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In solidarity with the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, or APPO, I want to bring attention to their plight in Oaxaca. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this Guardian article is a decent place to start.

I traveled to Oaxaca in the summer of 2005, and I can share some of my own pictures.

While I was there, it looked nothing like the scenes depicted in the above news photographs. It’s a beautiful colonial town in the southern Sierra Madres. If the APPO is right, then the current government of the state of Oaxaca is out of touch with the needs of its citizens. The governor, Ulises Ruiz, is another example of a democratically elected leader (well, ostensibly elected) who, once in office, distances himself from the average person whom he is supposed to represent and instead snuggles up to business interests.

The current conflict all started this summer when Ruiz did not respond favorably to an annual teacher strike. Teachers demonstrated for a pay increase, Ruiz sent in the police to break up the protest, and word got around that Ruiz thought he could brush the teachers aside so easily. The Zocalo and Alameda de Leon, two adjacent central plazas in Oaxaca, have since been the center of Mexico’s protest politics, where people are demanding a government accountable to the people.

Is that really so much to ask for in a democracy?

More from NYC Indymedia –

Brad Will was killed on October 27, 2006, in Oaxaca, Mexico, while working as a journalist for the global Indymedia network. He was shot in the torso while documenting an armed, paramilitary assault on the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, a fusion of striking local teachers and other community organizations demanding democracy in Mexico.

All we want in compensation for his death is the only thing Brad ever wanted to see in this world: justice.

* We, along with all of Brad’s friends, reject the use of further state-sponsored violence in Oaxaca.
* The New York City Independent Media Center supports the demand of Reporters Without Borders for a full and complete investigation by Mexican authorities into Oaxaca State Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz’s continued use of plain-clothed municipal police as a political paramilitary force. The arrest of his assailants is not enough.
* The NYC IMC also supports the call of Zapatista Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos “to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero.” Marcos issued this call “especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”

Do you want to do something?

Call the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh at (919) 754-0046

Demand:

(1) An end to the Federal Police invasion of Oaxaca. Express your support for the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO).

(2) A full and complete investigation by Mexican authorities into Oaxaca State Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz’s continued use of plain-clothed municipal police as a political paramilitary force.

 

My brother Andrew is spending this year in Argentina working as a Young Adult Volunteer with the Presbyterian Church. His placement is in a homeless shelter for boys, El Hogar La Casita, in greater Buenos Aires.

Andrew has more than a big heart… he also has a talent for writing. A few of his thoughts on where he is –
After dinner tonight, I went with the older boys to collect old bread from the local bread shops. They lumber down the street as only teenage boys lumber, like a graceful stumble that says, I’m too cool to look like I’m actually trying to walk. The boys whistle at girls. ?Por favor, [expletive deleted].? They bum cigarettes from the people on the main drag. One picks through the trash looking for anything of use. One leans close to my ear and says, ?After tonight, you won’t eat the bread at the Hogar.? Some bread shops give us a lot, one gives us none. We finish and I head home for the night.
You can read more of his insights (and find information on how to support him) on his website, AndrewinArgentina.blogspot.com.

Andrew’s being there is a good reason to visit Argentina. So, over his January summer vacation, my folks and I flew down to visit.

From Atlanta to Buenos Aires is a 10 hour, overnight flight. Jack Daniels and Miles Davis help the night go by faster. Three hours into the flight, I could see the lights of Cuba below. It’s puzzling to think that 35,000 ft above the ground may be as close as I’ll ever get to Cuba. For most of the flight, we flew at 37,000ft (a Boeing 767) with 39,000ft the highest point of the trip — over Paraguay. At that altitude, the temperature outside the cabin was -68 degrees Fahrenheit. I thought skiing in Quebec was cold.

We crossed the Equator (to no fanfare or even notice) sometime between 2 and 3AM Argentina time. The sun rose while we were over Bolivia.

Buenos Aires, the Paris of the southern hemisphere, is a cosmopolitan city like I never knew existed in South America. Truly defined by its eclectic European influences, life in the porte?o city is a beautiful collection of French architecture and wide boulevards, Italian street caf? culture, German beer, and the Spanish language.

And as usual, traveling gave me the opportunity to take pictures of (and ride) some bicycles.

La Bicicleta Naranja, a bike rental place in barrio San Telmo, provides great bicycle maps of Buenos Aires. They rent bikes for 6 pesos (about 2 dollars) an hour.

La ciclista, by Oscar Manuel Dom?nguez. A painting in el Museo Bellas Artes.

I will be writing more about Buenos Aires later, but for now, enjoy the rest of the pictures.