Communist Workers of Iran

Source:IndyBay –
by jlaw -
Sunday Jan 31st, 2010 12:35 AM –
Three U.S. tourists and one Uruguayan citizen were arrested in Oaxaca City on Thursday January 28 after approaching Ulises Ruiz in the city’s zocalo and asking him about the murder of Indymedia activist Brad Will.

Press Release Oaxaca January 30, 2010
On Thursday January 28, at around 9 p.m. Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of us recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away from us. As a friend of Brad Will, a U.S. journalist who was killed in Oaxaca in 2006, one of us took advantage of the governor’s presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved. We didn’t receive a response from the governor who continued walking and we continued strolling in the zocalo with our ice creams. Five minutes later, between six and eight police agents, some in official uniform and others dressed in plainclothes, surrounded us, demanding to see our identifications and made us walk with them to a municipal police truck. While the police forced us to get into the back of the truck, we asked them why they were taking us away and to where they were going to take us. The police refused to give us any information. We were actually very afraid and worried for our safety.

After traveling for half an hour, we arrived at the police headquarters of Santa Maria Coyotepec, located outside of the Oaxaca city limits.. Once we entered, the police took photographs of us and asked us questions. We demanded the presence of an attorney, which was denied by the police officials. We spent an hour there surrounded by police, faces covered with ski masks, who humiliated and threatened us. Later, the police put us once again in the police truck and without telling us to where we were going, we left the headquarters. The truck stopped about half a block away from the state General Procuradaria of Justice (PGJO in its letters in Spanish), the police ordered us to leave our belongings in the darkness of the street and when we refused to do that, they insisted by threatening us for half an hour while recording us with video. After entering the offices of the PGJO, the police ordered us to leave our belongings with them and that we make a declaration one by one without the presence of an attorney. We remained firm that we weren’t going to do anything until our attorney arrived.

After waiting for more than an hour, we were taken to a room where we supposedly were going to make a call to our lawyer. While in the room, a police officer read to us a document explaining our charges and to our surprise we were accused of scuffling and causing harm to two police agents. In that document, our arrest was ordered and without making the call to our lawyer, we were pushed and dragged out of the room, while twisting the wrist of one of us. That’s how we were taken to the jail cells at 12:30 in the morning. At 1:30, we were allowed to see a lawyer, Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia, who we agreed to be our legal representative. From then on we knew that were going to spend the night in jail. Throughout the night, the police continued to intimidate us, asking us why we were there. We continued to state that we didn’t do anything to cause our incarceration because we never committed any crime. Confused, we did our best to sleep on the cold jail floor.

The next day, Friday January 29, we learned that the gravity of charges that had been filed against us had increased. One of us was taken to make a statement when she learned that we were being accused of assaulting two police officers and damaging a police radio valued at about $3000 (USD). We continued to demand our right to not make a statement. At around 4 p.m., our attorney informed us that for a lack of evidence, we were going to be set free without charges and without having to pay bail, under the provision of passing through a review with officials from National Immigration Institute. Upon arrival at the federal immigration offices located in the center of the city, we presented our passports and visas and shortly we were allowed to walk free.

After learning about the situation, the U.S. consul, Mark Leyes, invited us to visit him at his office the same evening and told us that he was sorry for what had happened to us. We would like to thank the attorney Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia from the Mexican Protectorate for Human Rights, our friends and family members for all of their support and care.

Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez Jennifer Lawhorne and Jimmy Wells

http://unamalanocheenoaxaca.blogspot.com

Journalist killed in Mexico, 3rd this year

The Associated Press
Tuesday, February 2, 2010; 2:30 PM

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Gunmen have slain a Mexican journalist – the third such killing so far this year – and a top prosecutor said Tuesday there are few clues.

Albertano Guinto, the acting attorney general in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, said it was not yet clear if the death of Jorge Ochoa Martinez was linked to his work as director of El Sol de la Costa, a small newspaper that covers mostly local politics and community issues southeast of Acapulco.

Ochoa Martinez was shot in the face as he left a food stand in the town of Ayutla on Friday.

Two other Mexican journalists were killed in early January, and 12 reporters were killed in Mexico during 2009.

The governmental National Human Rights Commission said that 60 journalists have been killed since 2000, with eight others kidnapped or vanished.

“In Mexico, increasing numbers of journalists are the victims of threats, intimidation, persecution attacks and kidnappings in the course of performing their work,” the commission said in a statement Monday.

The Guerrero section of the National Union of Reporters said six of those killings since 2000 have been in that state, where drug gangs, rural disputes and illegal logging gangs are active.

The union said none of those responsible for the killings has been punished, and called on federal and local authorities to investigate the latest case.

Several international media watchdog groups have named Mexico the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists.