thursday's Political Prisoners Freedom march

((O))AXACA: violent eviction of permanent protest camp outside Miahuatlan prison

yesterday, saturday january the 13th 2007, the relatives of the men and women arrested during the events surrounding the protests in oaxaca in the last few months called for a peaceful demonstration to start at 10 am from the centre of miahuatlan to the CERESO prison. the main objective of the mobilization was to demand the immediate and inconditional release of all the political prisoners as well as the overthrow of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz ( PRI party ). the demonstration took place without incidents.

During the meeting that relatives of the prisoners held at the end of the march, as well as all throught it, a strong built man wearing short cropped military style hair was noticed holding a home video camera and recording events while keeping a safe 10 metres away from them while regularly talking through a mobile phone. when he realised he was being observed, he quickly moved away from the scene, jumped a wall of about a metre high and into a path that leads to a cluster of houses while some demonstators followed and shouted him to stop, identify himself and explain his reason for filming.

he then started to run fast and entered a house from the inside of which the owners threw him out. At this moment out of his clothes he brandished a long knife and attacked some of the people around him, tho fortunatly they managed to avoid being hurt. surrounded and with no way out, he gave himself up.

he was taken to the place of the meeting and handed over to the Miahuatlan prison authorities thru Reynaldo Lopez, prison officer.

Later between 1630 and 1700 hrs, 5 people where arrested, snatched while they travelled aboard a van on its way back to Oaxaca City. the women and children in the van where threatened with arrest if they did anything to interfere with the detention. At the moment of publishing this report, only one of the 5 people detained has been identified; 19 year old student of mexico City's autonomous university (UNAM) Jesus Villaseca Perez.

Later still around 1740 hrs and while relatives where huddling together to eat, 7 white Miahuatlan police vans with about 50 police officers on board, many of them wearing balaclavas over their faces and ALL of armed with kalashnikov AK47s, violently abandoned their vehicles shouting towards the families in the protest camp: Orale!, Orale! sons of btiches! we are going to break your spine!. the police then proceeded to the violent eviction of the Planton spreading a sense of extreme panic. Many of the realtives could scape running while some where arrested. faced with the extreme force of the eviction operation the families of the prisoners had to urgently leave the encampment leaving behind their belongins Identity papers and credentials, credit cards, news bulletins, mobile phones, etc.

at this moment 17 relatives, 3 men, 14 women, who managed to escape the violent repression are in hidding and terrorised by the constant police patrols around the city. these families have lost company of the CCIODH ( International Civil Comission of Human Rights Observers ) faced with the fear of being arrested.

Up until now, the arrests of 7 people is confirmed: Jesús Villaseca Pérez, 19 years old, student in UNAM, Miguel López Cruz, 28. Vladimir González Martínez, Rogelio García, José Poncia Neri, Arnulfo Sequel Velasquez and Alberto Vásquez.

According to the information available to us at this moment, all the prisoners where moved to the city of Oaxaca where some will be presented before the Republic's Procaduria General and others before the Public Ministry of the State of Oaxaca.