Exclusive, Oaxaca in Crisis: An Interview with Victoria Tenopala Juárez

As the school year starts, teachers in the highly indigenous Mexican state of Oaxaca are revving up their struggle against neoliberal education reform – two months after federal police massacred protesters near the town of Noxichtlán. The radical National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) has recently called for continuing road blockades and has pledged to continue its strike, and the freeing of political prisoners has been one aspect of their continuing negotiations with the Mexican Secretary of the Interior.

The following is an Aug. 4 interview with Victoria Tenopala Juárez, a member of the Council of Oaxacan Autonomous Organizations [COOA], who discusses the state of the movement as well as the case of her husband, the indigenous political prisoner César León Mendoza.

On June 19, eight Oaxacans were killed when federal police attempted to dislodge protesters’ highway blockade at Noxichtán, which they had maintained to pressure the government to undo the federal education reform, first fully enacted in Oaxaca in 2015. The independent journalist León Mendoza had long worked to support and document the movements against this and other neoliberal reforms, and was arrested in late 2015. He currently faces four charges, including attempted homicide. He was originally held at a state prison in Miahuatlán, Oaxaca, 2.5 hours from his family. Direct action campaigns in February 2016 in Oaxaca led to his transfer to the Ixcotel prison, in Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, which is closer to his family and support networks.

This interview was conducted in Spanish by Eric Larson*, who translated it and edited it for length.

Abstract, Ruta Mixteca Indigenous Rights and Mexico’s Plunge into Globalization by Rodolfo Stavenhagen

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Ruta Mixteca

Indigenous Rights and Mexico’s Plunge into Globalization by Rodolfo Stavenhagen

“Ruta Mixteca” is the name given to the circular migrations of indigenous farm workers between the Mexican state of Oaxaca and California long studied by Michael Kearney and his collaborators. Indigenous migrations to the United States have expanded in recent years as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement and changes in Mexico’s agrarian legislation that led to increased privatization of land and natural resources, dispossession of the traditional peasantry, and numerous local land- and resource-related conflicts. The Zapatista uprising stimulated the growth of a host of militant indigenous organizations, now also emboldened by constitutional changes that recognize the human rights of indigenous peoples according to international standards. Indigenous transnational migrations need to adapt to these changing conditions.