was found about two miles from the clash. Many of the protesters are teachers.
Oswaldo Ramirez, a photographer for the Mexico City daily Milenio was shot in the foot at and taken to hospital, Milenio said on its Web site.
A second shootout erupted between protesters and an armed group outside the state prosecutors office and left three people injured, Cana said.
Friday's clash came a day after teachers agreed to end their five-month-old strike that has kept 1.3 million children out of classes in the state of Oaxaca — a move that was expected to take the sting out of the protests.
The teachers have been camped out in Oaxaca city's colonial center since May when they first walked out to demand higher pay and better working conditions.
After police attacked one of their demonstrations in June, they extended their demands to include a call for the resignation of Gov. Ruiz and were joined by leftists, students and Indian groups.
Police and armed gangs have led sporadic attacks on the protesters, leading to retaliatory violence.
Will had been documenting the upheaval in Internet dispatches. His reports showed strong sympathies with the protest movements.
"What can you say about this movement, this revolutionary moment," he wrote in a dispatch dated Oct. 16. "You know it is building, growing, shaping, you can feel it, trying desperately for a direct democracy."
Dyan Neary, 25, of Hawaii, a close friend of Will, said Will had traveled extensively through South and Latin America and had been jailed and had guns pointed at his head.
"He would always put himself on the front lines," a tearful Neary said. He was a courageous guy. He really believed in truth, public awareness and justice. He was an amazing human being."
On Thursday, a majority of Oaxaca teachers voted to end their walkout. Union leaders met with Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal in Mexico City on Friday to hammer out conditions for their return to classes.
After the meeting, the Interior Department and teachers union released statements condemning Friday's violence and saying they were making headway in coming to an agreement.
Ruiz repeatedly has asked federal authorities to send troops to restore order.
The U.S. ambassador urged the administration to resolve the problem.
"Mr. Will's senseless death, of course, underscores the critical need for a return to lawfulness and order in Oaxaca," Garza said.
___
Associated Press Writers Adam Goldman in New York City and Ioan Grillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Me. No way we will even implement anything more harsh than a diplomatic note. This dolt "journalist" was being bankrolled to interfere in local Mexican politics. He was killed for a specific reason, it was not an accident. Mexican authorities will demand an apology for an American citizen interfering in their local politics. And they will get one. Once again, it is too bad that it was an American. You can bet your bottom dollar that Michael Moore and Ted Turner will not be headed to Oaxaca with busloads of supporters. The Marxists will demand that Non Government Organizations be thrown at this problem. Grab your wallets folks. We are going to pay heavily for this idiot.
The reporter was there to support the "leftist protestors."
In fact, Indymedia is one of the most violently, virulently marxist operative organizations around. They are best know for their campaign encouraging U.S. troops to shoot their officers.
They're hand in hand, in league, with Michael Moore and most likely supported by George Soros.
Every FReeper should be well aware of Indymedia. They are the enemy.
I know. See #21 ;)
I guess I skipped your post. It's hard for me to read paragraphs like that, sinus headache and all.
Another note to anyone reading this: Indymedia is a worldwide network of marxist activists.
We'll have to see what comes of this; I see martyrdom in the victim's future.
For later
Indymedia is probably funded by Foreign intelligence agencies. (SVR[KGB], Chinese intelligence, GRU, DGI, Iranian intel, North Korean intel, Hugo chavez, ect)
Chavez, Castro, AMLO, Ortega and co are causing these riots. And we know who are behind them.... China and Russia.
Ping
This story isn't about Russia, but it is something of signaficance and worth watching.
O is a W. X is an H.
I haven't looked at their websites in some time, don't want to, but when I did they displayed the most extreme and toxic of communist/anarchist propaganda.
Sorry for the lenght of this article but is subscription and cannot do a link. Will post in two parts on violence in Mexico
Escalating Violence
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
10/25/06 17:20:20
In one recent and particularly gruesome incident that illustrates the current level of violence in Mexico, a group of masked gunmen entered the Light and Shadow nightclub in Uruapan, Michoacan state, on Sept. 6, fired weapons into the air and then tossed five severed human heads onto the dance floor. Beheadings had already reached the U.S. border in June, when Mexican authorities recovered four beheaded bodies from a vacant lot in Tijuana, and then pulled the heads from the nearby Tijuana River. The victims were three local police officials and a civilian.
Mexican drug gangs, who used the beheadings tactic for the first time in April, are sending a clear message that they are willing to go to any lengths to get what they want -- and that anyone who gets in their way is doomed. This same message also has been delivered via a number of attacks using grenades and assault rifles in other parts of Mexico, including the U.S. border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Tijuana and Juarez.
Another example of the escalation in violence is the Sept. 22 firefight in an upscale neighborhood of Nuevo Laredo between enforcers for the Gulf cartel and the security forces of an assassination target (presumably from the Sinaloa cartel). The engagement, which raged on for some 40 minutes and involved anti-tank weapons, hand grenades and automatic weapons fire, reportedly resulted in the deaths of five Gulf cartel enforcers and five other people.
The Mexican government has tried various tactics throughout the years to stem the violence and corruption associated with cartels, including dispatching military troops to Nuevo Laredo and other border cities. In June 2005, a string of events in Nuevo Laredo -- including the killing of two police chiefs in the city, the second of which occurred only a few hours after he was sworn into office -- prompted the Mexican government to dispatch army troops and federal agents to the town. The army and federal agents detained all 700 officers of the Nuevo Laredo police force and temporarily assumed their duties until some semblance of order could be restored. Following interviews and drug tests, only 150 of the police officers retained their jobs; the rest were terminated or arrested. More recently, in March, the Mexican government assigned an additional 600 members of the Federal Preventative Police to Nuevo Laredo as part of another program to fight increased violence related to the drug trade. Such solutions, however, have failed to stem the corruption and violence. As evidenced by the major firefight Sept. 22, Nuevo Laredo remains a hotbed of cartel activity.
SNIP
The various enforcer groups have targeted Mexican government officials protecting rival cartels, the leadership of the rival cartels and members of those cartels' enforcement arms. Some extremely brutal executions of members of Los Zetas and Los Pelones by their contemporaries have occurred, including not only beheading but also a tactic called "necklacing," in which a tire is placed around a victim's neck and set ablaze. (The tactic was made famous by the African National Congress in South Africa).
The drug cartels also conduct intimidation campaigns and reprisal attacks against noncriminal groups such as police, government security forces and journalists -- anyone who is seen as a threat to their business. Such attacks are quite significant, and gruesome executions are often the norm. That said, the crime gangs are not always precise in their targeting. At times, they have mowed down police on the streets with assault rifles or attacked police stations with grenades and other heavy weapons, causing considerable collateral damage.
More:
SNIP
The Future
In addition to their network of tactical operators, Los Zetas and Los Pelones also have provided the cartels with an advanced intelligence and surveillance capability. This network operates on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border and has been used to protect drug shipments from law enforcement interdiction and the forces of competing cartels. They also are accomplished at countersurveillance operations and at avoiding the countersurveillance activities of their rivals.
Law enforcement officers along the U.S. border have reported many encounters with armed smugglers who do not hesitate to shoot. In one encounter last summer, two deputy sheriffs in Hidalgo County, Texas, were attacked as they patrolled the north bank of the Rio Grande. They reported that their assailants fired 300 to 400 rounds from automatic weapons at them before withdrawing.
To date, the violence associated with this intra-cartel warfare has been much more severe in Mexico than on the U.S. side of the border. Although this trend will continue, violence can be expected to increase on the U.S. side as targeted criminals and others search for safe hiding places. Perhaps as a sign of problems to come, the Los Angeles Times reported Oct. 23 that cartel-related corruption has been "rising dramatically" on the U.S. side of the border. With corruption spreading north, it is only a matter of time before more violence follows -- particularly because the cartels are especially adept at parlaying their power to corrupt into opportunities to commit violence.
Traditionally, when violence has spiked, cartel figures have used U.S. cities such as Laredo and San Diego as rest and recreation spots, calculating that the umbrella of U.S. law enforcement would protect them from being targeted for assassination by their enemies. This is beginning to change, however, as the bolder Mexican cartel hit men carry out assassinations on the U.S. side of the border in places such as Laredo, Rio Bravo and even Dallas, where law enforcement contacts indicate Los Zetas members are believed to have assassinated at least three people.
This change will likely cause high-value cartel targets to move even deeper into the United States to avoid attack, though their enemies' brazen and sophisticated assassins will likely follow. Judging from their history in Mexico and along the border, these assassins will have no qualms about engaging law enforcement personnel who get in their way, or about causing collateral damage. Their intelligence network will be bolstered by their alliances with street gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and Calle 18, which have affiliates in many large cities throughout the United States. These allies can either provide them with intelligence or, in some cases, be contracted to conduct assassinations.
Though the House report warns of the dangers to law enforcement and civilians on the border, the spread of this cartel violence beyond the border region could catch many law enforcement officers by surprise. Patrol officers conducting a traffic stop on a group of Los Zetas members who are preparing to conduct an assassination in, say, Los Angeles, Chicago or northern Virginia could quickly find themselves heavily outgunned and under fire. Additionally, because of their low regard for human life and disdain for innocent bystanders, any assassination attempts cartel members do manage to launch might be very messy and could result in collateral deaths of innocent people and responding law enforcement officers.
U.S. law enforcement officers along the border are aware of the problem of Mexican cartel violence and have made efforts to mitigate it, though they have found they cannot completely prevent it or root it out. This same reality will apply to the violence that will soon be seen farther inside the United States. The roots of this problem lie in Mexico, and the solution will also need to be found there.
http://www.stratfor.com/reports/
Not to worry, those that worship at the altar of Lou Dobbs and a useless wall we be along shortly to propose Balkanizing Texas in order to keep the contract killers out of Chicago and Alexandria. What masquerades as logic is amazing. Those of us that have maintained a position of using diplomatic AND military pressure on Mexico are scorned. Yet Stratfor even endorses the concept that only Mexico can fix itself.
I wonder if any of Puties new AK's were involved.
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