An ugly situation within the APPO recently emerged with an open letter titled, "Breaking the silence" by David Venegas Reyes, a council member of the APPO who was abducted by state agents on 13 April in a park near downtown Oaxaca City. My sense at the moment is that he is an idealistic and forceful person whose opposition to the political system is so strong (as is mine) that he may be too condemnatory of some of the people within the APPO who believe they should try to gain political leverage through entering electoral politics. In his letter he says several times that he respects those honest compañeros and compañeras who believe in trying the electoral route, but he holds in utter contempt those who he thinks are doing so for personal gain, and in particular those who have attacked him with the claim that he is a police agent.
      Without any doubt the Ulises mob is doing its utmost to debilitate the APPO, employing its full arsenal of dirty tactics. I believe it's important, especially for those of us who are not Mexican nationals but who are supportive of struggles for social justice, to try to stay away from being condemnatory of differing ideological formations within the Oaxaca movement. As a committed anarchist who is totally opposed to all hierarchical power structures, my beliefs are contrary to those of the authoritarian left parties, but there are surely good people (some of whom I know) who quite honestly hold the views of such parties. It may be that David has been mistaken in some of the things he said (I don't know), but it is a bigger mistake for foreigners to label him a liar, as one recently did. I think we ought to be as respectful as we can of the different elements within the social struggle and leave it to the oaxaqueños to sort out who deserves to be in the APPO and who they have grounds to despise. Unless we are true internationalists and have entered the struggle, assuming the personal risks that entails, it is arrogant of us to try to "tell them" what to do. Their struggle, it seems to me, is magnificent, and puts to shame anything mounted by "us" in the U.S.

The version of the letter here is the one published in NOTICIAS on 15 May 2007 p.14A. It differs in several places from the version on Radio Libre Revuelta at http://revuelta.radiolivre.org/node/329 , also posted on 15 May 2007. Some relatively minor parts of the Radio Libre version were omitted by NOTICIAS. Several that seem significant I included in double brackets [[ . . . ]] .


Letter. Director of NOTICIAS
The Social movement of the Peoples of Oaxaca, united in the APPO [Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca], attracted many thousands of men and women to participate in the opportunity to fight for just and honest causes and the construction of a better world. It also attracted men and women in search of power, money and fame by means of social movements. Even during the months in which the mobilization of the people of Oaxaca in the streets, the massive marches, the taking of radio stations, public offices and the installation of the barricades, some of them maintained their aim for power. The brutal repression that we all lived through in November of 2006, and above all the closeness of the electoral process [in October and August] of this year stirs the visceral appetites of those ambitious for power.
 
      At the core of the State Assembly of the APPO of 10 and 11 of February we, together with some companions of different organizations, collectives and colonias, maintained a strong position to prevent the violation of the principles of the APPO. Above all we tried to avoid the movement, the bloodshed and the suffering of all the Oaxacan people from being used by those who, in that same Assembly, asked that the APPO participate in the elections to a Congress for which, months earlier, we all asked that it would disappear. A resistance that initiated the hatred and rancor of these individuals, who saw their ambitions endangered.
 
      It was in this same assembly when señora Guadalupe García Leyva of the 2 of March Collective and connected with the Popular Revolutionary Front (FPR) accused me in front of everyone of being a police agent and a thief and declared that I am being investigated.
 
      The following days other members of the FPR, such as Florentino López Martínez, Zenén Bravo Castellanos, Gustavo Adolfo, and individuals tied to this organization such as señoras Fidelia y Belem, in meetings with men and women who bravely took part in the Barrikades de Simbolos Patrios and the Colonia of Santa Maria, repeated this accusation against me, and also strengthened it by showing a video.
 
      The rumors and harrassments against me went on increasing and in large number to the point that on 13 April I was arrested violently in Llano Juárez Park, held incommunicado and beaten for some hours, and then finally taken to the UMAN–PGR [Mixed (or Combined) Unit for Attention to Narcotics Retailing–Federal Attorney General] where they made up a crime against me of possessing and selling drugs. Later I was taken to the prison of Santa Maria Ixcotel, where they informed me that I am the subject of another penal process for sedition, criminal association and arson.
 
      In the morning of 15 April, before the mobilization of my family, friends and the people in solidarity, the same señora Guadalupe García Leyva announced at the IAGO [Graphic Arts Institute of Oaxaca] that I was freed at 9 that same morning, which obviously wass false and clearly intended to sabotage the march demanding my liberty.

      Now, still imprisoned, I know that the aggressions and citations of these individuals continue; they are making rumors circulate, as befits dishonest people who don’t speak the truth, that my arrest and imprisonment is a farce put on by the government. Facing the impossibility of doing more damage to me, they are going after my family and friends. On the 1st of May it was again this señora Guadalupe García Leyve who claimed that the hooded youths who painted graffiti were members of the VOCAL group (Oaxacan Voices Constructing Autonomy and Liberty), in which I also participate.
 
      My arrest and that of all the companions who remain in prisons of the state and the country are the direct responsibility of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and his government, but these individuals, hiding behind the discourse of revolution, are still  more despicable, living in the lowest scale of human dignity, that of traitors to the people.
 
      It has been difficult for me to denounce these actions before this moment and I kept quiet for months. I understand perfectly the motivation for these attacks. They are attacks of hatefulness of a group of individuals and an organization, the FPR, that have in common the search for power in the coming elections. The names of some of them are in the lists of deputies of the coalition PRD-PT-PC [Democrtic Revolutionary Party-Workers Party-Communist Party], against the resistance of many of us, companions who are participating in the movement. We have shown from the beginning that the Assembly of everyone, the APPO, the blood of the 23 fallen, the suffering of more than 500 arrested, and the 40 of us that are still in prisons of Oaxaca and the Nation, might be used, not only for asking the exit of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and a profound change in our state, but also so that they may win, through the institutions that they earlier refused to recognize, political power, recognizing en route the actions of the government of Ulises Ruiz, and at that, the most corrupt if possible, of his institutions, the State Electoral Institute, the place of fraud.
 
      At times I’ve said it to these individuals face to face and today in front of all of you, brothers and sisters of Oaxaca, that those individuals don’t have the moral stature to share the struggle of a dignified, brave and honest people, as we, the Oaxacan people are. They have preferred the dirtiest, most underhanded and treacherous methods for getting their way, whether by means of jail or terror and defamation of companions like me.
 
      The growing depth in the goodness of human spirit and the desire to maintain our movement unified has skirted around me, and also many other companions to remain silent, but the serious risk to the security and liberty of the companions of VOCAL and other companions motivates me now to break the silence. Besides, history puts each one in his place, and the moment has come to decide between continuing to be quiet to safeguard a battered unity, and of backing the people or denouncing publicly to not be complicit in our own misfortune and that of the remaining companions who are being marked. If we continue being silent we would be complicit in the handing over that this group, which today occupies the public voice of our movement, is making to the government of Ulises Ruiz.
 
      Besides, it turns out to be worth serious analysis that none of the persons that today are publicly denounced, when still very visible in the media, suffered persecution by the government, much less jail. The case of Florentine López Martínez is worth mentioning. He was arrested two times. Officially he denounced it once and was freed in a few hours. One of the police who arrested, tortured and turned me over, confessed to me, in comparison to my case, that one time he arrested Florentino López Martínez in a Volkswagon Sedan car in San Juanito and let him go because “he got orders from above.”

      I am deeply confident in you, brothers and sisters of the people of Oaxaca. I know that the social movement has given us political maturity and that our collective moral in the struggle is high, that this is safe because it has been shown, from repression and jail. But also it is safe from the treacheries and ambitions of the group. Like other social struggles in our history, the movement in Oaxaca is faced with conflict between ways of thinking, which is correct and healthy. I profoundly respect different forms of struggle, including the search for change by the electoral route, [[This qualification was omitted in Noticias: but not by political parties all of which have shown they share dishonest, corrupt practices and are in the service of the rich and powerful. I respect my brothers and sisters of the people who in an honest way believe in and pursue the electoral path.]] What is damaging enough is that in the APPO, within the political current that seeks to gain power by means of elections, [[This qualification was omitted in Noticias: although there are honest and well intentioned men and women,]] there are also some nefarious and contemptible men and women who are absolutely not different in their political practices from the criminals that are today in power. [[This clause was omitted in Noticias: Their motivation to participate in this struggle is not protest against the form in which power is exercised by Ulises Ruiz and his henchmen but that they are not there, eating at the same table.]]
 
      I know beforehand that this denunciation breaks with all the forms of practicing politics, above all in my difficult situation. I know that the weak politicians that I denounce today, specialists in deliberate omission, lying and falsification, are able to and have every opportunity to be free to insult my words, including to use them in order to affect me even more in the process of obtaining my liberty. They already have good relations with the governor, and we have deliberately avoided having them. But I also know that we, the Oaxacans from “below”, are  fed up with treachery. We are not disposed any more to serve as steps that a group of corrupt leaders use to gain power and forget us. The spirit of botherhood, solidarity, cooperation and mutual aid is what will in the end count for keeping this struggle alive and that will make possible obtaining our liberation of all the political prisoners of Oaxaca.
 
      Besides, the true collective, rebellious and blunt force of this movement has been the thousands of teachers of the dignified section 22 and the hundreds of thousands of men and women who struggle daily.
 
      The Indian peoples of Oaxaca and Mexico, inheritors of a tradition and culture of self-government that comes from millenia, have kept secure from deceptions and demoralization precisely because they know that never a single man or party could fulfill the dreams and aspirations of everyone, but that it is the participation of everyone through the communal assembly that guarantees respect for the wishes of the whole community.
 
      The proof of this spirit is our APPO [Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca], which reached a level of glory precisely at moments when the represenattives of the communities, colonias, collective organizations and regions were present. Today many have been frightened away precisely by the contemptible and mean practices of these individuals and organizations. We can still recover our assembly. We can return it to being guarantor of the dreams and aspirations of all and not only of the contemptible fever for power of some people.
 
      The process of struggle and resistance in Oaxaca and Mexico is becoming stronger. It would be good for us to advance free of egotistical and ambitious individuals embedded in the bosom of the social movement. They could grow as cancers and sabotage our effort to attain justice, dignity and freedom for all.
 
      They have learned to speak the same language as the government. Now the people who in autonomous and brave manner close streets and paint graffiti are criminalized as vandals, fools and delinquents in a manner indistinguishable between the government and these individuals.
 
The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca is more than the State Council. We are those who make an honest struggle against Ulises Ruiz and the system in the streets. Even in prison where I find myself today, the APPO is present, because we are all the APPO.
 
David Venegas Reyes “Alebrije”
Central Prison of Santa Maria Ixcotel

La versión de la carta aquí es la una publicada en NOTICIAS el 15 de mayo de 2007, p.14A. En unas lugares es diferente de la versión en Radio Libre Revuelta a
http://revuelta.radiolivre.org/node/329 , también fijado el 15 de mayo de 2007  Unas partes relativamente menor de la versión de Radio Libre fueron omitido por NOTICIAS. He incluido en la versión inglés unas que me siento significativas, en los corchetes dobles [[ . . . ]] .
 
 
C. Director de NOTICIAS
El movimiento Social de los Pueblos de Oaxaca, aglutinado en la APPO [Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca], atrajo a muchos miles de hombres y mujeres a participar de la oportunidad de luchar por causas justas y honestas y la construcción de un mundo mejor. También se acercaron hombres y mujeres que medran los movimientos Sociales en busca de poder, dinero y fama. Si bien durante los meses en que la movilización callejera del pueblo de Oaxaca, materializado en las marchas masivas, las tomas de Radios, Oficinas Publicas y la instalación de las Barrikadas mantuvo a raya las pretensiones de poder de algun@s, la represión brutal que todos vivimos en Noviembre del 2006 y sobre todo, la cercanía del proceso electoral [de Octubre y Agosto] de este año alivió los apetitos viscerales de quienes ambicionan el poder.
 
      A raíz de la Asamblea Estatal de la APPO del 10 y 11 de Febrero donde algun@s compañer@s de diferentes organizaciones, Colectivos y Colonias, mantuvimos la postura firme en impedir que se violaran los principios de la APPO pero sobre todo, tratamos de evitar que el movimiento, la sangre derramada y el sufrimiento de todo el pueblo de Oaxaca, fuera utilizado por los que en esa misma Asamblea pedían que la APPO participara en las Elecciones a un Congreso que meses antes tod@s pedíamos que desapareciera. Una resistencia que originó el odio y el encono por parte de estas personas, que veían peligrar sus ambiciones.

      En esta misma Asamblea cuando la señora Guadalupe García Leiva del Colectivo 2 de Marzo y relacionada con el Frente Popular Revolucionario (FPR), me acusa, ante tod@s de ser policía y ratero y declara, que me está investigando.
 
      Los dias posteriores, otros miembros del FPR, como Florentino López Martínes, Zenén Bravo Castellanos, Gustavo Adolfo, y personas ligadas a esta organización como las señoras Fidelia y Belem, en reuniones con hombres y mujeres que participaron valientemente en las Barrikadas de Símbolos Patrios y la Colonia de Santa Maria, repiten esta acusación directa en mi contra, y además lo refuerzan mostrando un video.

      Los rumores y acosos a mi persona van en aumento y en gran número al grado que el día 13 de Abril soy detenido violentamente en el Paseo Juárez El Llano, incomunicado y golpeado por varias horas, y al final trasladado a la UMAN–PGR donde se me fabrica un delito de posesión y venta de drogas, y posteriormente soy trasladado al penal de Santa Maria Ixcotel, donde se me hace conocimiento que soy sujeto a otro proceso penal por sedición, asociación delictuosa e incendio.

      El día 15 de Abril por la mañana, ante la movilización de mi familia, amig@s y el Pueblo solidario, la misma señora Guadalupe García Leyva declara en el IAGO que fui liberado ese mismo día a las 9 de la mañana, lo cual obviamente es falso y es claramente tendiente a sabotear la marcha por la demanda de mi libertad.
 
      Ahora, aún estando preso, tengo conocimiento que las agresiones y señalamientos de estas personas continúen, haciendo correr el rumor, digno de gente deshonesta que no habla con la verdad, de que mi detención y encarcelamiento es una farsa montada por el gobierno, y ante la imposibilidad de dañarme más a mi, van en contra de mi familia y amigos. El día 1 de Mayo, es nuevamente esta señora Guadalupe García Leyva, quien denuncia que los jóvenes encapuchados que hicieron pintas eran integrantes del espacio VOCAL (Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad) en el cual también participo.

      Mi detención y la de tod@s l@s compañer@s que permanecemos en cárceles del estado y el país son responsabilidad directa de Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, y su gobierno, pero estas personas, escondidas detrás de discursos de revolución son aún más prejuiciosas, habitan en la ultima escala de la dignidad humana, la de los traidores y traidoras al pueblo.

      Ha sido difícil para mi denunciar estos actos antes de este momento y he callado durante meses. La motivación de estos ataques la entiendo perfectamente. Son los ataques odiosos de un grupo de personas y una organización, el FPR que tiene en común la búsqueda del poder en las elecciones que vienen. Los nombres de varios de ell@s están en las listas de Diputad@s de la coalición PRD- PT- PC y ante la resistencia que muchos compañer@s que hemos participado en el Movimiento hemos mostrado desde un inicio a que la Asamblea de tod@s, la APPO, la sangre de los 23 caídos, el sufrimiento de más de 500 detenid@s, y los 40 que aún habemos en cárceles de Oaxaca y el país, sea utilizado, ya no para pedir la salida de Ulises Ruiz Ortiz y un cambio profundo en nuestro Estado, sino para que ellos conquisten, a través de las instituciones que antes decían desconocer, el poder político, reconociendo en la via de los hechos al gobierno de Ulises Ruiz, y a la si es posible más corrupta de sus instituciones, el Instituto Estatal Electoral, lugar de los fraudes.

      Repetidas veces le he dicho a estas personas cara a cara, y hoy frente a tod@s ustedes hermanos y hermanas de Oaxaca, que esas personas no tienen la estatura moral para compartir la lucha de un pueblo digno, valiente y honesto como lo somos el Pueblo Oaxaqueño; que se han valido de los métodos más sucios, bajos y traicioneros para hacer a un lado, ya sea por medio de la cárcel o el terror y la difamación, a compañeros como yo.
 
      La creencia profunda en la bondad del espíritu humano y el deseo de mantener a nuestro movimiento cohesionado me ha orillado, y también a muchos otros compañeros y compañeras a callar, pero el riesgo serio en la seguridad y Libertad de l@s compañer@s de VOCAL y otr@s compañer@s, me motiva ahora a romper el silencio. Además, la historia pone a cada quien en su lugar, y ha llegado el momento de decidir entre seguir callando para cuidar una unidad maltrecha y de espaldas al pueblo o denunciar públicamente para no ser cómplice de nuestra propia desgracia y de los demás compañeros que están siendo señalados. Si seguimos callando, seríamos cómplices de la entrega que este grupo que hoy ocupa la voz pública de nuestro movimiento está haciendo al gobierno de Ulises Ruiz.

      Resulta además, digno de análisis serio, que ninguna de las personas que hoy denuncio públicamente, aún cuando son muy visibles en los medios, sufran persecución por parte del Gobierno, mucho menos cárcel. El caso de Florentino López Martínez es digno de mención, que ha sido detenido dos veces; oficialmente él ha denunciado una y fue liberado a las pocas horas. Uno de los policías que me detuvo, torturó y entregó, me confesó en comparación con mi caso, que él detuvo una vez a Florentino López Martínez en un automóvil Volkswagen Sedan, en San Juanito y lo dejó ir por que “recibió instrucciones superiores”.
 
      Confío profundamente en Ustedes, herman@s del Pueblo de Oaxaca. Sé que el Movimiento Social, nos ha dado madurez política y que nuestra moral colectiva de lucha es alta, que está a salvo, porque lo ha demostrado, de represión y cárcel, pero también está a salvo de traiciones y ambiciones de grupo.
El movimiento de Oaxaca se enfrenta como otras luchas sociales en nuestra historia, a la pugna entre formas de pensamiento lo cual es correcto y sano. Respeto profundamente a las diferentes formas de lucha, incluida la búsqueda de un cambio por la vía electoral. Lo que sí es bastante dañino es que dentro de la corriente política en la APPO, que busca la conquista del poder a través de elecciones, existan también algun@s de l@s hombres y mujeres más nefastos y ruines, que no se diferencian en sus prácticas políticas en absoluto de los criminales que están hoy en el poder.
 
      Sé de antemano que esta denuncia rompe con todas las formas de practicar la política, sobre todo en mi difícil situación. Sé que los hábiles políticos que hoy denuncio, especialistas en la omisión deliberada, la mentira y la simulación, pueden y tienen toda la oportunidad, al estar libres, de denostar mis palabras e inclusive utilizarlas para afectarme aún más en el proceso de la obtención de mi libertad, ya que ell@s tienen buenas relaciones con el gobierno y nosotr@s deliberadamente hemos evitado tenerlas. Pero también sé que l@s oaxaqueñ@s de abajo, estamos hartos de traiciones, no estamos dispuestos nunca más a servir de escalón para que un grupo de líderes corruptos se hagan del poder y nos olviden, y que el espíritu de hermandad, solidaridad y cooperación y ayuda mutua, es lo que al final de cuentas mantendrá esta lucha viva y que hará posible la obtención de nuestra libertad de tod@s l@s pres@s politic@s de Oaxaca.

      Además, la verdadera fuerza colectiva, rebelde y contundente de este movimiento han sido los miles de maestr@s de la digna Sección 22 y los cientos de miles de hombres y mujeres del pueblo que lucha de manera cotidiana.
 
      Los pueblos Indios de Oaxaca y México herederos de una tradición y cultura de autogobierno que viene de milenios, se han mantenido a salvo de decepciones y desmoralizaciones precisamente porque saben que nunca un solo hombre o partido cumpliría con los sueños y aspiraciones de tod@s, sino que es la participación de tod@s por medio de la Asamblea comunitaria, la garantía del respeto a los deseos de toda la comunidad.

      El ensayo de este espíritu que es nuestra APPO, alcanzó un nivel de gloria precisamente en momentos en que los representantes de comunidades, colonias, organizaciones, colectivos, regiones estaban presentes. Hoy muchos se han ahuyentado precisamente por las prácticas ruines y mezquinas de estas personas y organizaciones. Aún podemos rescatar nuestra Asamblea; la podemos volver a ser garante de los sueños y aspiraciones de tod@s y no solo de las calenturas mezquinas de poder de unos cuantos.

      El proceso de lucha y resistencia en Oaxaca y México se potencializa. Sería bueno que avanzáramos desprendidos de seres egoístas y ambiciosos que enquistados en el seno del Movimiento Social, podrían crecer como cánceres y sabotearnos el logro de justicia, dignidad y libertad para tod@s.

      Han aprendido a hablar el mismo lenguaje que el gobierno. Ahora la gente que de manera autodeterminada y valiente cierra calles y hace pintas en señal de protesta, son criminalizada como sujetos vándalos, porros y delincuentes de manera indistinta por el gobierno y estas personas.
 
      La Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca es más que el consejo estatal, somos los que en las calles dimos una lucha honesta contra Ulises Ruiz y el sistema. Aún en la cárcel, donde hoy me encuentro, la APPO está presente, porque la APPO somos tod@s.
 
David Venegas Reyes. “Alebrije”
Penal Central de Santa Maria Ixcotel, Oaxaca.

      I welcome all corrections of my translation and/or comments.
      Todas correcciones de mi traducción y/o comentarios son bienvenido.
George , el 21 de mayo de 2007