Criminal Complaint Against Fox, Abascal, Ruiz

This photograph, snagged from Indymedia, allegedly shows armed men in Oaxaca, wearing police-issue bulletproof vests and ski-masks and riding around in pickup trucks and vintage El Caminos. Is the government really using death squads to put down the teacher’s strike? Somebody? Anybody? WaPo? AP? The Grey Lady?

Presenta APPO denuncia penal contra Fox, Abascal y Ruiz (El Universal):

Integrantes de la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO) presentaron una denuncia penal por genocidio, desaparición forzada de personas y violaciones a los derechos humanos contra el presidente Vicente Fox, el secretario de Gobernación, Carlos Abascal, así como del gobernador de Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz y miembros de su gabinete.

Members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) filed a criminal complaint, charging genocide, forcible disappearance of persons, and human rights violations, against President Vicente Fox and his Secretary of Governance, Carlos Abascal, as well as Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz and members of his cabinet.

I believe that the PGR, the attorney-general equivalent — like Brazil, Mexico has a lot of remnants of Napoleonic administrative structures, and it drives you nuts if all you know is the Anglo-American common law tradition — has already opened an investigation into the PRI and its relationship to gunmen reportedly identified by witnesses as off-duty state police officers.

Let me check that.

El abogado Gilberto Hernández Santiago, integrante de la comisión jurídica de la APPO, acudió esta mañana a la sede de la de la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), acompañado de una veintena de personas que dijeron ser familiares de desaparecidos, muertos y detenidos a lo largo de los más de 180 días de conflicto en Oaxaca.

Attorney Gilberto Hernández Santiago, a member of APPO’s legal commission, appeared this morning at the headquarters of the PGR, accompanied by twenty persons who said their family members had been disappeared, killed and detained during the 180 days of conflict in Oaxaca.

Here’s a story idea for the English-language press: study the cases described in the filing, and try to do some reality-checking of the charges.

Is the case credible? Get comments from some of the defendants.

El litigante entregó la denuncia de hechos y exigió que la PGR investigue a fondo la presunta responsabilidad de todavía presidente Fox, así como de Abascal Carranza, en los episodios de violencia que se han registrado en la entidad. Por ello pidió que también se indague la actuación del gobernador Ulises Ruiz por “atentados graves a los derechos humanos”, así como por genocidio y desaparición forzada de personas –ciudadanos oaxaqueños-, como parte de una política de Estado contra los integrantes de la APPO.

The plaintiffs submitted the complaint and demanded that the PGR thoroughly investigate the alleged responsibility of President Fox and Abascal for the episodes of violence that have taken place in Oaxaca. They also requested that Ulises Ruiz be tried for “grave assaults on human rights,” as well as for genocide and forcible disappearance of person — Oaxacan citizens — as part of official State policy against members of APPO.

Los denunciantes exigieron además la salida inmediata de los elementos de la Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP), pues asegura que desde su llegada a la entidad se ha incrementado el clima de tensión y se han recrudecido los enfrentamientos.

The plaintiffs also demanded the immediate withdrawl of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), asserting that since their arrival in the state tensions have increased and confrontations have intensified.