news about mexico, a photograper of indymedia was killed
Body: from narco news:
http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html
Repost of an article from Mexican Activists.
Body: from narco news:
http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html Repost of an article from Mexican Activists.
news about mexico, a photograper of indymedia was killed
Body: from narco news: http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html
Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe, Sonora, when the news came in about Brad’s death, Zapatista Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the day’s events in Oaxaca, told the public and the press:
“We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn’t work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay. He is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying the voices of the people from below so that they would be known. Because we already know that the television news companies and newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this person was a compañero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead. The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened. Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They aren’t afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero. We are making this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”
In the CML-DF we are going to be publishing minute by minute: http://cml.vientos.info in Zapote Radio: http://zapote.radiolivre.org There is a transmission by Internet from Oaxaca: http://radio.indymedia.org:8000/appo.mp3.mu'
and www.kehuelga.org A hug for all companions and companions.
tomorrow at 12 o clock in the UNAM a concert with La Kermes
brad will story, indymediareported murder by police. mexico
Body: http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html
Brad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter,
Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the
Story
Photographer Oswaldo Ramirez of the Daily Milenio Wounded in Attack by
Shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in Santa Lucia El Camino
By Al Giordano
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Chihuahua
October 27, 2006
Brad Will, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New
York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the neck when
pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the
neighborhood of Santa Lucia El Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca,
Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that
Commercial Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press
distort instead of report: the story of a people sick and tired of
repression and injustice, who take back the government that rightfully
is theirs. In that context, his assassination is also a consequence of
what happens when independent media must do the work that Big Media
fails to do: to tell the truth. My friend and colleague since 1996
when we labored together at 88.7 FM Steal This Radio on New York's
Lower East Side, I bumped into him again in Bolivia in 2004 during a
public reception held by the Narco News School of Authentic
Journalism, and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January where he
came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign – Brad
died to bring the authentic story to the world.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October knowing, assuming and sharing the
risks of reporting the story. His final published article, on October
17, titled "Death in Oaxaca," reported the assassination of Alejandro
García Hernández on the barricades set up by the Popular Assembly of
the People of Oaxaca (APPO, in its Spanish initials). Brad wrote:
"…went walking back from alejandros barricade with a group of
supporters who came from an outlying district a half hour away—went
walking with angry folk on their way to the morgue—went inside and saw
him—havent seen too many bodies in my life—eats you up—a stack of
nameless corpes in the corner—about the number who had died—no
refrigeration—the smell—they had to open his skull to pull the bullet
out—walked back with him and his people...
"…and now alejandro waits in the zocalo—like the others at their
plantones—hes waiting for an impasse, a change, an exit, a way
forward, a way out, a solution—waiting for the earth to shift and
open—waiting for november when he can sit with his loved ones on the
day of the dead and share food and drink and a song—waiting for the
plaza to turn itself over to him and burst—he will only wait until
morning but tonight he is waiting for the governor and his lot to
never come back—one more death—one more martyr in a dirty war—one more
time to cry and hurt—one more time to know power and its ugly head—one
more bullet cracks the night—one more night at the barricades—some
keep the fires—others curl up and sleep—but all of them are with him
as he rests one last night at his watch…"
Last September 26, Brad, on his way to Mexico, wrote me:
"hey al
it brad from nyc—it would be great to get yr narco contacts in
oaxaca—i am headed there and want to connect with as many folks as
posible—are you in df?—i should be stopping though there and it would
be great
to go out for a drink
solid
brad"
Knowing of Brad's hard luck covering other stories (he had been beaten
by police in New York and in Brazil doing this important but dangerous
work), his difficulty with the Spanish language, and of the greater
risk for independent reporters who haven't been embedded over time
(and thus known by the people) in Oaxaca, I pleaded with him not to
go, to instead go to Atenco and report on the story there of the
arrival of Zapatista comandantes:
"Our Oaxaca team is firmly embedded. There are a chingo of other
internacionales roaming around there looking for the big story, but
the situation is very delicate, the APPO doesn't trust anyone it
hasn't known for years, and they keep telling me not to send
newcomers, because the situation is so fucking tense… If you are
coming to Mexico, I would much more recommend your hanging around
DF-Atenco and reporting that story which is about to begin. The APPO
is (understandably) very distrustful of people it doesn't already
know. And we have enough hands on deck there to continue breaking the
story. But what is about to happen in Atenco-DF needs more hands on
deck."
Brad replied that same night, undeterred:
"hey
thanks for the quick get back—i have a hd professional camera—i have
heard reports about the level of distrust in oax and it is
disconcerting—i think i will still go—i wont tell them you sent me and
i am open to other suggestions on how to spend my time—i dont know
what is happening in atenco in the coming days—i may connect with la
otra capitulo dos somewhere along the way—great to hear from you—do
you have a cell / phone number?
solidaridad
b rad"
I was not surprised that he decided to go to Oaxaca anyway. Brad had
always taken risks: whether riding freight train box cars across the
North American plain, or bunkering in his Fifth Street squat in 1996
when police and the wrecking ball invaded, his life had been one of
courage. I gave him my cell phone number in case of emergency. He
wrote back on October 7, three weeks ago:
"hey al
brad here—thanks for the contacts and info—i landed in df feeling
pretty ill and then came straight to oax and am plugged in—if you want
to share your contacts down here it would be very helpful—i think I
will stay down here for a month—nancy said you had a contact with a
human rights lawyer who might help journalists not get deported –
please help me with that information as well—i know you are busy and
look forward to seeing more of your work
peace
b rad"
In those emails are the words of a valiant compañero who, knowing full
well that this story could be his last, decided to share the risks
with the people whose cause he reported.
Also sharing the risks today in Santa Lucia El Camino, Oaxaca was
photographer Oswaldo Ramírez of the daily Milenio, wounded by gunfire.
It was Milenio reporter Diego Osorio who confirmed the news of Brad's
death at 4:30 this afternoon. He also said that in another corner of
the city, outside the state prosecutor's office, gunmen fired at other
APPO members, that three were wounded, and that one schoolteacher is
reported dead, but was unable so far to confirm that report.
Brad Will was known and liked throughout the hemisphere, and in its
media centers from New York to Sao Paulo to Mexico City. Tonight his
body lies in the same Oaxaca morgue he visited and wrote about last
week. He will not go silently into the long night of repression that
the illegitimate governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, President Vicente Fox and
his illegitimate successor Felipe Calderon have created in Oaxaca,
and, indeed, in so much of Mexico. It was inevitable that soon an
international reporter would join the growing list of the assassinated
under the repressive regimes of Mexico (others had already been raped
and beaten in Atenco, only to be deported from the country last May).
Tonight it was Brad, doing the responsible and urgent work, video
camera in hand, of breaking the Commercial Media blockade.
Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe,
Sonora, when the news came in about Brad's death, Zapatista
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the days
events in Oaxaca, told the public and the press:
"We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they
killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn't
work for the big television news companies and didn't receive pay. He
is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying
the voices of the people from below so that they would be known.
Because we already know that the television news companies and
newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this
person was a companero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various
parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in
Yucatan, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they
shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead.
The government doesn't want to take responsibility for what happened.
Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They
aren't afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest
this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at
the national level and to companeros and companeras in other countries
to unite and to demand justice for this dead companero. We are making
this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media
here in Mexico and in all the world."
Tonight, from the Oaxaca City Morgue, Brad Will shouts "Ya Basta!" –
Enough Already! – to the death and suffering imposed (as Brad, a
thoughtful and serious anarchist, understood) by an economic system,
the capitalist system. His death will be avenged when that system is
destroyed. And Brad Will's ultimate sacrifice exposes the Mexican
regime for the brutal authoritarian violence that the Commercial Media
hides from the world, and thus speeds the day that justice will come
from below and sweep out the regimes of pain and repression that
system requires. Brad gave his life tonight so that you and I could
know the truth. We owe him to act upon it, and to share the risks that
he took. Goodbye, old friend. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.
Body: from narco news:
http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe, Sonora, when the news came in about Brad’s death, Zapatista Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the day’s events in Oaxaca, told the public and the press:
“We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn’t work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay. He is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying the voices of the people from below so that they would be known. Because we already know that the television news companies and newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this person was a compañero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in Yucatán, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead. The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened. Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They aren’t afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero. We are making this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.”
In the CML-DF we are going to be publishing minute by minute:
http://cml.vientos.info in Zapote Radio: http://zapote.radiolivre.org There is a transmission by Internet from Oaxaca: http://radio.indymedia.org:8000/appo.mp3.mu' and www.kehuelga.org A hug for all companions and companions.
tomorrow at 12 o clock in the UNAM a concert with La Kermes
brad will story, indymediareported murder by police. mexico
Body:
http://narconews.com/Issue43/article2223.html Brad Will, New York Documentary Filmmaker and Indymedia Reporter,
Assassinated by Pro-Government Gunshot in Oaxaca While Reporting the
Story
Photographer Oswaldo Ramirez of the Daily Milenio Wounded in Attack by
Shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz in Santa Lucia El Camino
By Al Giordano
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Chihuahua
October 27, 2006
Brad Will, a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New
York, Bolivia and Brazil, died today of a gunshot to the neck when
pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the
neighborhood of Santa Lucia El Camino, on the outskirts of Oaxaca,
Mexico. He died with his video camera in his hands.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that
Commercial Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press
distort instead of report: the story of a people sick and tired of
repression and injustice, who take back the government that rightfully
is theirs. In that context, his assassination is also a consequence of
what happens when independent media must do the work that Big Media
fails to do: to tell the truth. My friend and colleague since 1996
when we labored together at 88.7 FM Steal This Radio on New York's
Lower East Side, I bumped into him again in Bolivia in 2004 during a
public reception held by the Narco News School of Authentic
Journalism, and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January where he
came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign – Brad
died to bring the authentic story to the world.
Brad went to Oaxaca in early October knowing, assuming and sharing the
risks of reporting the story. His final published article, on October
17, titled "Death in Oaxaca," reported the assassination of Alejandro
García Hernández on the barricades set up by the Popular Assembly of
the People of Oaxaca (APPO, in its Spanish initials). Brad wrote:
"…went walking back from alejandros barricade with a group of
supporters who came from an outlying district a half hour away—went
walking with angry folk on their way to the morgue—went inside and saw
him—havent seen too many bodies in my life—eats you up—a stack of
nameless corpes in the corner—about the number who had died—no
refrigeration—the smell—they had to open his skull to pull the bullet
out—walked back with him and his people...
"…and now alejandro waits in the zocalo—like the others at their
plantones—hes waiting for an impasse, a change, an exit, a way
forward, a way out, a solution—waiting for the earth to shift and
open—waiting for november when he can sit with his loved ones on the
day of the dead and share food and drink and a song—waiting for the
plaza to turn itself over to him and burst—he will only wait until
morning but tonight he is waiting for the governor and his lot to
never come back—one more death—one more martyr in a dirty war—one more
time to cry and hurt—one more time to know power and its ugly head—one
more bullet cracks the night—one more night at the barricades—some
keep the fires—others curl up and sleep—but all of them are with him
as he rests one last night at his watch…"
Last September 26, Brad, on his way to Mexico, wrote me:
"hey al
it brad from nyc—it would be great to get yr narco contacts in
oaxaca—i am headed there and want to connect with as many folks as
posible—are you in df?—i should be stopping though there and it would
be great
to go out for a drink
solid
brad"
Knowing of Brad's hard luck covering other stories (he had been beaten
by police in New York and in Brazil doing this important but dangerous
work), his difficulty with the Spanish language, and of the greater
risk for independent reporters who haven't been embedded over time
(and thus known by the people) in Oaxaca, I pleaded with him not to
go, to instead go to Atenco and report on the story there of the
arrival of Zapatista comandantes:
"Our Oaxaca team is firmly embedded. There are a chingo of other
internacionales roaming around there looking for the big story, but
the situation is very delicate, the APPO doesn't trust anyone it
hasn't known for years, and they keep telling me not to send
newcomers, because the situation is so fucking tense… If you are
coming to Mexico, I would much more recommend your hanging around
DF-Atenco and reporting that story which is about to begin. The APPO
is (understandably) very distrustful of people it doesn't already
know. And we have enough hands on deck there to continue breaking the
story. But what is about to happen in Atenco-DF needs more hands on
deck."
Brad replied that same night, undeterred:
"hey
thanks for the quick get back—i have a hd professional camera—i have
heard reports about the level of distrust in oax and it is
disconcerting—i think i will still go—i wont tell them you sent me and
i am open to other suggestions on how to spend my time—i dont know
what is happening in atenco in the coming days—i may connect with la
otra capitulo dos somewhere along the way—great to hear from you—do
you have a cell / phone number?
solidaridad
b rad"
I was not surprised that he decided to go to Oaxaca anyway. Brad had
always taken risks: whether riding freight train box cars across the
North American plain, or bunkering in his Fifth Street squat in 1996
when police and the wrecking ball invaded, his life had been one of
courage. I gave him my cell phone number in case of emergency. He
wrote back on October 7, three weeks ago:
"hey al
brad here—thanks for the contacts and info—i landed in df feeling
pretty ill and then came straight to oax and am plugged in—if you want
to share your contacts down here it would be very helpful—i think I
will stay down here for a month—nancy said you had a contact with a
human rights lawyer who might help journalists not get deported –
please help me with that information as well—i know you are busy and
look forward to seeing more of your work
peace
b rad"
In those emails are the words of a valiant compañero who, knowing full
well that this story could be his last, decided to share the risks
with the people whose cause he reported.
Also sharing the risks today in Santa Lucia El Camino, Oaxaca was
photographer Oswaldo Ramírez of the daily Milenio, wounded by gunfire.
It was Milenio reporter Diego Osorio who confirmed the news of Brad's
death at 4:30 this afternoon. He also said that in another corner of
the city, outside the state prosecutor's office, gunmen fired at other
APPO members, that three were wounded, and that one schoolteacher is
reported dead, but was unable so far to confirm that report.
Brad Will was known and liked throughout the hemisphere, and in its
media centers from New York to Sao Paulo to Mexico City. Tonight his
body lies in the same Oaxaca morgue he visited and wrote about last
week. He will not go silently into the long night of repression that
the illegitimate governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, President Vicente Fox and
his illegitimate successor Felipe Calderon have created in Oaxaca,
and, indeed, in so much of Mexico. It was inevitable that soon an
international reporter would join the growing list of the assassinated
under the repressive regimes of Mexico (others had already been raped
and beaten in Atenco, only to be deported from the country last May).
Tonight it was Brad, doing the responsible and urgent work, video
camera in hand, of breaking the Commercial Media blockade.
Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe,
Sonora, when the news came in about Brad's death, Zapatista
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, upon receiving a briefing of the days
events in Oaxaca, told the public and the press:
"We know that they killed at least one person. This person that they
killed was from the alternative media that are here with us. He didn't
work for the big television news companies and didn't receive pay. He
is like the people who came here with us on the bus, who are carrying
the voices of the people from below so that they would be known.
Because we already know that the television news companies and
newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs. And this
person was a companero of the Other Campaign. He also traveled various
parts of the country with us, and he was with us when we were in
Yucatan, taking photos and video of what was happening there. And they
shot him and he died. It appears that there is another person dead.
The government doesn't want to take responsibility for what happened.
Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing. They
aren't afraid. They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest
this injustice. We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at
the national level and to companeros and companeras in other countries
to unite and to demand justice for this dead companero. We are making
this call especially to all of the alternative media, and free media
here in Mexico and in all the world."
Tonight, from the Oaxaca City Morgue, Brad Will shouts "Ya Basta!" –
Enough Already! – to the death and suffering imposed (as Brad, a
thoughtful and serious anarchist, understood) by an economic system,
the capitalist system. His death will be avenged when that system is
destroyed. And Brad Will's ultimate sacrifice exposes the Mexican
regime for the brutal authoritarian violence that the Commercial Media
hides from the world, and thus speeds the day that justice will come
from below and sweep out the regimes of pain and repression that
system requires. Brad gave his life tonight so that you and I could
know the truth. We owe him to act upon it, and to share the risks that
he took. Goodbye, old friend. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.
