Last week there was an encuentro in Oaxaca that was attended by many organizations of the APPO (Popular Assembly for the People of Oaxaca) and others struggling for justice in southern Mexico. What follows is a demonstration held, demanding justice for political prisoners, many of whom showed leadership during the social uprising in 2006.
In spanish here.
Many artists have been involved with the recent social movement in Oaxaca, creating posters, graphics, imagery, and as seen in the above video, painting messages in the streets during demonstrations. Their markings leave an ephemeral, yet longer lasting, memory of the demands made during the protests. The slogans and demands painted on the walls remind the tourist heavy city of Oaxaca about the injustice the population faces.
Not only are demands for the freedom of political prisoners David Venegas and Isabel Almarez expressed, rescinding the bus fare increase, the profit of banks and frivolous businesses, and labeling police as assassins were also painted on appropriate targets.
Nancy Davies explains on NarcoNews
The range of protests includes: removing price increases for basic foods such as tortillas, and for gasoline; freeing political prisoners; returning the disappeared alive; canceling changes to the national social security institute (the ISSSTE); protecting streets in the center of the city; rescinding the increase in bus fares; and handing the schools still held by the breakaway teachers union Section 59 (promoted by governor Ulises Ruiz, who the teachers and APPO tried to force out of office in their 2006 uprising) back to Section 22.
The causes of the discontent and poverty in Oaxaca remain and so tourists passing by can expect to be reminded despite the “cosmetic changes” tried in the past.
