End Repression Against The Other Campaign!!

TO:

Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada

Francisco Javier Dнaz de Leуn
Deputy Consul General
Consulate General of Mexico in New York


Ulises Ruiz
Governor of Oaxaca

Tony Garza
US Ambassador



The Other Campaign is a peaceful, civil movement to build a more just, human and livable Mexico. Combining grassroots participation from all social sectors, it is a broad-based, grassroots effort to unite the simple and humble people who fight for survival and dignity. The Other Campaign is an effort to transform Mexico, to end violence, death and oppression. In the words of the 6th Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle,

What we are going to do is listen to your thoughts, those of the simple and humble people, and maybe we will find there the same love that we have for our country.

The story of the Other Campaign has been one of shared resistance, building networks, dialogue and listening. Communities all over Mexico that have carried the deadly weight of unjust trade policies, state violence, and systemic oppression of their identities are joining together to create an other way of doing politics, outside of the system of partisan electoral politics. The Other Campaign is a campaign of unity and collective struggle, of resistance to death and empire.

But the Other Campaign is also a tale of state violence and repression, as the Mexican Government has attempted to silence, disrupt and derail the process of peaceful movement building. For the duration of the campaign, local and state governments have tried desperately to silence, suppress, and destroy these efforts in order to maintain their vice-like grip on power.

This repression has taken the form of kidnappings, torture, destruction of property, beatings, jailings and murders of Other Campaign adherents and those proximity to the process, such as journalists and supporters.

Witness recent events, such as:

- The destruction of community social projects, such as independent radio stations.

- Detentions of journalists. This week, independent journalists Dulce Santamaria and James Daria were held for two nights incommunicado by police in Oaxaca City. James and Dulce were attempting to provide independent coverage of the May Day demonstrations.

- Detention of organizers promoting the Other Campaign

- Assasination of a 14-year old boy and detention of hundreds of citizens in Atenco yesterday and today, adherents to the Other Campaign.

For more info:
www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/

These events indicate a brutal pattern of targeted repression against a democratic, peaceful movement for social justice. In the face of these actions be the Mexican State and its representatives, and in support of the just struggle for survival and self-determination of the Other Campaigns adherents and supporters in Mexico and globally,

We, the undersigned, DEMAND

An immediate end to state violence and repression towards adherents and supporters of the Other Campaign in all communities.

Immediate release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.