Dozens of workers have been trapped in their office at a Mexican newspaper for almost two weeks in what international rights groups say is a siege by state politicians trying to silence the independent daily.
The 31 workers have continued to publish from inside the offices of Noticias, the largest circulation daily newspaper in the state of Oaxaca, sending material via Internet to secret locations to be printed and distributed.
They say they have been held hostage since their offices in the state capital were surrounded before dawn on June 17 by members of a local union who called a strike they said was to support a demand by newspaper workers for a 25 percent raise.
“We don’t have food, two colleagues are ill with stomach ailments and another is diabetic,” editor Ismael San Martin said from his cell phone inside Noticias on Wednesday.
“The union members (outside) get drunk at night and threaten us over loudspeakers,” he said. “They bang the door and windows and say they will burn down the building.”
Strike a cover for government?
Employees and rights groups say the strike is a sham engineered by Gov. Ulises Ruiz as part of a long campaign to shut down Noticias for its criticism of corruption and cronyism in state government.
“They want to close the newspaper on the governor’s orders. We can bear this because we know we have right on our side,” assistant editor Genaro Altamirano said by telephone.
A spokesman for the governor declined to comment to Reuters on the standoff. Ruiz has said publicly that publications such as Noticias pander to special interests and should be closed.
None of the newspaper’s 102 unionized workers support the strike, organized by the CROC union headed by a lawmaker from Oaxaca’s ruling PRI party, Altamirano said.
Reporters Without Borders said this week the journalists were being “held hostage by local authority henchmen.” The international press-rights group, along with Amnesty International, called on the federal government to intervene, saying they feared for workers’ safety.
Canned food and threats
Local police, some in civilian clothes, are among those blocking off surrounding streets, where entire families have been camped for more than a week.
The workers, ranging from reporters to distributors, have been living on canned food stored at the office and filtered tap water.
Rights workers also say police were involved in attacking a truck carrying copies of the newspaper for distribution, and local vendors say they have been threatened.
Competing Oaxaca newspapers have been largely silent about the controversy. Altamirano said that unlike its competitors, Noticias accepts no government advertising.
The PRI ruled Mexico for 71 years until President Vicente Fox ousted the party in the 2000 election. It continues to control swaths of countryside, where rights activists say PRI leaders still use authoritarian and corrupt tactics to maintain power and silence opponents.
