Mexico City, 29 November 2006

URGENT: To all organizations members of the Vía Campesina and allies

Compañeras and compañeros:

Oaxaca, Mexico, is currently the target of massive state-led repression, in
an attempt to exterminate the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca
(APPO), which is a legitimate movement composed of social organizations,
peasants, indigenous people, trade unions, neighborhood organizations, and
teachers, which demands the removal of Oaxaca state governor Ulises Ruiz, as well as a profound political reform and public policies that would favor
sectors of society who have traditionally been excluded.

Oaxaca is one of the poorer states in Mexico, with the highest proportion of
indigenous peoples, who have deep traditions. Since last Saturday, November 25, the federal Preventive (militarized) Police (PFP) and the state police have been carrying out brutal repression against the entire population of the city of Oaxaca (the state capital).

The New Left (Nueva Izquierda) of Oaxaca, a member organization of the APPO, is part of UNORCA (Via Campesina). At dawn on Sunday, November 26, paramilitary forces of the government burned down the offices of New Left
and of one of its leaders, Flavio Sosa-one of the principal members of the
collective leadership of the APPO (and UNORCA)-who is now facing death
threats, plus multiple orders of arrest, and his brother Eric and his cousin
Jorge are now political prisoners. César Mateos, another important leader
of New Left (and UNORCA) has been disappeared.

We are urgently requesting your statements of solidarity, sending letters
the Mexican Embassies and Consulates in your countries, with copies sent to
the national newspaper La Jornada (lnavarro jornada.com.mx) and the
Coordination of the North America Region of the Via Campesina
(viacammexico hotmail.com), demanding that the government of Mexico:

a) Immediately stop the repression in Oaxaca, free all of the political
prisoners, return all of the disappeared people, order the immediate
withdrawal of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) from Oaxaca, withdraw the
Mexican Army which is surrounding Oaxaca, put an immediate end to the
illegal and brutal house-to-house searches, and to the immediate end to
extra-judicial detentions.

b) Respect the physical integrity of the leaders of Nueva Izquierda of
Oaxaca, and that they be immediately presented alive,

c) The immediate resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz, and the establishment
of a state of law and individual guarantees in the state of Oaxaca.

We thank you for your immediate attention to this urgent request.

Fraternally,

Alberto Gómez

Coordination of the North America Region of Vía Campesina