insurrección

In response to international pressure, US officials returned to members of Pastors for Peace 32 computers bound for Cuba. Federal agents seized the computers from the humanitarian group as they attempted to cross the Pharr International Bridge early on July 3 at the US-Mexico border. The confiscated computers were officially released by US authorities early this week and are now en route to Cuba.

Federal agents seized 32 computers from Pastors for Peace as they attempted to cross the Pharr International Bridge early this morning at the US-Mexico border. The confiscated computers were donated by a Japanese-American group from the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result of this US seizure, 32 Cuban classrooms will not have a computer from this caravan.

Under the guise of the "War on Drugs," the Mexican Army has increased its presence around the Zapatistas autonomous municipalities in La Garrucha - the last place Subcomandante Marcos was seen. On June 4, a convoy of 200 army, state and local police tried to enter La Garrucha under the pretext of "looking for marijuana plants," but were turned away by Zapatista men, women and children armed only with machetes and stones.

Armed with bazookas, instruments and colorful posters, residents of Santa Cruz will show their support on Tuesday, June 10th at 3:30pm in favor of a pending city resolution requesting that all US military aid to Colombia be re-directed to domestic drug prevention and rehabilitation programs, which have been shown to be more effective in the "war on drugs." Bert Muhly of Tres Americas will speak on the issue, as well as Sandra Alvarez, long time Colombia activist and Ph.D candidate at the University of California Santa Cruz.

Hector Antonio Ventura, one of 14 people arrested last year during an anti-water privatization protest in the town of Suchitoto, El Salvador, was assassinated in his home on May 3. The assailants apparently stabbed him to death, while another man was attacked but survived. Organizations such as the legal group FESPAD have called for a full investigation into the death of the 19-year old Ventura, while expressing concern that Salvadoran authorities will not address the likely political motivation for the murder.

On April 24th and 25th, Centolia Maldonado Vasquez and Bernardo Ramirez Bautista, Oaxaca-based members of the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, gave presentations in Greenfield and at UC Santa Cruz on indigenous Mexican migration to the U.S. and its impact in the communities of origin, the current political situation in Oaxaca, the role of women in the movement for social justice in Oaxaca, and current challenges of indigenous governing community institutions in Oaxaca.

The exhibition "Sunday Walk to the Zócalo of Oaxaca" is a multi-media artistic response to the popular revolt and resistance that unfolded in Oaxaca in 2006 and the first traveling solo exhibition outside of Mexico for artist Gabriela León.

By a margin of 1.4 percent, the forces of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez lost a December 2 vote on a referendum of social programs that also would have lifted term limits for the presidency. Chávez called it a "photo finish." The United States reportedly spent $8 million dollars to sway the vote, and a CIA document uncovered by the Chavistas spelled out a thorough program of psy-ops and destabilization.

On January 12th and 13th the first APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) Youth Encuentro was held in Zaachila, Oaxaca, Mexico. Among the many plans of action agreed upon by the diverse group of young folks, was a march on January 15th for the liberation of political prisoners in Oaxaca, in particular David Venegas Reyes, an APPO council member and member of VOCAL (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Freedom).

On April 6th, 7th and 9th, filmmaker Simón Sedillo led bilingual multi-media presentations in San Francisco, Berkeley and Santa Cruz that included scene selections from three films, "El Enemigo Común" (2005), "El Machete" (2007) and "Paz Sin Justicia" (2008), in order to illustrate neoliberal atrocities and community based resistance to them in Oaxaca, Mexico.