He worked as part of Indymedia in New York In the beginning of October 2006 he traveled to Oaxaca his goal to document one of the first revolts of the new millennium in Latin America Almost five months had passed since the beginning of the popular revolt in the state of Oaxaca when Brad arrived with his newly acquired camera It had all begun with an eviction order from then-governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz against teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) who were on strike in the central plaza and the main streets of the touristy city of Oaxaca After fierce repression against the teachers hundreds of neighbors and social organizations poured out into the streets to support them until the revolt generalized and people mobilized en masse this time to demand the governor’s removal from office Brad arrived to a city gripped by the uprising After accompanying part of “The Other Campaign,” an initiative by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) that crossed the length of the country he hired a motorcycle driver and began to explore the different areas where barricades had been erected These barriers were created as an act of defense against paramilitary groups armed with military weapons and plainclothes police officers shooting at men and elderly people who had joined the “popular insurrection.” the US journalist started to be identified as the “güero,” or white-skinned person and the residents gave him access to every corner of Oaxaca where there was a driving checkpoint The city was completely paralyzed and only a few vehicles were able to drive through and other obstacles scattered in the streets not just in the city but also the working class neighborhoods and the communities closest to the city those on the barricades sought to completely paralyze the city for at least 24 hours That was the feeling as the sun came up on “Calicanto” barricade in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino bordering the small city limits of Oaxaca proper and were intercepted as they drove through the streets Neighbors say that it was early in the morning when Santa Lucia municipal authorities got out of an SUV and without a word “opened fire on the demonstrators and then we all ran and looked for shelter,” as a neighbor who identified herself as Soledad Martínez remembers Martínez said that a few minutes later the demonstrators reorganized themselves “We advanced again with big fireworks and rocks a few comrades lit it on fire and there was a thundering noise It was the bullets inside of the SUV,” said Martínez we now know that the man who gave the order to use these weapons was the nephew of Santa Lucia’s municipal president at the time one can see that the SUV was already almost burnt to a crisp In the distance there are people firing on protesters “Brad was taking cover behind truck tires while he filmed,” said Javier Santis until the armed people began to withdraw towards the city hall Several protesters carried him and the search began for a doctor and a car one of his colleagues grabbed the camera that was falling out of his hands A neighbor picked up one of his shoes which they put him in a Volkswagen that had sat for days without being driven Desperately they tried to dodge the barricades They kept speaking to Brad so that he wouldn’t lose consciousness The people who had decided to help the journalist asked a passing pickup driver for help while they stood stranded but it was already too late,” said Jazmín López several of the armed actors from the municipality were intercepted in the ADO bus terminal Ruiz Ortiz’s government used police officers and several groups of armed civilians known as the “death squad” to carry out operations to take back control of the city Brad’s death was used to justify the deployment of the Military Police in the eyes of the media this meant the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) who indiscriminately attacked demonstrators to retake Oaxaca According to the International Civilian Commission for Human Rights Observation (CCIODH) 26 people were murdered during the conflict The state and federal agencies charged with bringing justice framed three innocent people and took them prisoner with baseless accusations Meanwhile the police officers who appear on film shooting directly towards Brad as well as other demonstrators who were murdered Oaxacan society knows that these agencies don’t work Brad’s murder still has not been settled; on the contrary it has been joined by countless other cases of activists and journalists murdered in Mexico with impunity along with that of others who fell in this “popular insurrection,” was featured on an altar with offerings to be celebrated and remembered by loved ones on the Day of the Dead This symbolic offering was set up at one of the last barricades left standing The PFP had already taken back most of the city but hundreds of people from all over gathered around the offering and defended it Brad’s image continues to figure on the altars of many Oaxacan families But his memory also lives on with young people who practice independent journalism the second class of the School of Independent Communicators for Indigenous and Neighborhood Youth has been named “Segunda Generación Brad Will.” Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Contact us: avispamidia@riseup.net The materials created by Avispa Midia may be reproduced only for non-profit purposes You must acknowledge the authorship and inform about its publication John Gibler Oct 24 PHOTO: IN BROAD DAYLIGHT: Moments before Brad Will was shot and killed October 27 several local officials were filmed and photographed firing in the direction of Brad and anti-government protesters (From left to right) Juan Carlos Soriano Velasco town official Orlando Manuel Aguilar Coello and Abel Santiago Zarate Aguilar Coello and Zarate were both briefly detained after Brad’s death but were soon released when Oaxacan authorities mistakenly asserted that the two bullets that killed Brad did not come from a .38 revolver like the ones that both men were using that day 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 which had ruled Oaxaca with an iron fist for almost 80 years Brad stood amid the APPO protesters and other journalists filming down the length of Juarez Avenue where armed officials were firing at the protesters having recorded the sound of the shot that hit him and yet his killer does not appear in the camera frame at the moment of the gunshot the Mexican federal government arrested two members of the APPO charging Juan Manuel Martinez as the gunman and Octavio Perez with helping to cover up Brad’s murder (Perez was later released on bail) 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 in a telephone interview on 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.” Whether Brad Will was shot at close or long range lies at the heart of the controversy over the government’s investigation and the recent arrests Local police in civilian clothing and municipal officials in Santa Lucia del Camino were filmed and photographed firing on the APPO protesters among whom Brad Will was standing when he was shot has not investigated the involvement of the local officials More than a dozen protesters and press photographers surrounded Brad when he was shot All those interviewed said that the bullets came from down the street the Milenio newspaper photographer Oswaldo Ramirez was shot in the leg The Mexican Office of the Federal Attorney General “All the shots were coming from down the street where the paramilitaries had gathered,” said Mexican journalist Diego Osorno who covered the battle for Milenio that day and later wrote about it in his book Oaxaca Under Siege we were all focusing on the paramilitaries as the source of the gunfire,” he said opens fire on protesters shortly before Brad Will was killed One of his targets was Mexican photographer Raul Estrella “I heard the bullet whiz by my head and that’s when I left,” Estrella later recalled a photographer for El Universal who won an international photojournalism award for his coverage of the Oaxaca conflict shot at him when he noticed Estrella taking his picture shortly before Brad Will was killed “I heard the bullet whiz by my head and that’s when I left,” Estrella who took a now-famous photograph of Carmona and other Santa Lucia del Camino officials shooting at the protesters The PGR has not charged Pedro Carmona with attempted murder The Mexican authorities claim that Brad’s killers shot him at close range at a distance of two meters (about six-and-a-half feet) implicating the APPO protesters themselves rather than the gunmen located down the street and the Mexican governmental human rights group all challenge the PGR’s short-range hypothesis a photographer for a Oaxacan human rights organization whose photographs were recently published in the book Teaching Rebellion helped carry Brad once he was brought around the corner and onto Arboles Street He offered his eyewitness testimony to the PGR back in March of 2007 He said that the men who brought Brad to Arboles Street were trying to save him “Why try to save someone you want to kill?” he asked An independent investigative team from Physicians for Human Rights traveled to Mexico earlier this year and issued a report on May 23 calling on the PGR to investigate paramilitary involvement On September 26, the Mexican governmental National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) released a report highly critical of the government charging that state and federal authorities violated the victim’s and his family’s human rights through their systematic failures to properly investigate the murder The recent arrests came a day before the deadline for the PGR to respond to the CNDH report “Take a look at Brad’s last frame; there is nobody in that frame,” said Kathy Will They are defying all logic and it just goes to show how corrupt they are It wasn’t a short range shot and everybody knows that.” The Will family and the Physicians for Human Rights investigators both pointed out the federal government’s failure to investigate 17 other murder cases during the 2006 Oaxaca conflict where witness testimony and photographic and video evidence indicate police participation in the killings “The involvement of civilian-clad police officers in death squads has been well documented,” said Mexican journalist Diego Osorno Calderon’s National Action Party, or PAN “He came to power very weak and that has made him beholden to more powerful groups The PGR’s case against Juan Manuel Martinez and the other members of the APPO is built around a single witness’ testimony says that he saw Juan Manuel Martinez fire the fatal shot that Adolfo Feria is the cousin of the mayor of Santa Lucia del Camino whose police and city officials led the armed attack on the APPO protesters The PGR also shared a slide show with the press on Friday the slide show contains several contradictions One slide says that the gunman fired the first shot from a distance of two meters The visual to support that slide is a still from Brad’s camera showing a cluster of protesters in front of Brad The protester that the PGR identifies as the shooter stands about five meters away The still was taken only milliseconds before Brad was shot The supposed shooter is not pointing a gun at Brad Another slide says that the shooter fired a second shot into Brad’s side standing between two and eight meters away The visual slide to support this statement is a computer illustration that shows the shooter standing less than half a meter away from Brad while firing The PGR’s own visual representations do not correspond to its statements Mexican state and federal officials have insisted from day one on an impossible scenario: that one of the APPO members standing near Brad shouted at him to stop filming and then killed him when he did not obey—shooting him at close range in front of scores of witnesses without anyone seeing him without leaving gun powder burns near the wound or on Brad’s shirt and without appearing in Brad’s camera frame Brad’s family retained a lawyer in Mexico and has since traveled there twice to meet with state and federal officials Their sole demand has been that the investigation consider and exhaust all possibilities focusing solely on the hypothesis that the APPO killed Brad The troubled defense of the government’s “the APPO did it” theory began with then-Oaxaca State Attorney General Lisbeth Caña Caña called a press conference in Oaxaca City flipping through a Power Point presentation with elaborate—though nonsensical—charts and graphs all pointing to the conclusion of the disgruntled APPO shooter Caña’s theory was that one of the APPO protesters told Brad to “stop taking pictures,” while he cocked a nine-millimeter pistol The bystanders who tried to take Brad to the hospital were in fact co-conspirators who drove him away from the crowd only to fire a second shot into his side Brad was not “taking pictures.” He was filming; and The killer could not have shot Brad straight on without appearing in the camera frame the national Mexican daily Milenio published on the front page a photograph of bystanders carrying Brad to a car Both gunshot wounds are clearly visible in the photograph The work of other Mexican photojournalists such as Javier Otaola of the national daily Excélsior also clearly show that the two gunshot wounds were both present before Brad was driven off to the hospital we now know that Brad was not shot with a nine-millimeter pistol but with a .38 revolver—a gun that does not make any cocking sound such as that supposedly heard on Brad’s tape and his brother Craig traveled to Oaxaca on March 21 to meet with the state government investigators one of Caña’s assistants loaded a PowerPoint presentation dated November 15 Hardy noticed the date and asked: “Does this mean that you haven’t done anything in the past four months?” Caña said that they had the wrong PowerPoint and dispatched her assistant to bring the correct one A few tense moments later the assistant returned and loaded the same Power Point presentation When Brad’s family realized that they were being led through the exact same presentation that had been paraded before the press the previous November they asked Caña to stop the Power Point and to share any new information she had gathered Had she interrogated the municipal officials photographed shooting at protesters on October 27 Had she gathered ballistics information on the guns fired that day the family asked to view the case file—a right granted under Mexican law to the family members of murder victims Caña said that they could not view the case file Because they had just that moment finished boxing it up to ship it to the federal government Caña was asking that the Mexican federal attorney general take over the case PHOTO: GUNNED DOWN: Brad Will is attended to after being shot twice just below the sternum He died en route to a nearby hospital when the taxi he was being transported in ran out of gas Despite overwhelming forensic and documentary film evidence to the contrary The Mexican government claims that Will was shot at close range by a disgruntled protester and that the people who came to his aid conspired to finish him off with a second gunshot while traveling to the hospital Craig and their lawyer Miguel Angel de los Santos met for over 12 hours with officials at the PGR office in Oaxaca They were able to review the case file (just unpacked) ask questions and submit evidence collected by their lawyer such as the published photographs showing the presence of both gunshot wounds before Brad was driven from the scene while assuring the family that they were more professional and impartial than the Oaxaca state investigators refused to accept the photographic evidence arguing that the photographs could have been tampered with after the incompetence and insensitivity of the Oaxaca state investigators the PGR officials’ ardent assurances of their academic pedigrees and distance from local politics led the family to feel somewhat better the government will conduct a serious and unbiased investigation When Kathy and Hardy returned to Mexico almost a year later they were eager to learn of the PGR’s progress They were appalled to learn that there still had been no progress The federal special prosecution team investigating Brad’s murder was still proceeding under the assumption that Brad was shot at close range and that he received the two shots in different locations—the two assumptions first presented as evidence by Lisbeth Caña The PGR said that they would conclude their investigation and seek arrest warrants in a matter of weeks a Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) team volunteered to travel to Mexico to review the investigation then obtained formal approval from the PGR for PHR to make their examination an expert video forensics analyst studied Brad’s last tape (The video analysis has not been released yet preliminary findings show a bullet streak descending across the camera frame milliseconds after the shot is heard and milliseconds before Brad cries out The forensic video expert has told the family that a close range shot is categorically impossible.) while the PHR experts were reviewing the evidence Physicians for Human Rights concluded its review and sent a full report to the family and the Mexican government in late May 2008 PHR wrote that the Mexican federal investigation has “shortcomings in efforts to locate all firearms in the possession of police and others who were present at the scene; a singular focus by Mexican authorities on a working hypothesis that the gunshots originated from Will’s immediate surroundings; and a failure to investigate other instances of injuries or deaths in Oaxaca that might reveal a pattern of violence leading to the perpetrator(s).” The Mexican authorities did not respond to the PHR report instead leaking a story to the Mexican press claiming that the federal investigation had concluded that the APPO killed Brad Misael Sánchez published an article in the Oaxaca-based pro-government newspaper El Tiempo headlined: “The PGR concludes: The APPO killed Brad.” On the same day Ricardo Alemán published an article in the national newspaper El Universal headlined Both articles cite only unnamed sources within the PGR who claim to have concluded their investigation having gathered irrefutable evidence that Brad was shot at close range Both articles repeat the impossible claim that Brad was shot a second time while en route to the hospital PGR officials sought arrest warrants for several members of the APPO the day before the National Human Rights Commission published its own investigation this time to the national left-leaning newspaper La Jornada: “PGR investigation points to APPO as journalist’s killers.” HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION ATTACKS INVESTIGATION concluding that the state and federal authorities involved in investigating Brad Will’s murder all “violated the fundamental rights to legality and acts of speculation that state and federal investigators engaged in from the day of Brad’s murder up to the present A short list includes: not preserving the scene of the crime; not inspecting the crime scene until October 31 four days after the murder; not inspecting the firearms used that day or interrogating the men witnessed and photographed firing on the APPO or even opening a preliminary investigation to determine the degree to which they may have been involved in the events under primary investigation; not interrogating the two men originally held for the murder; not conducting or ordering an investigation to identify all those photographed carrying or firing guns that day; and misidentifying the .38 revolver bullets pulled from Brad’s body as coming from a nine-millimeter pistol This last error is of particular importance Claiming that that Brad was killed with a nine-millimeter pistol Lisbeth Caña released the two municipal officials who had been detained They did not carry nine-millimeter pistols But the CNDH analysis concludes that Brad was in fact killed with a .38 revolver (PHR also confirmed that the lethal weapon was a .38-caliber handgun) The two men—Abel Santiago Zarate and Orlando Manuel Aguilar Coello—however The CNDH report also concludes that the fatal shot occurred at a distance of between 35 and 50 meters (about 40 to 55 yards) and that the two wounds that caused Brad’s death occurred successively The CNDH categorically rejects both the close range and the separate shot theories put forth by the Oaxaca state investigators and defended for nearly two years by the PGR On July 1, George W. Bush signed legislation approving the Merida Initiative a $400 million program to aid Mexico’s military included a paragraph calling for justice in Brad Will’s case “The state and Federal investigations into the October 27 killing in Oaxaca of American citizen Bradley Will have been flawed,” the law states not later than 45 days after enactment of this Act and 120 days thereafter to submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations detailing progress in conducting a thorough and transparent investigation to identify the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice.” Congressman Donald Manzullo (R-IL) sent an angry letter to the Committee on Appropriations and President Bush calling on them to suspend funding for the Merida Initiative until the Mexican government carries out a serious investigation advocacy director for the Americas with Amnesty International USA said the PGR investigation should cause alarm for the U.S which has become a major financial supporter of the PGR “This should be a real red flag for the U.S which is sending hundreds of millions of dollars to the Mexican government some of which will go to the PGR,” she said in a telephone interview Kathy Will said that her family is pressuring Congress to withhold Merida Initiative funds from the Mexican government “a place where they don’t hold somebody accountable PHOTO: TAKING IT EASY: When he wasn’t covering social upheavals in Latin America Brad Will was active in a a number of activist campaigns and projects in New York City the art of impunity most often takes the form of a kind of ritual incompetence—incompetence so pervasive and implacable that it can only be the result of decisive action Brad’s case has become part of a now deep and horrid tradition of political murder investigations plagued with an incompetence whose function is simply to cement impunity into the cultural fabric of the law: from the massacre of hundreds of students in Mexico City 40 years ago on October 2 to the ambush and murder of Triqui radio journalists Felícitas Sánchez and Teresa Merino on April 7 The experience of the Will family in their trips to Mexico and the documentation provided in the CNDH report present a level of incompetence in both the state and federal investigations that is too thorough to be accidental “Look at the hard evidence,” said Hardy Will He had a high-quality camera with a wide-angle lens that would have picked up any shooter within 35 meters Our video analyst detected bullet streaks on the last two frames before Brad was hit The Attorney General Medina Mora and Doctor Wiarco [the special prosecutor in charge of the case] have all this information “Doctor Wiarco and Attorney General Medina Mora are either incompetent or corrupt “Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade: They are covering up and obviously getting some direction from above.” John Gibler is the author of Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt He is a Global Exchange Media Fellow and writes from Mexico In 2007 and 2008 he acted as volunteer interpreter for the Will family in meetings with Mexican state and federal officials PAST COVERAGE OF BRAD WILL IN THE INDYPENDENT: Mexico - Federal police with assault rifles and riot-shields advanced into Oaxaca on Sunday bypassing or extinguishing barricades of burning tires and tree trunks in this normally picturesque tourist destination wracked by five months of protests and violence Officers in bulky black helmets lined a highway just shy of a sign reading "Welcome to Oaxaca" and used fire extinguishers to douse flames at a roadblock abandoned by retreating demonstrators water-cannon and bulldozers and with helicopters roaring overhead officers faced a knot of protesters who yelled insults and readied piles of stones to hurl Some protesters used syringes to pierce their arms and legs then paint signs decrying the police in blood columns of police climbed over burned-out cars and moved past hijacked tractor-trailers buses and other debris used to block streets pledging a massive defensive in the city center some residents emerged from their homes cheering and waving white flags What began in late May as a teacher's strike in this colonial southern Mexican city spiraled into chaos as anarchists students and Indian groups seized the central plaza and barricaded streets throughout the city to demand the ouster of Oaxaca state Gov Police and state forces - often in plainclothes - have shot at protesters setting off clashes in which at least eight people have died resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to Oaxaca until Saturday others fortified their posts at street blockades pledging a street-by-street defense against the Federal Preventative Police said that many demonstrators were peaceful We have already seen the R-15 (rifles) and AK-47s they carry," she said Most have just come to bring them flowers." The Interior Department issued an ominous statement demanding that protesters give up their occupation of the city immediately but officials said Sunday they hoped negotiations could avoid further bloodshed Protesters accused Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and using thugs to kill or intimidate political opponents They say they will not return home without his resignation several hundred supporters of the Oaxaca protests converged on a hotel where Ruiz was rumored to be staying damaging the grounds around the entrance and screaming "Murderer The government news agency Notimex reported that a vehicle transporting federal police to Oaxaca crashed Sunday Federal officials could not confirm the report but protesters cheered wildly as it circulated Oaxaca The protesters estimated that around 4,000 federal police had taken up positions around the edges of the city which is the capital of the state of the same name Demonstrators have occupied the city's leafy central plaza since the start of the teacher's strike setting up a sprawling tent city and covering historic buildings with graffiti Surrounding streets were mainly deserted Sunday A small group of residents and tourists sat eating and chatting quietly inside protesters gathered to mourn Bradley Roland Will a 36-year-old from New York who was killed during a shootout between protesters and men they claim were local officials in Santa Lucia del Camino on Oaxaca's outskirts whose body was laid out in a white shirt and a glass-topped coffin at a funeral parlor near the square was remembered as a video and documentary-maker devoted to the protesters' cause A video posted by Indymedia.org showed the last minutes of footage Will shot Friday apparently including the moment he was hit by gunfire Will's family said it was "grieving over the tragic and senseless loss of Brad's life." "Brad's friends and family admired his brave support for the downtrodden and willingness to act tirelessly upon his convictions We believe he died doing what he loved," it said Ambassador Tony Garza said those who shot Will may have been Oaxaca police and Mayor Manuel Martinez Feria of Santa Lucia del Camino said five men seen brandishing pistols at the time of the shooting had been turned over to authorities 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 The tense weekend standoff comes after teachers agreed to return to work by Monday; their strike has kept 1.3 million children out of classes across the southern state Will's video (Spanish site): http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/10/542.shtml A pair of separate arrests in Oxnard Saturday involved loaded guns The first incident involved a teen driving erratically around 4:30 p.m near the intersection of Santa Lucia Avenue and Alpine Street Officers from the special enforcement unit who responded to the call identified the 17-year-old driver as an Oxnard gang member They determined he was under the influence of alcohol and arrested him officers found a sawed-off shotgun on the floorboard behind the driver's seat officers were on foot patrol on Azalea Street northeast of Gonzales and Ventura roads in the Sierra Linda neighborhood officers said they saw a 24-year-old Oxnard man trying to hide something They determined he had discarded a loaded .357 magnum revolver and had drugs in his possession The man was reportedly wearing a GPS ankle monitor from a prior arrest Officers arrested Antonio Ramirez on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance with a firearm Ramirez remained in Ventura County jail as of Sunday afternoon with bail set at $100,000 FB.init("6fd1eea8d35df9c4bb8ba0035ab521a9");Narco News on Facebook Staff Reporter:Erin Rosa Spanish Language Editor:Fernando León Newsroom Coordinator:Chris Fee Cyber Development Director: Editorial Policy and Disclosures a documentary filmmaker and reporter for Indymedia in New York died today of a gunshot to the chest when pro-government attackers opened fire on a barricade in the neighborhood of Santa Lucia del Camino He died with his video camera in his hands 2006 Narco NewsBrad went to Oaxaca in early October to document the story that Commercial Media simulators like Rebecca Romero of Associated Press distort instead of report: the story of a people sick and tired of repression and injustice who take back the government that rightfully is theirs his assassination is also a consequence of what happens when independent media must do the work that Big Media fails to do: to tell the truth My friend and colleague since 1996 when we labored together at 88.7 FM Steal This Radio on New York’s Lower East Side I bumped into him again in Bolivia in 2004 during a public reception held by the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism and again on the Yucatán peninsula last January where he came to cover the beginnings of the Zapatista Other Campaign – Brad died to bring the authentic story to the world Brad went to Oaxaca in early October knowing, assuming and sharing the risks of reporting the story. His final published article, on October 17, titled “Death in Oaxaca,” reported the assassination of Alejandro García Hernández on the barricades set up by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO “…and now alejandro waits in the zocalo—like the others at their plantones—hes waiting for an impasse identified by El Universal: Juan Carlos Soriano Velasco (red tshirt) a police officer known as “the Grasshopper”; Manuel Aguilar (dark jacket) city personnel director; and public safety chief Avel Santiago Zárate (red shirt)Photo: D.R Knowing of Brad’s hard luck covering other stories (he had been beaten by police in New York and in Brazil doing this important but dangerous work) and of the greater risk for independent reporters who haven’t been embedded over time (and thus known by the people) in Oaxaca to instead go to Atenco and report on the story there of the arrival of Zapatista comandantes: There are a chingo of other internacionales roaming around there looking for the big story the APPO doesn’t trust anyone it hasn’t known for years and they keep telling me not to send newcomers because the situation is so fucking tense… If you are coming to Mexico I would much more recommend your hanging around DF-Atenco and reporting that story which is about to begin The APPO is (understandably) very distrustful of people it doesn’t already know And we have enough hands on deck there to continue breaking the story But what is about to happen in Atenco-DF needs more hands on deck.” I was not surprised that he decided to go to Oaxaca anyway Brad had always taken risks: whether riding freight train box cars across the North American plain or bunkering in his Fifth Street squat in 1996 when police and the wrecking ball invaded I gave him my cell phone number in case of emergency In those emails are the words of a valiant compañero who knowing full well that this story could be his last decided to share the risks with the people whose cause he reported Also sharing the risks today in Santa Lucia del Camino Oaxaca was photographer Oswaldo Ramírez of the daily Milenio It was Milenio reporter Diego Enrique Osorno who confirmed the news of Brad’s death at 4:30 this afternoon He also said that in another corner of the city outside the state prosecutor’s office and that one schoolteacher is reported dead but was unable so far to confirm that report Speaking at a public meeting of the Other Campaign in Buaiscobe when the news came in about Brad’s death upon receiving a briefing of the day’s events in Oaxaca “We know that they killed at least one person This person that they killed was from the alternative media that are here with us He didn’t work for the big television news companies and didn’t receive pay He is like the people who came here with us on the bus who are carrying the voices of the people from below so that they would be known Because we already know that the television news companies and newspapers only concern themselves with governmental affairs And this person was a compañero of the Other Campaign He also traveled various parts of the country with us and he was with us when we were in Yucatán taking photos and video of what was happening there It appears that there is another person dead The government doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happened Now they tell us that all of the people of Oaxaca are mobilizing They are mobilizing to take to the streets and protest this injustice We are issuing a call to all of the Other Campaign at the national level and to compañeros and compañeras in other countries to unite and to demand justice for this dead compañero We are making this call especially to all of the alternative media and free media here in Mexico and in all the world.” Brad Will shouts “Ya Basta!” – Enough Already – to the death and suffering imposed (as Brad His death will be avenged when that system is destroyed And Brad Will’s ultimate sacrifice exposes the Mexican regime for the brutal authoritarian violence that the Commercial Media hides from the world and thus speeds the day that justice will come from below and sweep out the regimes of pain and repression that system requires Brad gave his life tonight so that you and I could know the truth Oaxaca: The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) has confirmed that schoolteacher Emilio Alfonso Fabián has died from three bullet wounds after an attack by shooters for Ulises Ruiz Ortiz outside the state government palace Kristin Bricker reported for this story from Sonora Click here for more Narco News coverage of Mexico