Mexico: Terror returns to Oaxaca

A violent incident in which two activists were killed in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has raised fears among human rights groups of a return to the unrest and severe clashes between protesters and police that virtually paralysed the state in 2006. On Thursday, two more survivors of Tuesday's attack by a paramilitary group on an international humanitarian convoy emerged, and said two missing reporters were alive. The 25-person convoy, which was taking food and supplies to the "autonomous" Triqui indigenous community of San Juan Copala, 600 km southeast of Mexico capital, included several foreign activists. Two people were killed in the attack: Beatriz Alberta Cariño, the director of the local non-governmental Centre for Community Support Working Together (CACTUS) and Jyri Jaakkola, a human rights observer from Finland. Both were shot in the head. In addition, at least two people were injured. Missing activists David Venegas and Noé Bautista made it to the city of Juxtlahuaca Thursday and reported that two journalists for the Mexican magazine Contralínea, Érika Ramírez and David Cilia, were alive, although the latter had been shot in the foot. Contralínea is highly critical of the federal government and the Oaxaca state governmented headed by Governor Ulises Ruiz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).