Murder of independent journalist Brad Will
source: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/20/ignoring_evidence_mexican_authorities_charge_activists
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AMY GOODMAN: We begin today in Mexico, where two people have been arrested in the murder of the independent journalist Brad Will. Will was shot and killed on October 27, 2006, while covering the popular uprising in Oaxaca. Will’s own camera captured his shooting.
Footage filmed by Brad Will right up until the moment he was fatally shot. For our radio listeners, you can go to our website at democracynow.org to see the video footage.
Far from satisfying the calls for justice, the arrests have only inflamed the controversy.
Speculation has long centered around police officers and pro-government militants in Will’s death. Some were initially arrested in the months after the shooting, but ultimately released. But today the government is accusing two members of the popular movement APPO, the group opposed to state governor Ulises Ruiz. Will was covering their struggle when he was killed. Will’s family has criticized the charges, calling the arrests a sham. In a statement, Amnesty International also said it’s “gravely concerned” Mexican officials are ignoring critical evidence, including "state agents potentially implicated.”
John Gibler is an independent journalist who has extensively covered the uprising in Oaxaca, where he also knew Brad Will. He’s author of the forthcoming book Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, which is out in January from City Lights Books. John Gibler joins us now from San Francisco.
John, welcome to Democracy Now! Tell us, how did these arrests happen? How did this whole story unfold to this point?
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Mexican Government Covers Up Murder of Journalist.
The cover-up is part of a horrid tradition where impunity is cemented into the fabric of the law.
On October 27, 2006, Brad Will stood on Juarez Avenue in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca, Mexico. He was filming a violent clash between armed, civilian-clad municipal police and officials and members of the Oaxaca Peoples' Popular Assembly, or APPO.Brad traveled to Oaxaca in early October 2006 to report on the protest movement led by the state teachers union that sought to oust governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, after his failed attempt to beat and arrest striking teachers during a June 14 pre-dawn raid.
Brad stood amongst the APPO protesters and other journalists, filming down the length of Juarez Avenue where the armed officials were firing at the protesters. Brad was shot and fell to the ground, his camera still running and having recorded the sound of the shot that hit him. Brad was shot from straight on, just below the chest, and yet his killer does not appear in the camera frame at the moment of the gunshot. Brad died on the way to the hospital. He had been shot twice.
Two years later, on October 16, 2008, the Mexican federal government arrested two members of the APPO, and charged Juan Manuel Martinez as the gunman and Octavio Perez with helping to cover up Brad's murder. Federal police were still looking for other suspected accomplices, all members of the APPO who had tried to carry Brad to safety and save his life.
The arrests came after a series of human rights reports criticized the government's investigation for failing to follow leads pointing to local officials who were widely photographed by the press shooting at APPO protesters on October 27, 2006.
"It is such a cover up," said Kathy Will, Brad's mother, in a telephone interview upon learning of the arrests. "It is an insult to us and to all of the groups that have tried to help with a meaningful investigation."
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