By Diana Denham

All day long on November 2 the university campus of Universidad Autónoma de Benito Juarez de Oaxaca (UABJO) was under attack by Federal Preventive Police (PFP). The campus holds the installations for University Radio, the last remaining voice of the movement and means of communication between barricades. We hear the voices of the radio broadcasters, courageous and anxious, crescendo as they solicit help: “We demand that the federal government respect the autonomy of the university! We need everyone who can, all the neighbors and people at nearby barricades to come out to defend the university! We are under attack.”

In a seven hour battle, using tear gas shot from guns and dropped from helicopters as well as high pressure water mixed with chemicals sprayed from tanks, the PFP attempted to break through the barricades set around the campus. Neighbors, parents, students and other civilians defended the campus with stones and eventually were able to surround the PFP and force their retreat. According to La Jornada 70 were injured and 60 detained with no reported deaths.

Our neighbors came back in the late afternoon. One was hit by a rock, which the PFP was throwing back at the civilians, but was in good spirits, “No deaths and we made them retreat!” Another felt she was more useful staying on the backstreets where the first aid stations were set up, taking photographs to document the wounded. “I wouldn’t have minded throwing rocks when I was younger,” she tells us, “but now that I’m older and I worry I might hit the compañero in front of me,” she laughs.

While no deaths were reported in yesterday’s battle, nearly 20 have occurred since the movement began nearly 4 months ago, with as many as 300 illegally detained. Day of the Dead, one of Mexico’s most important religious holidays of the year, has taken on extra special significance in Oaxaca this year.

The biggest church in Oaxaca, Santo Domingo was alit with altars to honor the dead. Large altars for each of the compañeros fallen in the struggle lined the streets, each replete with candles, marigold flowers, photos, favorite food and beverages as offerings to the dead. At the altar of the American journalist assassinated last Friday, an old woman asked my friend, “Do you know what Brad liked to drink?” My friend responded, “I once saw him drinking mescal (the traditional alcoholic beverage of Oaxaca).” “I’ll put a bottle of mescal for him on his altar, then,” the woman replied.

Colorful skeleton sculptures, one for each deceased, stood amidst the maguey plants in front of the church. Artists made murals in the streets from sand and colored chalk to commemorate the dead. Families and friends wandered up and down the street. Poetry was read, speeches were given, monologues performed. Later, a son jarocho band begins to play one of the new favorite songs of the movement- “De dónde son? De dónde son?... Son de la barricada” and many begin to dance.

A few blocks down the road, the PFP block the entrance to the zócalo. The once lively, colorful zócalo has turned into an eerie military base, where thousands of uniformed PFP rest and cook and stand guard. Some bold people approach the rows of shielded men. A young girl wearing a pokemon backpack and carrying a can of paint, in complete juxtaposition to the line of dark masked policemen, bravely painted a letter on each shield to spell the word ASSASSINS. Others try to remind the PFP that they, too, are pueblo, just like the pueblo of Oaxaca. They tell them: “Your skin is dark like us. You’re working class people who are being used to do the government’s dirty work, but your interests are the same as ours.” An old woman gets close to one and shouts to the civilians around, “Look everyone! This one has the face of a chapulín (the grasshopper commonly eaten in Oaxaca). He’s one of us! He would make a nice boyfriend for this young lady.” The crowd begins to chant: “Kiss her, kiss her, kiss her!” And underneath their gas masks, they all crack smiles.

The APPO, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, met yesterday afternoon, and decided that negotiations will resume Monday with the Secretaria de Gobernación, in the Cathedral in the zócalo, mediated by the Archbishop of Oaxaca, José Luis Chavez Botello. They no longer wish to negotiate with Abascal, the secretary of the interior, due to his constant double discourse. Only a few weeks ago, he declared in front of congress: “In the name of God, there will be no repression in Oaxaca.” APPO members accuse him of holding the cross in his right hand and a club in his left.

Priorities on the APPO agenda continue to be the release of political prisoners and the declaration by the federal government that the constituted powers in the state government be dissolved.

The United Nations, Amnesty International, and other international and national human rights organizations have condemned human rights violations in Oaxaca. Solidarity actions have occurred all over the world and all eyes are on Mexico as negotiations unfold, giving hope to the movement that their demands for a more just Oaxaca will be heard and honored.