DESAPARECIDOS!

Six people are missing, including two Mexican journalists, after a paramilitary ambush on Tuesday, April 27th attacked a caravan carrying food and other aid to a remote village in the state of Oaxaca. The above photograph from an article in The Hindu shows the bullet-riddled car which carried the two journalists, Erika Ramirez and David Cilia. According to a post yesterday by Kristin Bricker, all six of the activists and journalists are safe and have found refuge in the nearby town of Juxtlahuaca.

Paramilitaries continued to blockade San Juan de Copala until Sunday, May 2nd. Articles in mainstream media indicate that all members of the caravan have now been rescued although some injuries are also reported. Hitherto, the only news consisted of victim accounts compiled by Kristin Bricker. By all accounts, at least two activists died during Thursday's raid on the caravan. One of the dead activists, Betty Carino, is remembered by Keegan Smith in a moving post featured both on his own blog at Z Communications and on Bricker's My Word is My Weapon. The other victim of the paramilitary ambush, Jyri Jaakkola, was an observer from Finland. His thoughts on the trip which he was planning to Oaxaca have been captured in a video posted today to YouTube.