Oaxaca December 27th, 2006

Today is the sixth day that the Commission has been in the state of Oaxaca. In these last few days there have been over 70 interviews that make over 100 people who have given their testimonies to the Commission and in some cases have handed in their written complaints.

In the afternoon on the 24th, the Commission was received by the Archbishop of the Dioces of Oaxaca Antequera, Jose Luis Chavez Botello.

We also began our visits to the state prisons starting yesterday in the Detention Center Miahuatlan, interviewing the women detained in this jail and hoping to be able to the do the same with the men on the following Saturday. Today we are visiting the Cuicatlan Prison and in the upcoming days we will visit the Cosolapa and Tlacolula jails.

We also visited the community of San Francisco Cajonos in the Sierra Juarez where we interviewed the local authorities to talk about the situation of the students and teachers of this population that have been affected by the conflict, particularly those who have been directly beaten and persecuted.

The schedule of the institutional interviews began through the Licensed Rosario Villalobos Sub-secretary of Human Rights in the state government, who also organized the visits to the detention centers. The Commission has also collected the testimonies of the demands of inhabitants of Oaxaca City who are affected by the events, as well as civil associations like the Oaxaca City Council for Progress, transport workers, hotel workers, salesmen and businessmen.

In the next few days we will interview the State Parents Association, the Mexican Bar of the Lawyers College of Oaxaca, the Commission for State Reform, as well as the Cofraternity of Evangelist Priests of Oaxaca.

Today the Commission was welcomed by the General Council of the APPO with the objective of presenting the methodology of the Commission and to invited those persons and organizations that make up the assembly to give their testimonies.

The Commission sees as very positive the responses that we’ve received and the way the work has developed especially in the collecting of the testimonies. At the same time we are organizing the work of the second group which will permit the Commission to have a global view of the events, considering all the sectors involved.