OAXACA: Testimony of a Oaxacan student kidnapped and interrogated
indyOax | 23.01.2007 16:46 | Oaxaca Uprising
English language translation of a testimony of a student who was abducted and interrogated for 2 days with 2 others. Original version in Spanish here:
http://mexico.indymedia.org/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=29&postId=4349
http://mexico.indymedia.org/tiki-view_blog_post.php?blogId=29&postId=4349
"On the day of January 12, 2007, we left my house with 2 students that i knew very well in that recently, the day of the march that took place on the 10th of the present month, a friend of mine introduced me to . They asked me if I could give them a place to stay since since they had limited resources. Of what little we were able to discuss is that they had come to carry out a field study for their thesis.
We left my house to eat dinner at 8:30 or 9pm near the CBTIS [techinical school] of San Felipe del Agua in Oaxaca City. We were cut off by a white pick-up truck without license plates in which 5 people in plainclothes were traveling; 3 of them were in the cab and the others were in the back. The aformentioned were wearing jeans, black shirts, and military style boots with military style hair cuts. I supose they were state ministrial police. They asked us where we were coming from. One of my companions responded with why they were asking and why it mattered to them. The sujects grabbed by the backs of our clothes and violently put us on the truck. They pointed a pistol at us and they laid us face down with our hands on the backs of our necks.
They later told us to lift our faces or they would kill us. To me they said "Who tells you to go screwing around in these things? Old bitch! why do you go around complaining in differnt places?". The truck began to take off towards an unknown location. I calculate that the trip lasted approximately 2 hours. One of my companions raised his face and, as a consequence, one of the subjects stepped on his back provoking an equal treatment for us. During the course of the trip they told one of my companions that if he didn't talk and if he didn't tell them where Miguel was that they were , that we were taking too long, that we were a bunch of traitors and that we were going to tell them where Dr. Bertha was.
We arrived at an unknown place where they violently dragged us from the truck, pulling on our shirts. What I could see was that there was a big field, it seems like a rural town. They put us in a room and they pushed us towerds a wall, to later sit us down in chairs, an action that was carried out violently. The room was pretty empty; there were only chairs, a table and a couch from where we could see a bathroom. Three of the five subjects exposed on the table a considerable quatity of photographs and told me to tell them who was in them and where they were, that we tell them who they were or they would go to my house to kill my brothers and rape and kill my sisters.
One of the subjects took out a video camera. When he was going to begin filiming us, he told us that he knew many people that had participated in the 25th of November. One of them told me that I was a slut and pulled on my shirt again. I told them not to hurt me because I was pregnant and one of them told me aggressively that it happened for being a slut. The one who was interroagting me pulled out his weapon, a pistol, and put it on the table. He asked me again about Miguel and they left me sitting for a long time. The same subject took the arm of one of my companions and sat him in the chair and asked him the same question: "Where's Miguel and Dr. Berta? Fucking swine!". They took him by the hair and violently lifted up his face and hit him with the butt of the pistol in the eyebrow. They said "That was good!" and the three left the room.
I guess that it was 3 in the morning. When they left us alone, they tied our hands and they sat me in between my companions.
At daybreak the same subjects came asking if we were hungry. None of us responded and one of them said: "Go tell Flavio Sosa to give you something to eat." One of my companions told them that he wanted to go to the bathroom to which they responded that they didn't care if he peed his underwear. Afterwards, they threw a can of food and plates at us, but looking at it, we realized that it was dog food and they told us "Now swallow it, that's how you want to eat, fucking communists."
They pulled my arm again, asking me about Miguel and about Bertha. They interrogated me more and told me that now they were going to refresh my memory. They tied my hands again and took us one by one to the bathroom, accompanying us. They gave us neither food nor water. Amongst themselves they talked about what they were going to do to us, that they were going to eat a delicious pizza. The same individual who interrrogated me the day before asked me in a friendly tone if I was going to speak or not, to which I responded that I didn't know anything and that I didn't know anybody in the photos that he showed me. So, he threw me against the wall.
By the night the same 5 people took us out of the house. They put us in the truck again and they took us towards an unknown location whike they talked by cell phone. I estimate, more or less, another 2 hours trip. They lowered us from the truck and we had to walk without looking back. They told us if any of us turned around or if whoever started to run, they would pump some lead into us. We walked and came upon a liquor store where I asked the woman if she could lend me her telephone t make a call and I told her all about what had happened. I asked her where we were and she told me that we were in the Microondas neighborhood, near the Estrella neighborhood.
I talked to my Mom and told her everything because she hadn't heard from me. The woman asked us to please leave there because she didn't want problems. She told us to walk straight and we would find the ISSTE hospital. I told her to lend me her telephone again to tell my Mom to wait for us there and we set out on foot according to the directions given, until we met up- with my mother, to whom we told everything that had happened and we asked her the time to find out it was 3:30am on the 14th of january 2007.
My mother took me and my companions to my house. Upon arrival at my home, I went into the bathroom and discovered that I was bleeding, for which I figured was a sign of miscarriage, which kept me from sleeping the rest of the night. At 8am, my companions returned to their places of origin. At that time, I went to an appointment with a doctor, who confirmed that in fact, the bleeding stemmed from a threatened miscarriage of the month and a half of gestation that I had, which resulted from the blows I received from my assailants.
We left my house to eat dinner at 8:30 or 9pm near the CBTIS [techinical school] of San Felipe del Agua in Oaxaca City. We were cut off by a white pick-up truck without license plates in which 5 people in plainclothes were traveling; 3 of them were in the cab and the others were in the back. The aformentioned were wearing jeans, black shirts, and military style boots with military style hair cuts. I supose they were state ministrial police. They asked us where we were coming from. One of my companions responded with why they were asking and why it mattered to them. The sujects grabbed by the backs of our clothes and violently put us on the truck. They pointed a pistol at us and they laid us face down with our hands on the backs of our necks.
They later told us to lift our faces or they would kill us. To me they said "Who tells you to go screwing around in these things? Old bitch! why do you go around complaining in differnt places?". The truck began to take off towards an unknown location. I calculate that the trip lasted approximately 2 hours. One of my companions raised his face and, as a consequence, one of the subjects stepped on his back provoking an equal treatment for us. During the course of the trip they told one of my companions that if he didn't talk and if he didn't tell them where Miguel was that they were , that we were taking too long, that we were a bunch of traitors and that we were going to tell them where Dr. Bertha was.
We arrived at an unknown place where they violently dragged us from the truck, pulling on our shirts. What I could see was that there was a big field, it seems like a rural town. They put us in a room and they pushed us towerds a wall, to later sit us down in chairs, an action that was carried out violently. The room was pretty empty; there were only chairs, a table and a couch from where we could see a bathroom. Three of the five subjects exposed on the table a considerable quatity of photographs and told me to tell them who was in them and where they were, that we tell them who they were or they would go to my house to kill my brothers and rape and kill my sisters.
One of the subjects took out a video camera. When he was going to begin filiming us, he told us that he knew many people that had participated in the 25th of November. One of them told me that I was a slut and pulled on my shirt again. I told them not to hurt me because I was pregnant and one of them told me aggressively that it happened for being a slut. The one who was interroagting me pulled out his weapon, a pistol, and put it on the table. He asked me again about Miguel and they left me sitting for a long time. The same subject took the arm of one of my companions and sat him in the chair and asked him the same question: "Where's Miguel and Dr. Berta? Fucking swine!". They took him by the hair and violently lifted up his face and hit him with the butt of the pistol in the eyebrow. They said "That was good!" and the three left the room.
I guess that it was 3 in the morning. When they left us alone, they tied our hands and they sat me in between my companions.
At daybreak the same subjects came asking if we were hungry. None of us responded and one of them said: "Go tell Flavio Sosa to give you something to eat." One of my companions told them that he wanted to go to the bathroom to which they responded that they didn't care if he peed his underwear. Afterwards, they threw a can of food and plates at us, but looking at it, we realized that it was dog food and they told us "Now swallow it, that's how you want to eat, fucking communists."
They pulled my arm again, asking me about Miguel and about Bertha. They interrogated me more and told me that now they were going to refresh my memory. They tied my hands again and took us one by one to the bathroom, accompanying us. They gave us neither food nor water. Amongst themselves they talked about what they were going to do to us, that they were going to eat a delicious pizza. The same individual who interrrogated me the day before asked me in a friendly tone if I was going to speak or not, to which I responded that I didn't know anything and that I didn't know anybody in the photos that he showed me. So, he threw me against the wall.
By the night the same 5 people took us out of the house. They put us in the truck again and they took us towards an unknown location whike they talked by cell phone. I estimate, more or less, another 2 hours trip. They lowered us from the truck and we had to walk without looking back. They told us if any of us turned around or if whoever started to run, they would pump some lead into us. We walked and came upon a liquor store where I asked the woman if she could lend me her telephone t make a call and I told her all about what had happened. I asked her where we were and she told me that we were in the Microondas neighborhood, near the Estrella neighborhood.
I talked to my Mom and told her everything because she hadn't heard from me. The woman asked us to please leave there because she didn't want problems. She told us to walk straight and we would find the ISSTE hospital. I told her to lend me her telephone again to tell my Mom to wait for us there and we set out on foot according to the directions given, until we met up- with my mother, to whom we told everything that had happened and we asked her the time to find out it was 3:30am on the 14th of january 2007.
My mother took me and my companions to my house. Upon arrival at my home, I went into the bathroom and discovered that I was bleeding, for which I figured was a sign of miscarriage, which kept me from sleeping the rest of the night. At 8am, my companions returned to their places of origin. At that time, I went to an appointment with a doctor, who confirmed that in fact, the bleeding stemmed from a threatened miscarriage of the month and a half of gestation that I had, which resulted from the blows I received from my assailants.
indyOax
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