Two Mexican reporters who survived a deadly ambush on an international aid caravan in Oaxaca were located alive last night and are receiving medical treatment. David Cilia and Érika Ramírez from Contralinea magazine were the last missing members of the caravan to be accounted for alive.
They had run into a canyon and hid with Oaxacan activists David Venegas and Noe Bautista. The two activists emerged Thursday afternoon with videotaped evidence that the reporters had not been killed in the hail of bullets that riddled both sides of their car.
An official search and rescue operation found the reporters not far from the crime scene. Both reporters are receiving treatment for dehydration. David Cilia also has two gunshot wounds.
Human rights organizations and pro-autonomy activists are marching this afternoon in Oaxaca City to call world attention to the situation in San Juan Copala, the town where the aid caravan was headed.
The indigenous town has been harassed by paramilitary forces since it declared autonomy more than 3 years ago. More recently the paramilitaries sealed the town off completely, blockading the only access road and severing communication and electrical lines. Paramilitaries who briefly held caravan survivors hostage expressed they were ready to move into the town and take it over with violence.