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EMBARGO: For Immediate Release
CONTACT: Sam Annison 07050 674464
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LAST FOOTAGE BY MURDERED JOURNALIST TO BE SCREENED ON MEXICAN EMBASSY

First Indications of Government Involvement as Federal Army Troops Move In

[LONDON, UK. Monday 30th October 2006]

Two days after his murder by government-aligned paramilitary forces in Mexico, the last video footage shot by Indymedia journalist Brad Will is going to be screened on the side of the Mexican embassy in London. At the time of his death, Will was covering events in the rebel city of Oaxaca, which has largely slipped out of government control after a teachers' strike turned into a non-violent civil uprising by social movements against the state government.

The screening will show the footage taken from Will's camera after he was shot and killed by right-wing paramilitaries associated with the state's ruling party, the PRI. Besides Will, three people were killed and another journalist injured when the attack occurred on the outskirts of the city of Oaxaca.

Mayor Manuel Martinez Feria of the nearby town of Santa Lucia del Camino said five men who appeared in photos brandishing pistols during the Will shooting had been turned over to state officials for possible involvement in Will's killing. He identified them as two members of Santa Lucia's city council, two of that town's police officers and a former justice of the peace from another town.

Since the beginning of the strike in June, teachers and other groups have formed the APPO - the Popular Assembly of the Oaxacan People - and have called for the removal of state governor Ulises Ruiz of the PRI.

Meanwhile, in an apparent admission that it cannot resolve the months-long Oaxaca confrontation by peaceful means, the Mexican government yesterday committed 15,000 soldiers of the Mexican Federal Army and a further 6,500 police to break Oaxaca's social movements by force.

For more information, visit: http://www.indymedia.org.uk

EMBASSY SCREENING

Venue:

Mexican Embassy to the United Kingdom
16 St George Street
Hanover Square
London
W1S 1LX

Time: 5PM
Date: Monday 30 October 2006