Lies from Oaxaca: the Nochixtlán case

Lies from Oaxaca Ministry of Public Security and National Security Commission: the Nochixtlán case

June 20, 2016

By Regeneración Radio

On the morning of Sunday, 19th of June, in a joint operation using firearms, the Federal and State Police attacked teachers, students and residents of Nochixtlán, who had held a barricade for a week to defend public education. The Ministry of Public Security and the National Commission of Security assured that their agents ‘did not even carry batons’.

In a press conference, Gabino Cué – the Oaxaca state governor, stated that the morning eviction responded to the impact that the blockade has had upon the tourism sector and upon the economic activity of the state. The Federal Government stated that the governor had requested intervention from the Federal Police.

Various state department officials published statements on their respective twitter accounts, assuring that they did not assassinate the residents of Nochixtlán.

The National Security Commission’s (CNS) press release stated that the photographs disseminated in social media and taken by alternative media, journalists, and Nochixtlan residents are ‘totally false and do not depict the actions of the police’. The information held in each photograph doesn’t lie.

Metadata embedded in the photos taken on June 19 at the Reyes tire repair shop, located in Nochixtlan, were disseminated by the international news agency Associated Press. An AP photo caption says, “Riot police use a rifle as they battle with protesting teachers.”

There is also metadata embedded in a photograph of a federal police officer holding a gun, taken from one side of Nochixtlan cemetery by an independent media outlet, Desde Las Nubes, which has given the Oaxacan barricades wide coverage.

The Federal Police general commissioner, Enrique Galindo, states that there was no sound of gunfire but rather, the sounds of fireworks were heard in the area. The CNS states that the gunshots were not from police guns but were from ‘unidentified people, unassociated with the blockade, who shot at the people and the authorities in order to spark conflict.’

If they weren’t police, as shown in this video, who were they?

The photographs are clear proof that in Nochixtlan there has been a day of bloodshed at the hands of the Federal and State police. The people who ordered this are: Enrique Peña Nieto, current Mexican president, Gabino Cué, governor of Oaxaca, and Aurelio Nuño, education secretary.

However, the greatest evidence are the bodies now lifeless, those who were exterminated by bullets: Yalid Jiménez Santiago, 29-year-old father, who was shot by the Federal Police while he travelled in a van towards the barricades; Oscar Nicolás Santiago, 21 years old, wounded during the attack with a 380 calibre gun carried by the Federal Police; Anselmo Cruz Aquino, from Santiago Amatlán, killed by a bullet.

Likewise, Indigenous education teacher, Andrés Aguilar Sanabria lost his life. As did high school student, Antonio Pérez Garcia. To date, there has been no confirmation that they were shot at. The number of dead remains uncertain. At the time of writing, they speak of between eight to ten people killed.