A citizens’ organization in a coastal community in Oaxaca detained four officials from the National Electoral Institute (INE) for nine hours yesterday in the most recent episode of a long protest over local elections.
The officials were visiting San Dionisio del Mar to appoint several local electoral officials and train them in their tasks, which didn’t sit well with members of the Peoples’ Assembly of San Dionisio del Mar.
Elections in the indigenous Ikojts municipality were scheduled for December 9 after that organization prevented the completion of the electoral process on July 1, part of an ongoing social and political dispute it has with municipal authorities.
On a list of demands presented to the state government is a request for compensation for damages and for justice in an incident last March in which five of its members were allegedly victims of an armed attack.
The assembly claims that Mayor Teresita de Jesús Luis Ojeda was responsible.
It has warned that as long as there is no justice it will not allow elections to take place.
The Peoples’ Assembly of San Dionisio del Mar was created in 2012 by a group of residents dedicated to protect the Ikojts land and opposed to the installation of a wind farm in their municipality.
Source: La Jornada (sp)
