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kidnapped, raped, tortured, killed, by Ruiz's rightwing paramilitaries, indy photographer Brad Will's killers, and the union leaders and others who were hunted down, arrested, taken to undisclosed locations, etc., by the federal police under orders of Fox/Calderon, when they invaded and cs-gassed Oaxaca?
I haven't checked at narconews lately, and I don't know what's happening now.
It's remarkable how, when you introduce Darth Vader cops in support of a fascist murderer like Ruiz, you can turn an entirely peaceful and non-violent movement into "violent confrontations."
Get ready, folks! The repression tactics used in Oaxaca will be coming to your town soon. They don't mind if you protest the war, but try to create a democratic government, as they did in Oaxaca, or try to create a democratic decision-making process in the WTO (Seattle '99), or try to create fair and transparent elections in the U.S. (or any of its client states)--and you will soon find out what the Corporate Rulers are really interested in controlling.
It's not so much WHAT the people decide, as their power to do so, that is under assault. It's not so much obedience or consumerism that they want from us, as our sovereignty. The Oaxacan movement is about the sovereignty of the people. Not so much about teachers' salaries, or vast poverty, or horrendous corporate exploitation, as about the right of the people to control their own affairs. And THAT is why the repression has been so severe.
The Oaxacans are fighting for all of us to have decent, responsive government, of, by and for the people. And we need to learn to fight fascism there, so we don't have to fight it here (--to turn around a Bush phrase). We need to support democracy in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Nicaragua, where it is succeeding, and fight fascism in Colombia and its "free trade" version in Peru, while bolstering the huge democracy movements that are putting up such an awesome fight, in Mexico and Paraguay, and in other places where this great leftist (majorityist) tide is starting to breach the fascist wall (as in Guatemala). Mexico's leftist (majorityist) candidate, Amlo, the former mayor of Mexico City, came within 0.05% of winning the presidency. Fernando Lugo, the "bishop of the poor" just announced his candidacy for the president of Paraguay, and--barring the success of rightwing election fraud and U.S./Bush interference--he will likely win it (--he is VERY popular, on the order of Chavez in Venezuela, Correa in Ecuador, and Morales in Bolivia--and the Kirchners in Argentina).
If all of Latin America goes leftist--toward democracy and social justice--and the trend is pretty overwhelming, at this point--we will have a lot easier time restoring democracy and social justice here. United we stand--as the Andes democracies (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina) are learning, and pioneering. And, of course, if we can re-establish democracy here, it will make things easier for them there (no more Bush-backed Colombian death squads and Venezuelan military coup attempts) (--not that the Democrats are innocent of these things--they, too, want "free trade"/global corporate piracy domination of Latin America--many of them--but there are some who don't, and some who will oppose fascist violence, at least). One way of look at the Bush Junta is as the last Reagan/Bush/Corporate looting of the U.S., after which the deluge of democracy and social justice that is building up in the rest of the western hemisphere is inevitably going to arise here and sweep this vermin out. The South Americans are doing just that--sweeping the fascist vermin out.
Viva la revolución!
Oaxaca Resiste!
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