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What You're Missing in Our Subscriber-only CounterPunch Newsletter Blood Diamonds: the Inside Story An amazing expose by T.R. Naylor: How the "Blood" or "Conflict Diamonds" Myth peddled by NGOs Helped a Vicious Mining Company Shore Up Its Monopoly, Made a Pile of Money for A Washington Post Reporter and Leonardo di Caprio, Served As A Propaganda Myth in the "War on Terror" and had Nothing to Do With Osama Bin Laden. Pinochet is gone, and the world is a cleaner place. JoAnn Wypijewski recalls 1988 in Santiago, when Chile lost its fear. And yes, here they are in charge of Congress again, ready to facilitate a troop hike in Iraq. Alexander Cockburn re-introduces an old acquaintance: the Democrats--Party of War. Remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation towards the cost of this online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year Remember: You Only Have a Few More Days to Make a Year End & Tax Deductible Contribution to CounterPunch!

Today's Stories December 28, 2006 Norman Finkelstein The Ludicrous Attacks on Jimmy Carter's Book December 27, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Farewell to Our Greatest President: Adieu, Gerald Ford Faruq Ziada Is There a Sunni Majority in Iraq? Christopher Brauchli Burning EPA's Books: What They Don't Want You to Read Might Save Your Life Michael Ortiz Hill Journey to Vietnam: Dare We Not Say Genocide? Nikolas Kozloff Saving Caracas Mark Schneider Why Hope? Reasons for Optimism December 26, 2006 Peter Stone Brown James Brown: Please Don't Go Tito Tricot Chile: the Ghosts of Torture Gary Leupp Cowboys Differ on Iran Attack: Cheney/Bush vs. the Baker Commission John V. Walsh Dershowitz vs. Carter in Beantown: Peace Movement AWOL, Again Reza Fiyouzat Red Christmas: Why Santa Was Hot in China This Year Ron Jacobs The Golem: a Conversation with Marc Estrin Website of the Day JB: Prisoner of Love December 25, 2006 Saul Landau A Jeep Trip with Fidel Lang / McGovern To Surge or Not to Surge? Michael Dickinson Should Stupid Thoughts Be Crimes?: Deny Santa If You Will, But ... Website of the Day James Brown, RIP December 23 / 24, 2006 Marjorie Cohn What's Going On? Jeffrey L. Gould The Capital of Salvadoran Memory: El Mozote After 25 Years Diane Christian The Rape of Iraq William Loren Katz From the Raid on "Fort Negro" to Iraq: Lessons from the First US Invasion Greg Moses This War Can't be Made Right by Winning M. Shahid Alam An Islamic Civil War: Chaos by Design? Fred Gardner Exposé as Inoculant: HRT, Zyprexa, Lilly and the Press Dave Lindorff Crime of the Century Azmi Bishara Ways of Denial Ralph Nader The BCS: a Monopoly on College Football Seth Sandronsky Fiscally Imperiled Social Security? William Hughes Cop Assaults Activists at Lockheed Protest Ron Jacobs Making Stones Weep Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to on New Year's Eve   December 22, 2006 David Rosen Bush's Foreign Sex Policy: Imperialism's Second Front Christopher Brauchli When the Secret is the Question: Secret Prisons, Top Secret Interrogations John Ross Flashlights in the Tunnel of Hate J.L. Chestnut, Jr. Political Sell-Outs in Black and White Rahul Mahajan Dennis Kucinich: Maverick or Stalking Horse? Arthur Neslen Provoking Civil War in the Occupied Territories Peter Rost, MD The Secrets of His Success: Fired Pfizer CEO Walks Away with $198 Million Website of the Day 10 Ways to Change the World in 2007 December 21, 2006 Rosa Mariam Elizalde An Interview with Gore Vidal: "I am Jealous of Cuba" Arundhati Roy Breaking the News Brian Cloughley Poppies Rising: Afghanistan's Drug Catastrophe Daniel White Jimmy Carter in Austin: Time to Come Clean on the Shoot Down of That Itavia DC-9 John V. Whitbeck On Israel's Right to Exist Sam Smith Still Smearing Ralph Nader for 2000 Paris Reidhead GM Ice Cream: Something's Fishy in Your Good Humor Bar Kevin Wehr Denying Disaster: Katrina and the Case for Impeachment Website of the Day Pesticides and Amphibians: a Vital New Database December 20, 2006 Gabriel Kolko Rumsfeld and the American Way of War Winslow T. Wheeler The Pentagon Measures the Chaos in Iraq Tariq Ali The War is Lost Saree Makdisi Israel, Apartheid and Jimmy Carter Bruce Jackson Saying "Oh!": John Mohawk and the Power to Make Peace Dave Lindorff Democrats Walk Into a Bush Trap on Iraq Leslie Radford The Winter Harvest of the South Central Farmers Dave Jansson Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Secessionists Confront the Empire Johnny Barber Jesus is a Terrorist Website of the Day Is It for Freedom? December 19, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Democrats Prepare to Fund Longer War Jonathan Cook End of the Strongmen Greg Moses Globalized Gulag: Palestinian Refugees and Children Held in Hutto, TX Jail Sean Penn Georgie, There's a Crowd Downstairs Dave Lindorff Innocents Abroad: Cracking Down on Gitmo Detainees Despite Overwhelming Evidence Most Are Not Terrorists Ralph Nader Going Postal Laura Carlsen Latin America's Pink Tide? Carlos Villarreal The Well is Poisoned: Victory Requires an Immediate Pull-Out Website of the Day Chuck Spinney on the Pentagon December 18, 2006 Luis J. Rodriguez En Lak Ech: Chicanos, Mayans and Mel Gibson Norman Solomon Washington Refuses to End the War: Powell, Baker, Hamilton--Thanks for Nothing! Uri Avnery Lebanon: War Without a Plan Ron Jacobs More Troops, More Body Bags Phil Gasper Afghanistan: Bush's Other War Unravels Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi Iran's Elections: The World Isn't Florida and Bush Isn't Its Supreme Leader William Blum The United States of Punishment Jim Goodman So What's the Big Deal If Wal-Mart Makes a Mistake? James Brooks Talking Surge: Let's Kill Some More Before We Go Maria C. Khoury Walking Into the Art World: Designing a Palestinian Academy for the Arts Website of the Day Got Powell December 16 / 17, 2006 Weekend Edition Vijay Prashad A Perilous Way to Socialism Saul Landau Filming Fidel Anthony Arnove The US Occupation of Iraq: Act III of a Tragedy of Many Parts Paul Cantor The Puppet and the Puppeteer: Pinochet and Kissinger Annie Nocenti Baluchistan's Fight: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes Nicole Colson Hard Times on the Killing Floor: Smithfield's Rotten Record Stephen Gowans Tehran's Holocaust Conference Jordan Flaherty A Catastrophic Failure: Foundations, Nonprofits and the Second Looting of New Orleans Fred Gardner Dustin Costa Faces 15 to Life P. Sainath There's No Such Thing as a Free Cow Seth Sandronsky The Democrats and Social Security: Watch What the Party Says and Does Nadia Hijab An AIPAC Shot Across Baker's Bow? Deb Reich Dear Santa, (Or Someone): Greetings from the Occupied Holy Lands Susie Day Cops Shoot Another Rich White Man! Albert Wan Why Does It Take 50 Bullets? Missy Beattie Will the Next Leader Stand Up? Please! Martha Rosenberg Kicking the Wyeth Habit Saves Women's Lives Lee Ballinger The Devil's Highway: Clinton, Border Checkpoints and the Deaths of the Yuma 14 Michael Dickinson Kingdom of Fear Jeffrey St. Clair Live/Evil: Listening to Miles Davis Poets' Basement Davies, Buknatski and Ford Website of the Weekend "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"   December 15, 2006 Eliza Ernshire Palestinian "Civil War" and the Israeli Chocolate Ration Virginia Tilley What Are You Going to Do Now, Israel? Mike Ferner Roll Call for the Choir: If They Vote for War, Occupy 'Em! John Ross Mad Mel's Mayan Apocalypse Fred Wilhelms The Flip Side of Ahmet Ertegun: Where Did You Get Those Shoes? Kevin Zeese Dennis Kucinich's Strange Mission: Can You Be a Real Anti-War Candidate in a Pro-War Party? David Severn Social Engineering Begins at Home: Jeffrey Skoll, Billionaire Philantropist Dave Lindorff Sen. Tim Johnson Death Watch: Senate Gridlock May Be Best Outcome Sunsara Taylor As American as Shopping and Torture Website of the Day June 2, 2004: When Iraq Was There For The Looting   December 14, 2006 Jonathan Cook The Recognition Trap Riz Khan An Interview with Jimmy Carter Jason Hribal Kasatka, the Sea World Orca Pennick / Gray The Plight of Black Farmers: Racism in the US Farm Program Richard Levins That Embezzled Anti-Castro Money Pat Williams The College Crisis: Universal Access, Student Loan Debts and Pell Grants Peter Rost, MD Simply Irresistible: Do Women Prefer Bad Boys? Website of the Day The Sound of Rummy   December 13, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Iraq is Beyond Repair Greg Moses The Dixie Chicks Come Home to Roost Elizabeth Schulte Hungry for the Holidays Joshua Frank Death By Coke Debra Eschmeyer Corporations Control Your Dinner Leon Hadar Baker's Rescue Mission: Too Little, Too Late Peter Rost, MD I've Been a Very Bad Boy Margaret Knapke Mow bé and Malachi, Presenté! Reza Fiyouzat Are Cows Free? Fred Wilhelms A Last Minute Appeal: If You Know One of These Musicians Let Them Know They Are Owed Money--By Friday! Website of the Day The Crimes of Augusto Pinochet December 12, 2006 Fernando A. Torres The Last Man of the Junta: an Open Letter to Kissinger from One of Pinochet's Political Prisoners Paul Craig Roberts America's Injustice System is Criminal Stephen Soldz Abusive Interrogations Uri Avnery Baker's Cake William S. Lind Knocking Opportunity: From Vulcans to Vultures in Iraq Missy Beattie Convicted for Our Convictions: Trespassing for Truth at the UN Dave Lindorff The 35-Year Long Scream: Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Vet's Tears George Pyle Our Perverse Farm Plan: Where Christmas Comes Every Five Years Norman Solomon Is the USA the Center of the World? Website of the Day Citizens' War Tribunal   December 11, 2006 Virginia Tilley Banning Mandela Roger Burbach The Condor Model: the Atrocities of Pinochet and the US Col. Douglas MacGregor There's Only One Option Left: Leave! Fawwas Traboulsi Lebanon on the Brink Ron Jacobs Death of a Pig: Poetic Justice for Pinochet Gideon Levy The Cruel Line into Gaza: Elbow to Elbow, Like Cattle Mary McGrane Burning Books at Harvard Law Bernardo Ruiz The Disappeared of Oaxaca: a Message from One of the Actors in Apocalypto Website of the Day La Cancion de la Unidad Video of the Day Killing Castro: Congresswoman as Contract Killer?   December 9 / 10, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Liberal Consensus for More Troops in Iraq Sen. Gordon Smith Out of Iraq: Cut and Run or Cut and Walk Greg Grandin Jeane Kirkpatrick, Mid-Wife of the Neo-Cons Paul Craig Roberts How Many More Will Die for Bush's Ego? Col. Dan Smith The Vietnamization of Iraq: Inside the Military Training Program Ralph Nader The Man from NAM: John Engler's Trail of Destruction Behrooz Ghamari The Donkey and the Date: Iran's Upcoming Municipal Elections Rev. Willliam Alberts Doing Unto Others: Pastor Haggard and President Bush James T. Phillips The James Gang: "Did You Kill Her?" Bennis / Leaver A Bi-Partisan Occupation Dave Lindorff A Congress of Hucksters and Pipsqueaks Nikolas Kozloff Robert Gates and Venezuela: Another Saber Rattler in Latin America Seth Sandronsky Activating White Racism Lucinda Marshall McKinney and Karpinsky: Silenced for Telling the Truth Mike Whitney Something's Gotta Give: James Baker vs. the Lobby John V. Whitbeck Recommendation No. 80 Faisal Kutty Is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Merely a Western Construct? Hugh Sansom Smearing Jimmy Carter: an Open Letter to the New York Times Robert Gold My South American Journey: Impunity in Colombia Boots Riley Crash and Burn: an Urgent Message from The Coup Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Engel & Buknatski Website of the Weekend Alive in Mexico December 8, 2006 Patrick Cockburn The Iraq Study Group's Cautious Appraisal Leutisha Stills Just How Progressive is the Congressional Black Caucus? Norman Finkelstein The Media Lynching of Jimmy Carter Will Youmans Mr. Lieberman Comes to Washington: Brookings Hosts an Ethnic Cleanser Peter Rost, MD What Went Wrong at Pfizer? Jonathan Demme My Friend Bruce Langhorne: a Great Musician Needs Your Help! Ray McGovern Senate Democrats Give Gates a Free Pass Lucinda Marshall What She Wore Tariq Ali / Robin Blackburn The Lost John Lennon Interview Website of the Day John Lennon's FBI Files   December 7, 2006 Alex Friedman Rev. Phelps' Hate-Fueled Fanatics Find a Home in the Kansas Prison Industry Maureen Webb Risk Scoring and the National Insecurity State Paul Craig Roberts Catastrophe Still Awaits Dave Lindorff Prosecutor Admits: Mumia Abu-Jamal Had "No True Defense" Matt Vidal Drug Pushers, Inc.: Power and Profit in the Legal Drug Trade Yifat Susskind Looking for a Few Good Principles: What Should be Done in Iraq Rodriguez / Jones NYPD's Death Squads: From Diallo to Sean Bell Website of the Day 2006, Remixed December 6, 2006 Robert Bryce Omitting the Obvious with James Baker: From the S&L Crisis to the Iraq Study Group William S. Lind The Boomerang Effect: When Will the First IED Strike Cincy? Zoe Blunt The Clearcut Truth About the Great Bear Rainforest Corporate Crime Reporter The New Conventional Wisdom: Prosecute Individuals, Not Corporations Amira Hass A Regrettable Indifference: Israel's Treatment of Palestinian Prisoners Richard W. Behan The Surreal Politics of Premeditated War Sophie McNeill Why Hezbollah is Broadcasting Sunday Mass December 5, 2006 Virginia Tilley Apartheid Israel: a Beacon of Hope? Sharon Smith The New Washington Consensus: Blame the Victims in Iraq Joe Bageant Somewhere a Banker Smiles Ron Jacobs A War Washington Can't Win Norman Solomon Media Consensus, Stay in Iraq! Mike Whitney Rumsfeld's Final Snowflake: "I Was Just About to Change Everything ... " Derrick O'Keefe Regimes Unchanged: Chavez's Victory Strengthen's Cuba Julian Assange The Road to Hanoi Missy Beattie Bush, the Unhappy Helmsman Website of the Day Lessons of Suez and Iraq   December 4, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Gaza and Darfur George Ciccariello-Maher Tears of the Escualidos: Election Diary, Venezuela Ray McGovern Lame Ducks, Hold That Nomination!: a CIA Insider's Take on Gates John Ross Repression on the Menu in Mexico Walden Bello Hurricane Milton: Friedman, Bayonets and Markets Peter Rost, MD Pfizer's Clueless Executives Stephen Lendman The Withering of the Bush Dynasty Gideon Levy This Ceasefire will Go Up in Flames Website of the Day The "Babes" of Hizbullah?   December 2 / 3, 2006 Weekend Edition Barucha Calamity Peller The Dirty War of Oaxaca Paul Craig Roberts Is Bush Sane?: When Denial Goes Pathological Ralph Nader The Big Boys of Financial Crime Winslow T. Wheeler Committee of Enablers: Is Gates Fit to Serve? Are the Senators? Amira Hass The Checkpoint Generation Maymanah Farhat Depoliticizing Arab Art: Christie's and the Rush to "Discover" the Arab World Dave Lindorff Fighting the Iraq War--At Home Fred Gardner Dr. Jimenez Defends His Practice Methods Col. Dan Smith The Semantics of Civil War Raed Jarrar Maliki's Monopoly of Power Seth Sandronsky US Prison Nation: Locking Up Surplus Labor K.-Y. Taylor The Bride Wore Black: the Shooting of Sean Bell and the Resurgence of American Racism Yifat Susskind Greed, Dogma and AIDS David Rosen Made in China: the Global Trade in Sex Toys Ron Jacobs All Hands on Deck!: the New Pirates of the Caribbean Nikolas Kozloff Venezuela Prepares to Vote Talli Nauman Fighting La Choya: the Secret Toxic Dump on the Border Alan Gregory Shadow Trout: Why Hatchery Fish Aren't Real Joe Allen RFK and Hollywood Mythmaking: Emilio Estevez's Beatification of Bobby Kennedy St. Clair / D'Antoni Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Davies, Engel, Ford and Orloski Website of the Day Demo for Oaxaca   December 1, 2006 Greg Grandin Midnight in Mexico: Calderón's Inauguration Behind Closed Doors Linn Washington, Jr. The Mumia Case After 25 Years: Still More Keystone Kops Antics George Ciccariello-Maher Sleeping with the Enemy: At Home with the Anti-Chavistas Brian J. Foley Taking Responsibility for Iraq Dave Zirin Rebel Athletes: Organizing the Jocks for Justice Joshua Frank The Montana Formula: Jon Tester's Neopopulism Chris Floyd Hideous Kinky: Thomas Friedman Comes Undone Ingmar Lee Atomic Porker Strikes Indian Point Nuke Plant Manuel Garcia, Jr. Dark Fire: the Fall of WTC 7 Website of the Day No Gun Ri Revisited Video of the Day Drunken Hack Goes Ape at Aussie "Pulitzers" November 30, 2006 Jonathan Cook Palestinians Are Being Denied the Right of Non-Violent Resistance Tariq Ali Axis of Hope: Venezuela and the Bolivarian Dream Winslow T. Wheeler Confirmation Hearings as Kabuki Dance Manuel Garcia, Jr Heat and Steel: the Thermodynamics of 9/11 William S. Lind More Troops Into a Lost War? Ray McGovern Gates is Rumsfeld Lite Fidel Castro "It is Our Duty to Save Our Species" Agustin Velloso Equatorial Guinea: So Close to the West, So Far From Democracy CP News Service The Arrest of Gerardo Bonilla: Muralist Among Oaxaca's Disappeared Website of the Day The Life and Times of H-Bomb Ferguson November 29, 2006 Glen Ford Barack Obama and the Winds of War Chris Sands Blood, Snow and NATO: the Latvian Summit Viewed from Afghanistan Rochelle Gause Dispatch from Oaxaca: Where Murderers Still Stalk the Streets, Protected by Police Manuel Garcia, Jr. The Physics of 9/11 Norman Finkelstein HRW's Shameful Press Release on Palestine Peter Rost, MD Pfizer's Shell Game: the Contraction Begins Gary Leupp CIA Report: No Evidence of Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program Joe DeRaymond From Norman Morrison to Malachai Ritscher: Self-Immolation as Anti-War Protest Christopher Fons Prostituting Democracy: History, Latvia and Bush's Night on the Town in Riga Sibel Edmonds Auctioning Off Former Statesmen and Dime-a-Dozen Generals Website of the Day Bombing a Mosque   November 28, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Iraq Nears the "Saigon Moment" Winslow T. Wheeler SASC-ing Robert Gates Michael Ratner The War Crimes Case Against Rumsfeld: a Q&A John Ross The War on Rebel Journalists Molly Secours Racism Kills: From Michael Richards to the NYPD Peter Rost, MD Big Pharma and "the Pill": Profits, Branding and Experimentation on Women Lucinda Marshall War Chic Website of the Day "Action" in Iraq   November 27, 2006 Kathleen and Bill Christison Genocide or Erasure of Palestinians: Does It Matter What You Call It? Uri Avnery An Evening in Jounieh Nikolas Kozloff The Rise of Rafael Correa: Ecuador and the Contradictions of Chavismo Michael Donnelly Freedom Air: Keeping the Skies Safe from Nipples and Muslims Ben Terrall / John Miller Bush's Big Indonesian Photo-Op Robert Jensen Digging In and Digging Deep Sol Littman Missing Canada's Health Care System in Tucson Website of the Day State Minimum Wages: a Policy That Works   November 25 / 26, 2006 Gabriel Kolko Factors in Our Colossal Mess Saul Landau Republic of the Repressed William Blum New Congress, Same Quagmire Ralph Nader The Trouble with the Bubble Fred Gardner The War on Us: Another 1.9 Million Victims Daniel Wolff Return to District 8, New Orleans M. Shahid Alam Pitting the West Against Islam James J. Brittain Censorship in Colombia: the Arrest of Freddie Muñoz George Ciccariello-Maher Contingency and Counter-Contingency in Venezuela Aseem Shrivastava India on 20 Cents a Day Seth Sandronsky The Washington Post's War on Social Security Julian Assange The Curious Origins of Political Hacktivism Christopher Brauchli The Rout and the Honeymoon: In and Out of Bed with Bush Michele Naar-Obed A Letter to the Judge Who Sentenced My Husband to Federal Prison for Protesting Nuclear Weapons Ramzy Baroud Reclaiming America Christiane Passevant / Larry Portis Women in the Israeli Army: Two New Films Adam Engel Striving of His Day-Days: a Prose Poem Jeffrey St. Clair / David Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Davies, Gibbons, Louise, Buknatski, Orloski Website of the Weekend The Black Agenda   November 24, 2006 Charles Glass How to Let Lebanon Live Gideon Levy A Prayer in Paradise Jonathan Cook Syria as Fallguy Ron Jacobs Build a Fire on Main Street: Stop the War, Now! Brian McKenna Native Resurgence Spurs Hope: Giving Thanks to America's Indians Kim Ives The UN Fails Haiti, Again   November 23, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Democrats and the Slaughterhouse November 22, 2006 Kathleen Christison The Massacre at Beit Hanoun Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Lone Victory: Defeating the Bill of Rights Mike Roselle Green Muscle on Election Day: Now is the Time for Boldness Dave Lindorff The First Task of the New Congress Greg Moses Up From Chiapas: Giving Thanks to Women's Revolution Dave Zirin Born Under Punches: the Pimping of Mike Tyson Nadia Martinez Dealing with Ortega Sherwood Ross Why the World Needs Trade Unions Now More Than Ever David Kalbfeisch I Am A Navy Veteran Against Wars Gilad Atzmon Palestinian Solidarity in a Time of Massacres Website of the Day Sorry, Charlie: No Draft   November 21, 2006 Robert Bryce The Ongoing Myth of Energy Independence John V. Walsh Spoilers of the World Unite! Luis Hernandez Navarro Lessons from the Teachers of Oaxaca Kevin Zeese An Interview with Michael Isikoff on Iraq Peter Rost, MD Rules of the Game: How Big Corporations Avoid Paying Their Taxes Evelyn Pringle Drug Your Fetus: How Big Pharma Hits on Pregnant Women Roger Morris Reason in an Age of Folly (and Felony) Don Monkerud Here Come the Democrats ... So? Website of the Day The Grind   November 20, 2006 David H. Price American Anthropologists Stand Up Against Torture and the Occupation of Iraq Col. Dan Smith Usurpation of Power Katherine Hughes Compassion on Trial in War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Dave Himmelstein Ziodammerung: Netanyahu and the End Times Robert Jensen Opportunities Lost Joe Mowrey America's Progressive Nightmare: Here Come the Armani Democrats Mike Whitney Housing Bubble Smack Down: Alan Greenspan, Homewrecker Carl N. McDaniel Living Within Limits Robert Fisk Shia Walk Ramzy Baroud Killing Hope in Beit Hanoun Website of the Day Iraq: the Hidden Story   November 18 / 19, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn Top Dems to Voters: "Shut Up! We've Got a War to Run!" Ralph Nader The Hole in Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Lost the Senate Barucha Calamity Peller Who Will Live on in the Oaxaca Uprising? John Ross Halliburton Wrecks Mexico Dave Lindorff The Albatross: Why the Democrats Should Cut Loose Joe Lieberman Fred Gardner The Adverse Effects of Marijuana: California Medical Survey Ron Jacobs Back in the Aether Again: Thomas Pynchon's Stunning Return Larry Portis The Songs of Basilio Martin Patino: Father of the New Spanish Cinema Frida Berrigan The Weapons Bonanza: a Perfect Storm of Profit Wes Enzinna Ghosts of Dictatorships Past: the School of the America's and Memory in Latin America Elizabeth Schulte The Fall of Donald Rumsfeld: Architect of a Disaster Peter Rost, MD The Credit Card Trap Martha Rosenberg We're Drinking What? Milk, rBST and Monsanto's Rats Seth Sandronsky University Unity: California's Professors and Students Unite Missy Beattie Explore This! Adam Engel Data Days Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Newberry and Curtis Website of the Weekend A Modest Proposal for the Art World   November 17, 2006 Greg Grandin The Road from Serfdom: Milton Friedman and the Economics of Empire Joseph Massad Pinochet in Palestine: Fateh's Unholy Alliance Kevin Zeese George McGovern's Return to Capitol Hill: "A Down-to-Earth Disengagement Plan" Gideon Levy After the Rain of Death Bill Quigley WMDs Protected!: Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison David Swanson Last Chance for the Democrats?: a Tale of Two Conyers Sherry Wolf Gay Rights: When Will the US Catch Up with Africa? Jerry Beisler What James Webb Knows Website of the Day Thanks for the False Memories!   November 16, 2006 Kathy Kelly Sources of Violence Col. Douglas MacGregor Was It Only Rumsfeld? Norman Solomon Operation Last Resort: the Media Offensive to Prolong the Iraq War Nikki Thanos From Oaxaca to Portland Cindy Sheehan Impeachment Proceedings Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Jimmy Carter and the "A" Word: Will the Democrats Listen to Carter on Palestine? Gloria La Riva Where is the Justice? Anti-Castro Terrorist Gets Only 4 Years Pat Williams How the Democrats Won the West Kerry Joyce From Rummy to Rahmmy: Bob Novak's New Source CP News Service Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Non-Organic Food as "Organic" David Letterman Top 10 Slogans for Wal-Mart Wine James Ridgeway Did Robert Gates' Planning Help Bring Black Hawk Down? Website of the Day A Conversation with West Point Grads Against the War   November 15, 2006 Jennifer Loewenstein Alice in Erez: the Gaza Crossing David Rosen Rev. Ted Haggard and the Eclipse of Evangelical Fury Ashley Smith A Socialist in the Senate? Landau / Hassen Talking Tough on Iraq Isn't Courageous Walden Bello Iraq After November 7: New Challenges for the AntiWar Movement Sibel Edmonds The Highjacking of a Nation Austin / Bernstein Why Bill Cosby is Wrong to Link Black Culture to Economic Decline Yitzhak Laor This Merchandise, Security James Rothenberg Unimpeachable: a Brief Argument Why Gail Dines "Borat": It's a Guy Thing Website of the Day Kakistocracy November 14, 2006 Werther Beltway Bromo-Seltzer: a Sneak Peak at the Baker Report Ray McGovern Benching Scowcroft John Walsh Korea, Vietnam and Iraq Syndrome: Alive, Well and Gaining Strength David MacMichael Gates to the Pentagon William S. Lind Lose a War, Lose an Election Sharon Smith Democrats, Born to Compromise Laura Carlsen Oaxaca Fights Back Ron Jacobs The Perishing Republic Peter Rost, MD Whistleblowers: Who Are They? Carol Norris Post-Campaign Ad Stress Disorder? Website of the Day A Map of the US Nuclear Arsenal     November 13, 2006 Kathleen and Bill Christison Screw the Palestinians, Full Steam Ahead Bill Quigley Robin Hood in Reverse: the Corporate Looting of the Gulf Coast Paul Craig Roberts The Democrats and Civil Liberties: Will They Turn a Blind Eye? Uri Avnery Call It What It Is: a Massacre! Joe DeRaymond The Strange Return of Daniel Ortega Norman Finkelstein Jimmy Carter's Roadmap Col. Dan Smith The Pentagon's Revolving Gates: Out with the Old, In with the Old Shepherd Bliss After the Party Dave Lindorff What Vote-Theft Conspiracy? Missy Beattie For Better / For Worse: Will Laura Stay the Course? Trenticosta / Fleming Vindication for the Angola 3       Subscribe Online

December 28, 2006 The Story of a Oaxacan Movement Prisoner I'm Going to Stay Right Here By HILARIA CRUZ Introductory Note: On December 11, 2006, CounterPunch published a letter from Bernardo Ruiz, an actor whose latest role is that of Four Drunkards in the film Apocalypto. The letter was a request for people to contact Mexiacan government representatives and urge them to free those arrested and disappeared in the wake of the months long protests in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. Ruiz's particular interests in the letter were the artists Gerardo Bonilla and Dionisio Martinez, although he of course shares the concern of all those interested in justice that all those arrested and disappeared be released. Hilaria recently visited Oaxaca for reasons having nothing directly to do with the popular struggles. She asked me if I had any questions for her to ask people she might know in the movement there. I sent her some questions, which she asked (along with some questions of her own) Dionisio Martinez on December 23, 2006. Joy Turlo translated the exchange into English. I received the translation December 27 accompanied by a short email from Hilaria, which read in part, "The situation here is still dificult, but both Dionisio and Gerardo would like to express their thanks for all of your support. They would also like to emphasize the fact that although they have been released there are still many innocent people who continue to be incarcerated and are awaiting release." --Ron Jacobs The Interview Dionisio had gone to the demonstration in Oaxaca on the 25th of November. After the demonstration he and his friend Juan de Dios went to get something to eat, during which time confrontations started up between demonstrators and the Federal Preventive Police (PFP). Upon leaving the restaurant, they headed toward the downtown area, which had become filled with tear gas and smoke. When they saw a woman and her children overcome by tear gas, Dionisio stopped to help, while Juan de Dios photographed the situation around them, and that was when the two men were arrested. Hilaria: Today is Saturday, December 23, 2006 We are here with Dionisio Martinez who was one of the 149 people who were taken away by the Federal Preventive Police [PFP] on the 25th of November in Oaxaca's central district and transferred to the maximum security prison Cerefeso in the state of Nayarit. Dionisio was released on Sunday, December 15, 2006. Hilaria: Please give us your personal information, if you wish. Okay, my name is Dionisio Martinez Luis. I'm 42 years old. I'm married and I have a 7-year-old son. Hilaria: What were the circumstances of your arrest? I was arrested the 25th of November between six-thirty and seven o'clock at night in the garden called Pañuelito which is located beside the church of Santo Domingo de Guzman in the historic center of the city of Oaxaca. When they arrested me I was walking with an artist friend named Juan de Dios Gomez Ramirez, whom they also arrested and who was released as I was. When they arrested us they forced us onto the ground and they started to beat us brutally with toletes, a long, thick club that members of the PFP carry. They hit us in the head and all parts of the body, and in fact they broke one of my ribs, which is still healing. Women and men were savagely beaten. At that time, when we were thrown to the ground to prevent anyone from putting up resistance, behind the PFP there were units with assault rifles, firing shots in the air and of course no one could put up any resistance. Hilaria: What happened after you were thrown down in the Pañuelito garden? Well, after they beat us they took us to the zócalo to the side of the cathedral and there they gathered us with our hands tied behind us, lying face down. There we told them our names, where we lived, and there they started to insult us, and off and on they would beat us. After that they sent us to some trucks, which appeared to be white. I went in one of these trucks with ten compañeros. We were piled in face down with our hands tied behind us. When we got into the truck they checked us completely and they took away my wallet in which I had four hundred pesos. They also took my cell phone, my watch, and everything, absolutely everything, right down to the loose change I was carrying. They did this to everyone they arrested. They stated cutting the hair of those who had long hair, using a knife, and in that truck we were transferred to what we later found out was the prison of Tlacolula. Hilaria: Did they continue torturing everyone on the way to the prison of Tlacolula? In the truck approximately 10 military watched us. They would put their boot in our faces and on all parts of the body. They continued insulting us. One of them had a container of gasoline and started to splash us with gasoline with his hand and another had a lighter and they were telling us they were going to set us on fire, and they were telling us: this is it, you're in for it now. The entire trip in the truck they were hitting us in the head and scaring us every so often. Many compañeros were complaining although they tried to be strong. This kind of treatment lasted almost an hour during the entire trip from Oaxaca to Tlacolula. Arriving at Tlacolula they dragged us and put us in prison cells in a bunch. Later we found out that it was the women's prison of Tlacolula. In that place they similarly continued insulting us and there were compañeros who had wounds all over their bodies, there were some who were bleeding from the head, the nose, the eyes. They put several compañeros in one cell, they tore my shirt, they tore my pants and they took our shoes, and the cold was terrible there. Early on Monday the 27th of November they gathered us in the patio of the prison to tell us what we were accused of and I was toward the back and couldn't hear very well what I was being accused of, but I think they were mentioning some molotov bombs and fires. Without telling us anything, they handcuffed us and in single file they had us board two buses. In these buses they transferred us to the Oaxaca city airport. Once at the airport, they had us all form three lines and there was a PFP airplane with its engines running. The place was full of PFPs and military dressed in green, watching us, and every so often they would tell us they were going to take us to Islas Marias, a prison in northern Mexico, or to Almoloya, a maximum security prison in Mexico City. For me this was the most terrible moment of all that happened because the day before they were telling us they were going to throw us from an airplane, and when they had us board the airplane I said, well, this is it. At that moment I could only think of my son, my family, my wife and at that moment the fear was terrible, overwhelming. This was one of the most terrible moments I experienced. When we were returning home after they freed us--in the prison they didn't allow us to communicate with each other--I was asking my compañeros which was the most terrible moment for them and I believe that no one agreed with me but I felt that this was the most terrible moment. Well, once we were lined up they asked us for information while cameras were filming us, we boarded the airplane crouching, no one had the right to turn around and look at anyone, and in fact before leaving from where we were lined up we started to cry. While we were lined up I recognized several compañeros, painters and teachers. For example, I recognized Juan de Dios, Gerardo Bonilla, and other teachers that I knew only by sight such as Benito Caballero, and another named Jesus Bolaños, and I know they're called that because they're compañeros of ours. I saw them standing there, the same as me. The other terrible, terrible moment, not only mentally, but physically painful was when the airplane took off, because many of us were seriously injured, For example, they injured my whole back and at that moment my entire body was in pain. And in fact everyone was complaining because we were all badly beaten. Many had lost blood the day before from the head, some were almost fainting. When the plane took off, many started shouting. With us were many indigenous people who couldn't speak Spanish and many had never traveled in an airplane. It was a terrible moment. I also heard women crying openly. The soldiers were yelling at us to shut up and stop complaining. How could we not complain, they had us in a crouching position and weren't even allowed to raise our heads. The trip by airplane lasted 45 minutes to an hour. When we finally arrived at what seemed to be our final destination I thought that it was Mexico City. Upon arriving we got off the plane and onto a bus and I started to sweat from the heat, and I said to myself, "This isn't Mexico City, this is some other place." A day later we learned that we were in the security prison Cerefeso (Federal Center for Social Readaptation of Nayarit). Once we were in that place the PFP delivered us to the prison's federal guards. Then the bad treatment came out again, again the insults; they called us trouble-makers, stone-throwers, APPOs, and they were saying "we'll see what kind of men you are." This was the moment of greatest terror for most of us. Here they received us in a dark room where all that could be seen was a small light in the back. In this room they had us kneel on the floor and suddenly dogs started barking. [Interviewer's note: Here we had to stop the interview for a while because Dionisio broke into tears. It was difficult for him, recalling this moment.] The physical blows they gave us here in Oaxaca. When they detained us they hit us until they tired of it. I'm going to tell you about a guy who gathered his courage and when we were lying on the floor said, "Long live the APPO bastards." And poor guy, they mangled his face; they left his face in pretty bad shape, and "long live APPO" he kept shouting. While he was saying this, against him were not one, but more like eight or ten police. They beat him up terribly. I found out later that they broke several of his bones and left him quite deformed. So I'm going to be honest with you, there they didn't beat us up, but the torture was more psychological. The dogs jumped and barked and tried to bite us in the back, in the legs, while the guards made as if they were releasing them and pulling them back. And it wasn't one dog, but rather a pack of dogs. The only thing that you heard in that dark room was the barking of dogs and more barking of dogs. It was terrible, terrible. I recall that a kid was at my side, a young kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. He started to cry and I told him, "Don't cry, be brave." He was telling me, "I'm not crying from fear, but rather from anger." From anger, he said. But I believe those who suffered more were the older people. There were a lot of people in their seventies, they moved really slowly and with them they got their satisfaction. Also, as I was saying a while ago there were people who didn't speak Spanish very well and couldn't follow the instructions that they gave us when we arrived. For example, they told us that they were going to call us by name and that we had to answer with our name. For example, they called me Martinez Luis and I had to say "Dionisio, sir!" You had to answer them like that without looking them in the face. No one was allowed to look an officer in the face because when we entered that room an official said to us "You know what? You're in a maximum security prison. From here on all of your responses have to be "Yes, sir." And those who understood Spanish did so. Then they had us change clothes, they gave us a uniform, they took pictures of us, and there was also a camera that was filming everything. Afterwards we went to the barber who cut everyone's hair short. In this same place we were assigned prisoner numbers. I was number 714 or rather the number ended in 714. They asked us to record this number because this was our identification number. Afterwards they took our fingerprints and asked us personal questions such as: what were our defects. Then they took fingerprints from every finger and from the palm and gave us one last scan before they took us to the cells where we stayed every day. Hilaria: What was the women's experience? There the men and the women were totally separated and I never had contact with the women there. We knew that the women were there but we never saw each other. I only saw the women on the return bus. I have the impression that they were treated even worse than the men because on the return bus I heard how the officers treated them. For example, the officers let the men move around a little, but not the women. On the bus the female officers were stricter with the women. This is what I observed, but I haven't spoken with any of the women about their experience, only what I have read, that's all.. Hilaria: How did they communicate to you that they were going to release you? At three in the morning on Saturday, December 16, they got everyone up and told us that whose names they called should step to the front. Once our names were called we left the cell in a group and they took us to the court. The man in the court told us that the judge of Tlacolula, Oaxaca had ordered our release, "under caution". And from there they returned us to the cell. We got our things together, which were two uniforms, an air mattress, two sets of sheets, a bar of soap, a toothbrush, and a glass. We wrapped everything in a sheet, and we completed all the official requirements that characterize the prison's internal discipline. And that was how we left. Once we were outside there were already two buses waiting for us. There we were able to see the faces of the many compañeros whom we knew only by voice. Because I only knew the face of Juan de Dios, Gerardo Bonilla, and a few others, but in the bus I could know the faces of those whom I had only known by their voices. Hilaria: Do you believe that the international pressure helped to get you released? Look, I think that everything contributed to our release. The worst fear for me once in Nayarit was that the people had forgotten us. I would say, "And what if the people aren't doing anything? And if the people haven't protested?" Because we were detained in the most critical moment of the movement. We were detained when the movement was in its worst moment. The first news of hope was when some representatives arrived to tell us that all over the world there were demonstrations of solidarity, calling for our release. This news nourished us; it was like a tank of oxygen. With this we knew that in fact in the United States and in many embassies around the world they were fighting for our release. I feel that this pressure influence on those who granted our release. Hilaria: How many of those arrested are still in prison? Look, we were one hundred and forty-something in all, and forty-three of us were released in the first group, and about 16 in the second group. And there is a commitment on the part of the government to liberate the others before the 31st of December. So that's where we are, fighting to carry through with this commitment of liberating all of our compañeros. I visited several families of prisoners who couldn't visit their relatives in Nayarit. For example, I visited a family en Huajuapan de Leon. I went to offer them solidarity and to give them the good news that prisoners were already in Oaxaca. Hilaria: Are you a member of a political organization? Why do you belong to this organization? If you're not associated with a political organization, why not? Look, I've never denied that I belong to a political organization, primarily Section 22, the union of teachers. As a member of this organization I attend all the marches in a peaceful manner. Also, within Section 22 we have a team called Teachers Zapatista. We are very few, but we were doing support work for the Other Campaign (Zapatista campaign-Ron). We also publish a magazine disseminating [information about] the problem of the indigenous people not only in Chiapas and Oaxaca, but in all of Mexico. For that reason when they arrested me I was a little more fearful than the others. But I have never denied my ideals. I believe in the Zapatismo of Emiliano Zapata. As an artist I have donated my work to EZLN, to the Red Cross, and for everything that supports the common good. I have donated work; to many people it's clear. Hilaria: I understand that besides your militancy with the union and your donations of art, you also work with children. What is it that you do with children? In school I give painting classes to the children and when possible I give open classes in the visual arts to the general public. Hilaria: What has been happening in Oaxaca since November 25 and 26? Oaxaca is living what I read was happening in other countries, as in Chile in the 70s, in Mexico in 68, but I never thought the state of Oaxaca would be militarized. You go to the historic center and it's full of police. They search the backpacks of young people. Just yesterday in the Plaza del Valle, a commercial center on University Avenue on the south side of the city, they were searching bags and backpacks of every citizen circulating in that direction. It's terrible how the people are afraid to go out into the streets. A criminologist and a psychologist asked me in Nayarit if it was worth it to be arrested in the struggle for what I believe in, and I answered that the people had learned many things in the movement and that the people are not going to leave it. I believe that the great education given by those who go to the streets to protest in a peaceful manner is that people now are not going to leave, and that what we do we carry out for all the people. And I believe that it is worthwhile. It's sad and lamentable that in Oaxaca the way that one person governs, who is said to be representative of the people, does so by means of force, by means of imprisonment, by means of incursion and by means of breaking into and searching the homes of citizens who protest peacefully in the streets. In the course of the first week of our arrest the terror that Oaxacans experienced was terrible. The PFP went to the houses and searched them. The PFP entered the schools and took away the teachers. In fact, we filled all the jails of Mihuatlan de Etla and of Tlacolula. For that reason many of us were sent to prisons in other states. Hilaria: Do you think that the government of Calderon will respond more to the demands of APPO? The person in charge of internal policy of the country is Ramirez Acuña. He's the ex-governor of Jalisco. Being governor of Jalisco included prohibiting young girls from wearing miniskirts, among other things. The one in charge of that policy is the now Secretary of Government. Or that the reading be precise: I believe that this government comes iron-fisted and is not going to allow more demonstrations like those that have been done in Oaxaca. In fact, he already said so. What hurts me the most is that among the imprisoned compañeros are innocent people, young people from the best men and women of Oaxaca, those who have struggled for a just society, they are inside. Well, in those prisons are senior citizens, campesinos, young people, they're in there. And from the way it looks, Secretary of Government is not getting involved, and in the same way it's lamentable that this rigidity is governing our country. To be honest with you, I don't see any possibility of reaching an agreement with the Secretary of Government, based on the history of Ramirez Acuña. There are still prisoners in Jalisco among the youth who demonstrated against world capitalist policy. These young people are still prisoners, they haven't gotten out. The message that we have in Oaxaca is exactly the strong hand, but I trust in the force of the movement, not only of Section 22 but of all the people of Oaxaca, that those unjustly imprisoned will be liberated. Hilaria: In your personal case, do you intend to keep politically active in spite of all the torture that you suffered? Look, I'm primarily grateful to my family for all their support. Yesterday when there was a march, my sister said to me, "Look, for your own good, don't go to the march. Your release is under caution, which is to say that in fact you are still not completely free." My judicial case is still in process. And they can still grab me at any moment, so personally, I'm taking care. Now I'm writing a few things that happened to me, but that's it. I'm doing it also for my family because those who suffered most when they arrested me straight away were my son, my wife, my mom, my dad, and my siblings. All of them cried when they heard we were beaten up and kept incommunicado for more than ten days. So it's because of all this that right now I'm waiting to see what happens. Hilaria: How has your family been affected by events happening in Oaxaca and by your capture and incarceration? Look, at home in fact they suffered quite a bit when I was detained. One thinks that detention is something that will never happen at your house. In Oaxaca day by day there have been arrests since the month of June, July, August, September, and October of 2006. These detentions at times were huge, and at times selective, but you think that this will never affect you. My family first found out about my situation because I was on the list of those who had disappeared. No one knew anything of me. In fact everything that I had, the paintings, the magazines, or the photographs in which I appear, they hid. In fact my family was planning to live in another house because houses of the detained compañeros were being illegally searched. My mom got a hold of herself and said, "If I didn't do anything why should I have to flee? I'm going to stay right here." And my wife did the same thing. And that was how my family gathered their courage and decided to stay there where we have always lived. Hilaria: How do you see the future of APPO and of the movement? Is it expected that the people will stay united and will be able to demonstrate openly to demand better government without having to do so clandestinely? This is a matter to which I have always given a lot of thought. We have a lot of work to do in the marginalized communities. The people of the barrios, housewives, artists, thinkers, and academics of the city are with the movement, but if you look at the communities distant from the city there are still people who are humble, people who don't know how to read and who believe in the government in a mechanical way, who believe in Ulises Ruiz. We have to commit ourselves to improving the profile, which the people must demand of its government. Currently, I believe, we are going through a stage of terrible crisis in the movement and we have to recognize this. The people don't want to go out and protest because they'll be incarcerated, because they'll be killed, and this attitude of Oaxacan society is understandable. The people are afraid to go out in the streets because it is militarized and because a few PRI party members point them out, saying, "That one marched, that one created barricades." Well, of course the people are afraid, however I strongly believe that we have to convince the humble people and continue convincing ourselves that it's possible to achieve a better world, and it's not crazy to think that a citizen candidate who is elected through the voting process can be on our side. In this way we can have a governor and representatives who legislate laws that benefit the people. I don't believe it's crazy to think this way. My desire is that in the coming months and years we have independent candidates with conviction and commitment to the ideals of the people, so that they create laws that benefit the people. This we have to discuss, although it has never been tried in Oaxaca. On this point, a lot of people don't believe this can happen, and others say yes. In a personal way I believe very much that this movement has to overcome many things and that in the end we will come out triumphant. Hilaria: What has been the support of civil society at the national level and the international level toward the movement of the Oaxacan people? There are several popular assemblies in support of Oaxaca in Mexico City, in Michoacan, in Guerrero, and now, for example, it gives me much pleasure to read that in Barcelona, in Italy, in Paris, and in many parts of the world they are calling for the release of Oaxacan political prisoners and the exit of Ulises Ruiz. These acts of solidarity nourish us, give us the will to not give in and to move ahead. Hilaria: Do you feel that the people of Oaxaca have been influenced by political situations that have occurred in Mexico or in other parts of the world? Look, the project of capitalism and its expansion around the world has always had a response from the people and not just here in Oaxaca, but also in Bolivia, in Venezuela, and including in the United States, there is civil resistance against this project. Only in Oaxaca have the problems gotten worse. In Oaxaca we are looking for the mechanism for linking all of these struggles for the benefit of everyone Hilaria: How can the people of the United States and Canada support this movement in Oaxaca? Look, from what I've read, although for a long time I had no access to information there inside the prison, is that in the Mexican embassies there are demonstrations, that there are letters of solidarity with the Oaxacan people, that even the migrants there have done what they have to do to support their people. They have gone to to the embassies to demand that individual guarantees for all Oaxacans be respected, and also to ask for the release of the prisoners. For us, if these appeals from Canada and from all over the United States had not come--these acts of solidarity encouraged us quite a bit. Hilaria: Do you have another comment to make? I would like to report the case of a compañero. I don't know his name; we were on the same corridor. I was in cell twenty-nine and I believe he was in cell thirty-something. This compañero spoke Spanish quite poorly and his work is selling razors for shaving the beard. The way he ended up at Nayarit was that he was invited to come to the march and he accepted the invitation and later he had no way to return home and decided to go back to the sit-in and that's where he was when they took him. They treated him very badly because he didn't speak Spanish. For example, they would call him by his surname, "Perez Sanchez" and he was supposed to answer "Pedro, sir", but every time they shouted his name he said "I'm called Pedro" to which the officers would respond, I'm telling you that . . but he never caught on, the poor guy. He also had, I believe, some facial paralysis as a consequence of the arrest. He injured his foot as well. No one went to see him in Nayarit. When I was released I went with my son to visit his family. I brought them the news that the prisoners were now in Tlacolula and I offered them some economic help. Now, if you'll allow me to, I'd like to tell you some other stories. I had for compañeros in my cell an 18-year-old kid named Uriel, and the other was Ignacio Legaria. Uriel's father was in the cell beside ours. Every morning he would say, "Good morning, Dad" His dad would say to him "Good morning, son. Eat your vegetables." "Yes, Dad, you too," Uriel, my prison mate would answer. Well, the father was taking something like 15 pills for diabetes. His foot was swollen, his kidneys were bad. I don't know how many ailments this man had. We never saw each other until one day we went out to the dining area so that a psychologist could see our high danger profile, I imagine. In the dining room they asked us to draw a man or a woman or a tree, etcetera. Uriel hadn't found a place to sit yet, so he remained standing. And there he saw his dad and he dared to tell an officer, "Let me see my dad". "Who is your dad?" the officer asked him. "He's the man over there," Uriel said, pointing out his dad. The kid, after ten days of not seeing his dad other than to talk across cells, went and tapped him on the shoulder and said to him, "Dad" and then the man stopped and they embraced and cried. The mother didn't know they were both in Nayarit. They were kept totally incommunicado. Scenes like this were repeated daily. Hilaria: Would you be able to recall other names of those still in prison? I recall one called Angel. We only know each other by voice, I never saw his face because that prison is quite special; they don't let you go out to the patio and every time that you have to leave or enter the cell, you have to do so in seven movements. First you have to lift up everything and then lower your pants, lower the underwear and then put everything back on and you had to do it without looking around. We know each other by name--Edgar Valdivia, Jaime Legaria, Jose Luis Oropeza. Luis was the most encouraging. He told us, "Take heart, we're going to get out of here.". Because in the prison everyone cried, suddenly one would start crying, and then you'd hear crying over here and crying over there. Jose Luis Oropeza, who is from Huajuapan--I didn't see his face, but from his voice I would estimate he was thirty-something years old--always gave us a lot of encouragement. He's still in prison. Translated from the Spanish by Joy Turlo. Hilaria Cruz was born and raised in the Oaxacan highlands. She.is a NSF Linguistics Fellow at the University of Texas and is currently working on the Chatino language documentation project.