Two years on, dead U.S. journalist remembered on both sides of the border

Activists and rights groups marched in remembrance of Brad Will yesterday in the state of Oaxaca, marking the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of the U.S. videographer.

Will was filming violent street battles in the southern Mexican state two years ago when he was shot dead, and controversy has surrounded the search for those responsible.

In Oaxaca City yesterday, more than two thousand people marched across the state capital to the big central plaza, or Zocalo, in memory of the dead journalist. Their protest was mirrored across the border in the United States, where protesters staged a hunger strike outside Sen. Hillary Clinton's office in New York City, demanding a full investigation into the murder of Will.

The journalist's family, friends and supporters believe that Will was gunned down from a distance by government-backed thugs and have rejected past official investigations into his death by the Mexican authorities.

But earlier this month two members of the protest movement, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, known in Spanish as APPO, were arrested in connection with Will's murder. The official investigation into his death alleges that Will was shot at close range, not from far away, as his supporters claim.

The arrests were condemned by human rights groups including Amnesty International and Mexico's own human rights commission, which claims that both the state and federal investigations into the death of the journalist included "irregularities."

Click here for more on Mexico.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Comments

[southoc]

Mexico is so corrupt what can US senators do?

[Juan]

great piece. I wonder what Pelosi is doing? She is my congress member, and We should demand she act on this!

[robert jereski]

Great piece! Thanks.

As one of a number of hunger strikers I want to underscore that our demands were NOT for an investigation of Brad's murder. We want those who murdered Brad to be arrested. Here is a picture of them taken at the time and numerous witnesses at great personal risk stepped forward to testify to this:

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=19485

The Mexican state and federal investigations of Brad's murder were condemned by Mexico's own National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) as effectively coverups (see here: http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/category/investigation/)

The CNDH blamed Plan Mexico on the persecution of activists who helped Brad by the Mexican State, b/c they argue that the Mexican government was motivated to cover-up by conditions on the Merida Initiative (aka Plan Mexico) requiring that the U.S. journalists murder be resolved in some way before funding is released.
See here: http://www.friendsofbradwill.org/2008/10/25/mexicos-national-human-rights-commission-blames-plan-mexico-for-appo-arrests/)

We don't believe that targeting and arresting activists who helped the murdered journalist in his final moments is the form of resolution which u.s. taxpayers or their representatives would find acceptable.

So we fasted - no food, no water from Tuesday to Friday - to demand Senator Clinton make a public statement

i. demanding accountability for Brad Will's murder;
ii. demanding a release of the activists wrongfully arrested for his murder and a vacating of warrants issued as part of the Mexican government's cover-up;
iii. declaring a hold on all Merida Initiaitve (aka Plan Mexico) funds pending resolution of these and other cases of Mexican/Central American government murders of activists with impunity;
iv. declaring a "no" vote on future funding of the Bush Administration's neo-liberal "security" initiative.

Here's a good short video of our fast and brad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyFjurkDzRw&feature=related