Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The protest camp raid: Gil's story.

Guido & Gildardo | 30.12.2004 18:13

Gildardo Perez Gomez was one of the CIPO-RFM activists sleeping at the protest camp on night it was raided last September. Below he recounts his experiences in his own words.

Gildardo at the CIPO-RFM headquarters.
Gildardo at the CIPO-RFM headquarters.

Gil has personal experience of these boots.
Gil has personal experience of these boots.

Being interviewed at the CIPO-RFM pirate radio station.
Being interviewed at the CIPO-RFM pirate radio station.


My name is Gildardo Perez Gomez and I am 18 years old. I started working with C.I.P.O. when my sister told me about it; I had already read some books about Magon and liked his thoughts and way of doing things.
Six months ago I began to attend the protest camp that C.I.P.O. had in town and from there I got more involved with the organization. It wasn’t only because I liked the principles and work of Magon I am also fighting for my people. Where I come from we are very marginalized, we are forgotten. It not just our people it is many other communities that are suffering because of government policies, they call us ‘indigenous’ but we want to be recognize for what we are, the rightful owners of this land not foreigners or strangers.
On the 14th of September at around 6’15 am we were at the camp and about 150 police and Special Forces arrived along with a supposed human rights representative who did not show any credentials, they started to collect our blankets, cooking stuff and literature. They took everything without an explanation; we were asleep apart from those doing the guard. When we awoke they said they were going to proceed with the eviction. They didn’t have any eviction orders or any legal documents; they loaded everything on a truck while we shouted anti-police slogans, that was all we could do.
The media reported that they had evicted about 100 people; the truth is that we were only 14.
Once they had taken away our things they started to beat us, they didn’t have an arrest order but after a phone call to the commander we were all arrested.
They separated us into groups and carried on beating us, I was hit in the stomach and the ribs, some colleagues were beaten on the ears, two of them still have hearing problems.
We were taken to the police station and on the way there they kept hitting us and telling us we were all going to die, on arrival one of the women was dragged by the hair into the station. We were denied phone calls, we couldn’t talk between us, and we were denied all legal rights. There was a heavy police presence outside the police station, they were afraid that people from the communities were coming for us.
About 50 police in plain clothes came to where we were and showed us an assortment of weapons to threaten us. This situation continued for about 5 hours, not a word about the reasons for the eviction or the charges against us. Then they took us to separate cells and told us that we were being accused of assaulting 15 police officers, stealing electricity and causing damage to a national heritage site. These last two charges were later dropped. The first charge carries a prison sentence. They took our statements at around 12 am and kept trying to confuse us with their questions. Later in the cells they brought us some papers to sign and told us we were being moved. They divided us and moved us to different prisons.
The first ones were moved at 2 am.
At the time I was 17 years old, they put me in a maximum security prison. According to federal laws I am a minor but here in Oaxaca you are an adult at 16, this law is unique to this state. However we are not given full rights for example I can not vote.
On arrival in prison we were taken to see a nurse she checked our pulse, temperature and blood pressure. Then came a doctor who signed a certificate to say we were in good health.
One of our colleagues had a fractured bone and has now developed complications.
We were taken to a hall with all the new arrivals, drug addicts, rapists, murderers, burglars. Hearing them talk I wondered what I had done to be there. We were just demanding our rights. I was glad that there were a few of us. I was there for 5 days; I could not sleep at night afraid of what they will do to me. We kept giving them food and cigarettes to keep them happy. There was a lot of drug smuggling going on around us.
Personally this experience has not been a deterrent to me to keep on the struggle. I live now between the protest camp and the C.I.P.O. building. In the mornings I take classes, I am preparing to go to university.





CIPO-RFM website:
 http://www.nodo50.org/cipo/
CIPO-RFM web pages in English:
 http://www.nodo50.org/cipo/ourstory.htm

(the words and pictures above are subject to copy write but available for free to non profit organisations/publications/websites etc. To use contact:  guidoreports@riseup.net )



Guido & Gildardo
- e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://www.nodo50.org/cipo/ourstory.htm

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech