“Victoria” Chapter
The anarchist Indigenous Popular Council of Oaxaca “Ricardo Flores Magón” (CIPO‑RFM), along with other Indigenous, social, and political organizations have launched a protest demanding the safe return of agricultural engineer Roxana López Martínez, a young Indigenous Triqui woman from San Martín Itunyoso, who was disappeared by her ex-partner on February 20th. The action has ignited a wave of mobilizations in Oaxaca City, and her family, supported by CIPO‑RFM, are railing against corruption and deliberate delays in the investigation. The main suspect, Roxana’s ex‑partner Dagoberto López Díaz, fled with the protection of his uncle, the former municipal president Vilgaid López Guadalupe.
Bernardo Alamilla, the state prosecutor, has sent personnel to intimidate Roxana’s family and other Indigenous women outside the offices of the State Executive Commission for Comprehensive Attention to Victims (CEEAV or Comisión Ejecutiva Estatal de Atención Integral a Víctimas) in the Reforma neighborhood. Led by Eduardo Vila, CEEAV has failed to provide support to Roxana’s family, who are in a state of incredible emotional distress.
CIPO’s Magonista womens’ collectives and mothers’ groups held workshops and meetings to strengthen organizing efforts. A protest camp has been established at the doors of the Government Palace, now reoccupied as “the people’s house”, where they intend to wait for Governor Salomón Jara and confront him directly with their demands. Protesters have occupied the Zócalo main square of Oaxaca, unfurling banners and chanting in front of the Government Palace, in a sit‑in.
CIPO calls on state prosecutor Bernardo Alamilla to:
intervene immediately
ensure that aid for victims is not denied or conditional
prevent the Search Commission from acting without community input and collaboration
compel the prosecutor’s office to investigate all femicide cases equally rather than deploying intelligence resources selectively.
CIPO holds Bernardo responsible for anything that may happen to their members. CIPO and allied groups including UNDECI, FACMAC, and members of the Unification and Independent Triqui Struggle Movement (MULTI) stand together to pressure the Oaxaca Attorney General’s Office and the State Search Commission into conducting a proper investigation into Roxana’s disappearance. The corrupt regional prosecutor’s office in Tlaxiaco has been negligent from the moment Roxana’s family filed the initial complaint, including the judge procrastinating to authorize searches and an arrest warrant, which gave Dagoberto ample time to escape.
Oaxaca City has once again become an site of active, ongoing resistance. Triqui women are holding the line at the front, denouncing the ongoing violence and harassment faced by Indigenous communities. We feel the echoes of colonial violence and Indigenous resistance in “Victoria” as a site of legislative violence that instigated “red zoning” to drive the Lekwungen peoples off traditional, unceded harvesting territories. Triqui efforts to challenge the oppressive power structures’ injustices run parallel on these lands, not just as an expression of verbal solidarity but as a contribution to the collective effort towards the libertarian socialist horizon that will do away with the economic frameworks that allow and reproduce these forms of violence. When Indigenous Youth reclaimed the “BC” Legislature in 2020 by occupying colonial space, they enacted a contested site to assert decolonization in an act of solidarity with their other Indigenous comrades, the Wet’suwet’en. This act reverberated across the province, and across Indigenous struggles more broadly in “Canada.”
Our struggles, though physically distanced, are connected.
Comrades in Oaxaca have in turn responded to the corrupt settler state in escalation: by taking over the offices of the State Attorney General, blocking access and demanding transparency in the investigation of Roxana’s disappearance. The state is well equipped with resources, currently withheld, to locate Roxana. CIPO members have repeatedly attempted dialogue with the prosecutor’s office, but “there is no answer, nothing”: officials have refused to come out to speak with them.
Colonialism means war on Indigenous people, affecting Indigenous communities from the Mixteca and Triqui regions to the Wet’suwet’en, Lekwungen, and at every other site of global colonial occupation. Indigenous women bare the worst of it. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People are results of this everyday violence. The Indigenous Magonistas and their comrades will not retreat until the government provides clear answers about Roxana’s whereabouts. CIPO and their allies demand the government takes action to ensure those responsible for her disappearance are held accountable, and femicides in the territories are stopped.
“¡Viva se la llevaron, Viva la queremos!”
“They took her alive, we want her back alive!”
CIPO‑RFM is currently sharing information during this quickly-evolving situation, constantly providing live updates on their platforms:
Instagram @ciporfm97
Facebook @cipo.rfm