November 25, 2012 marks the sixth anniversary of the bloody attack by the Federal Preventive Police on the teachers and members of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) in the zócalo of the city of Oaxaca. I wasn’t here during the 5-month long struggle, but its repercussions continue to reverberate.
Last year a plaque was unveiled by organizations representing victims, survivors, human rights, and social activists. Located where the Alameda de León meets the zócalo, it symbolically renames the zócalo, “Plaza of the peoples in struggle; for truth and justice.”
Truth and justice have not been attained, assassins go unpunished, many of the same issues remain, and Oaxaca’s economy still hasn’t rebounded. Today, the Survivors and Former Political Prisoners of Oaxaca in Defense of Human Rights (SEPODDH) mounted a photo exhibition across from the Government Palace.
Adults, children, and even vendors stopped to look and, for many, remember those days and nights six years ago.
Somber and unsmiling, they stood silently, gazed at the photos, and read the captions. The only hint of levity was SEPODDH’s mascota, who sat beside a collection bucket.
Section 22 of the teachers’ union held another march and rallied in the zócalo, but today these photos spoke much louder than the words coming from the loud-speakers.
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