Barcelona, July 21, 2007

To the High Commissioner of Human Rights of the UN, Ms. Louise Arbour
To the European Parliament
To the Media
To the President of the Mexican Republic Mr. Felipe Calderón
To the Mexican and International Civil Society
To the Peoples of Oaxaca

From the International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation (CCIODH)

We are alarmed by the events that took place in the city of Oaxaca on Monday, July 16th, 2007 that resulted in 31 people arrested as well as several people seriously injured. We would like to manifest the following.

The Mexican and International civil society has, on several occasions, shown its concern that the conflict in Oaxaca has not been resolved, the deep causes that originated it have not been attended to, and there has been no justice regarding the serious human rights violations carried out throughout the year of 2006. This concern has also been expressed by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission CNDH, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights, different NGO´s from Mexico and Oaxaca, and the CCIODH in our report on the grave events that have taken place in Oaxaca.

Since then, the federal and state authorities have not assumed any kind of responsibility, leaving in impunity the homicides, torture, arbitrary arrests, and the rest of individual and collective violations that were carried out during the conflict in Oaxaca and that have been thoroughly documented in these reports and complaints.

The alarm signals have been constant and the foreseen has occurred. In spite of the government´s attitude in pronouncing the conflict as resolved, reality has shown the opposite. Once again there has been arbitrary arrests, grave injuries, abuses on the part of the security forces, and a lack of dialogue to solve the conflict. All of this has been sharpened by the electoral process that has taken place in conditions of serious political and social violence.

We call out to the civil society of Mexico and the world to be alert to what is happening in Oaxaca. We declare ourselves in a state of alert due to these events that have attempted against the fundamental human rights of persons and peoples.

We call out to the institutions to act to rightfully place responsibility and punish those responsible as well as repair the damage done to affected persons.

We understand that the solution to the conflict must attack the deep-rooted causes of the conflict and establish justice for the grave abuses committed. We pronounce ourselves in favor of a solution to social conflicts that is based in dialogue and not in the use of force as way to solve them.

International Civil Commission for Human Rights Observation