Indigenous Activists Detained in Oaxaca Following Gathering on Political Prisoners

Report on repression of indigenous activists in Oaxaca, Mexico following a conference on political prisoners.

On Tuesday, November 21st 2023 three Indigenous land defenders were kidnapped by the State in their hometown of Eloxochitlán (Nguixo), a Mazatec community in Northern Oaxaca. For nine years, Jaime Vidauria Romero, Artemio Vidauria Romero and Ranulfo Vidauria Estrada have been persecuted and hunted by the Mexican State and their henchmen on trumped-up charges because of their efforts to defend their communal territory against the capitalist extraction of their natural resources. They have been in hiding but took the risk of participating in the 3rd Internationalist Gathering [Faena] for the Safe Return (of Political Prisoners and Persecuted People). After three days of talks, presentations and cultural activities, when most people and organizations had left, police in civilian clothing with long arms moved in on the community kitchen, pointing their guns, threatening to shoot, and quickly arresting the three land defenders.

Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón is the birthplace of Ricardo Flores Magón, who in the years leading up to the Mexican Revolution tirelessly advocated not only for an end to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz but also openly and explicitly for an anarchist society. His periodical Regeneración and the Mexican Liberal Party (named according to the conventions of the time; it was neither a political party nor liberal by todays standards) had a very important role inciting and guiding the Revolution. In 1911, a multi-national group of anarchists inspired by Magón’s writings held the towns of Mexicali, Tecate, and Tijuana along the US border. Ricardo Flores Magón continued his insurrectionary activism even as he passed most of the Mexican Revolution in US prisons, where he was eventually murdered by the State in Leavenworth Penitentiary.

In Eloxochitlán this tradition of anarchism and Indigenous communalism continues to this day with assemblies, self-defense groups, direct action and communal work projects. But the defenders of privilege, headed by the Zepeda family, have gained a foothold using fraudulent elections, abuses of the legal system, collusion with corrupt political parties, and illegitimate violence carried out by their minions, the police. In response to their persecution, local women from their neighborhood of La Escopeta have formed a self-defense group.

Unfortunately Jaime, Ranulfo and Artemio are the most recent victims in a long line of indigenous activists from Eloxochitlán persecuted by the State, including Alfredo Bolaños, Fernando Gavito, Francisco Duran, Paul Reyes, and Marcelino Miramón who are still in jail, as well as Miguel Peralta, Carlos Pacheco and eight others who have been forced into hiding. Thanks to the persistence of the community others have been freed from the dungeons of the oppressors. After 9 years as a political prisoner Jaime Betanzos attended the Faena to share his experiences of struggle, which include brutal beatings and surviving an ambush where he was shot and nearly lost his life.

Since the illegal detention of Jaime, Ranulfo and Artemio there have been solidarity actions daily in Huautla de Jimenez (about a half hour from Eloxochitlán), the city of Oaxaca where the compas are currently being held, in Puebla City, and in Mexico City, where for over two and a half years Mazateca women have maintained a protest camp in front of the Federal Judicial Council (Metrobus Station Dr. Galvez) demanding the freedom of their compañeros.

The community has called for solidarity actions of all kinds, especially at Mexican Embassies, and mesages that show that they are not alone and that the world is watching. Please use the following hashtags.

#sentenciadelibertadya
#retornoylibertad
#ceseprisionpreventiva

For more informacion on social media you can follow:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/asambleacomunelox.floresmagon?mibextid=2JQ9oc
Instagram: @mujeres_elox

Viva Eloxochitlán!
Viva Ricardo Flores Magón!
Viva la Anarquía!