by Katherine Clements

La Otra Campaña made its way through Oaxaca last month and a wave of violence and repression followed. The Zapatista “Other Campaign,” led by Subcomandante Marcos (Delegate Zero) started in Chiapas on the 12th anniversary of the EZLN uprising on January 1, 1994. Since then, the campaign had been through the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Veracruz. During his tour through Oaxaca, with the purpose of listening to the “simple and humble people who fight,” Marcos met with campesinos, factory workers, labor leaders, teachers, students, and political prisoners. These visits were followed by political intimidation and violence in towns such as San Juan Bosco Chuxnaban, San Miguel Panixtlahuaca, and Santiago Cuixtla. In the town of San Blas Atempa, 800 police and state troopers surrounded the Popular Autonomous City Hall, where Subcomandante Marcos was welcomed a few weeks prior. (In January 2005, in response to the shooting of four protestors by police, townspeople took over the City Hall and began building an autonomous municipality.) Marcos visited the four men who were victims of the shooting, who have been imprisoned since the incident over a year ago. (See video) Numerous other incidents of arrests, disappearances, and intimidation have been reported throughout Oaxaca.

For more information about these events and current news about La Otra Campaña, visit Narco News: The Other Campaign.