New York journalist shot by police in Oaxaca, Mexico

Fe, originally uploaded by Fernando Careaga.

Mexican police fired on protesters in Oaxaca, Mexico, killing three people including 36-year-old Bradley Roland Will, a New York journalist.

Nine people, mostly protesters, have died during the five-month teachers' strike in Oaxaca. Will was the first journalist to die covering the conflict.

On Thursday the teachers union announced that members had voted to ratify a new contract.

Comments

[TourPro]

Actually he was not shot by police, rather they were members of a local neighborhood watch.

The teachers voted to return because of the potential loss of salary which they have continued to collect since they went on "strike" in June. Also, most parents are really pissed off that their children are missing school.

News and Information - Oaxaca - Watch

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[Josh]

tourpro, you don't know what you're talking about.

the shooters have been identified as off-duty ministerial police. they're not members of a "neighborhood watch", they're thugs sent by the government to terrorize people and create pretexts for violent police intervention. they are agents-provocateurs, and in some cases death squads.

they take their uniforms off to create plausible deniablity for the officials who give them orders.

the government tried a direct assault on the teachers in June and it failed. They killed several people, didn't crush the movement, deepened the resistance and suffered public outrage at their heavyhanded tactics. They've been reluctant to do it again fearing further political fallout. So they resort to "clandestine" " counterinsurgency" tactics, also known as "dirty war" or "terrorism".

Their main strategy since June has been to terrorize the protesters, sow fear and paranoia, create dissenstion and disunity, and drive wedges in between various factions of the movement. Their violence is blamed publicly on the protesters and used to create the impression of "anarchy" in the streets and ungovernability so that the gov't can justify a renewed assault in order to restore "law and order".

You are quite right that most people want their children to be in school, many of them aren't willing to achieve this at the cost of keeping in place a corrupt and brutal governor. The teachers also want to be back at their jobs. Everyone in Oaxaca wants things to go back to "normal". If the Mexican government gave a rat's ass about what the people want then they'd get rid of Ortiz, or at the very least have a free and fair election for the Governorship of Oaxaca.

Some of us have been there and seen first-hand that the streets are quite orderly and while anarchic are not in the least chaotic. You clearly have not. Until you do I'd recommend holding off on making ignorant public comments which smugly blame the victim and proffer apologia for murderous criminality.

[Ian Welsh]

What I've read indicates rather more than a teacher's strike going on, I'd add. Last time teachers truck here in Ontario they didn't take over the entire city of Toronto, run their own radio stations, blockade the streets, and so on. A lot more than teachers were involved.

That said, teachers were the backbone, we'll see what happens when they stand down. Any good government would get rid of Ortiz (and by good, I don't necessarily mean moral. If he's so incompetent he can't keep the peace against rabble, a government of hard headed corrupt pragmatists would ditch him too.)

[Cass]

What I've heard accords rather better with what Josh said. And I'm sorry, but a "neighborhood watch" waving guns around at dissenters and members of the press in such a situation doesn't pass the laugh test.

[none]

Indymedia itself doesn't claim that police did the shooting.

http://indymedia.org

[Gritsforbreakfast]

The Village Voice quoted an eyewitness who said "paramilitaries" did it, while several mainstream reports say the shooting occurred as the police "moved in." Didn't sound like any neighborhood watch-type - more like a death squadder, in keeping with that region's bloody political history.

Here are some pics from an expat, btw:

http://markinmexico.blogspot.com/

A Grits commenter pointed me to a Mexican blogger who rightly said you'd think from the media coverage that one US journalist was more important than 14 dead Mexican citizens. But I'll bet that after a couple of media cycles we discover that the US media doesn't give a damn about Indymedia journalists much more than they do dead Mexicans. Things look really bad for Mexico, and they certainly can't look to Bush for help.

Quien sabe la verdad? We can all agree it's pretty awful. Poor Oaxaca. Poor Mexico.

[asfo_del]

Indymedia does in fact say in no uncertain terms that paramilitary police forces engaged by the PRI shot Brad:
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/849305.shtml
- It was urban paramilitary Priistas in plain clothes who shot him

I knew Brad. He was a committed activist and a kind, generous man who believed in social justice and put his life on the line to fight for it. Please don't cheapen his struggle with misinformation.

[charles wellington]

I feal bad for that repoter