http://www.narconews.com/Issue45/article2615.html Supermodels 1, Ulises Ruiz 0: Miss Universe Cancels Oaxaca Events of 2007 Pageant Ruiz Dishonestly Blames Donald Trump as Models Move on Mexican Consulates in New York and Elsewhere with the Demand: "Federal Police Out of Oaxaca!"
By Cha-Cha Connor Spokesmodel, Popular Assembly of Models for Oaxaca (APMO) March 29, 2007 The international models movement Supermodels for Oaxaca (APMO, in Spanish) claims its first victory today, with the cancellation by the Miss Universe pageant of its scheduled competition in the Mexican state of Oaxaca that had been announced for May. The true credit for this victory goes to the heroic peoples of Oaxaca and their Popular Assembly (known as APPO, in its Spanish initials), which has continued to demand the removal of the fraudulent and illegitimate dictatorship of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Today, pageant owners Donald Trump and NBC pulled the Miss Universe Contest out of the ancient indigenous site of Monte Alban, Oaxaca, just three weeks after the APMO announced that models were mobilizing to protest in solidarity with the social movements of Oaxaca. With the pullout of Miss Universe from Oaxaca, models have preserved our dignity as workers and as agents for peace, justice, and democracy, and as workers we will continue stand in solidarity with the peoples of Oaxaca against the dictatorship. The last time the Mexican government attempted to impose a major international spectacle on a people during a time of public repudiation of the regime, prior to the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, protests were met by brutal police repression, causing the massacre of Tlatelolco Plaza on October 2, 1968 where more than 1,000 protesters were assassinated and many more wounded and imprisoned. A similar bloodbath was waiting in the wings with the traditional costumes contest of Miss Universe, but models have stood up and declared that we will have no part in repression. The dangers that the repressive dictatorship of the Ulises Ruiz government poses for the movements of Oaxaca, including the Popular Assembly of Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), are far from over. In particular, since November 2006 the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) have committed human rights violations, including rape and assassinations, against the people of Oaxaca which have been documented by many human rights organizations and authentic journalists. (see "Offensive by the Federal Preventive Police Against the People of Oaxaca," November 25, 2006, Narco News.) In addition to the repressive nature of the Ruiz regime, the disgraced governor revealed his dishonesty and singular lack of intelligence this week when he told the daily Excelsior of Mexico City that the event was canceled because Miss Universe owner Donald Trump supposedly demanded $1.5 million dollars from the state. That is obviously untrue (even the president of the state restaurant association in Oaxaca admitted to the daily Noticias de Oaxaca that it was the continuing "social conflict" in the state - its ungovernability - that sealed the event's fate). Far from blaming Mr. Trump and the Miss Universe organization, the APMO models thank and praise him for his foresight to avert a bloodbath this May in Oaxaca, and for removing the Miss Universe models from harm's way and the indignity of supporting a dictatorial regime. To show our thanks, Supermodels for Oaxaca has sent this beautiful yellow-and-violet floral bouquet to Mr. Trump at his Fifth Avenue offices: where we had planned to protest, we now send flowers. A "thank you" card accompanies the deluxe "well done" bouquet sent to Mr. Trump. It contains the following message: Thank you, Mr. Trump, for pulling the Miss Universe pageant away from the violent hands of Oaxaca dictator Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Your decision is a victory for human and indigenous rights. Supermodels for Oaxaca [EMAIL PROTECTED] The first stage of the project thus completed, in solidarity with the workers of Oaxaca, the models of the APMO announce an escalation of our protest: we will move to the second stage of our organizing efforts, and will continue preparations for red carpet pickets in New York and elsewhere. For these actions, the APMO will target Mexican consulates in the United States and all over the world in solidarity with the demands of the APPO for the end of the illegitimate dictatorship of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. We will continue our actions, as an international models movement, until the Mexican government removes the Federal Preventative Police from Oaxaca and ceases to recognize and prop-up the Ruiz dictatorship. Federal Preventative Police out of Oaxaca NOW. END the illegitimate dictatorship of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz! TO AUDITION FOR THE UPCOMING SUPERMODELS PROTESTS AT MEXICAN CONSULATES: Send Applications to be part of APMO by Sunday, March 31st, 2007 by midnight, to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Auditions in New York City on April 18th, 2007, at 12noon. To audition to be an APMO supermodel, please send at least 2 headshots, 2 full body photos and 2 photos of your choice, as well as a letter expressing your desires to audition, to Spokesmodel and Director Cha-Cha Connor at [EMAIL PROTECTED] All photos should be professional and of you alone. Photographers, hair and makeup stylists, fashion designers, personal trainers, manicurists and pedicurists, likewise send examples of your work along with a letter expressing your desire to volunteer in this project to Spokesmodel and Director Cha-Cha Connor at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reporters, fashion magazine editors, theater and cinema directors, performance artists, paparazzi, voyeurs, gawkers, bodyguards and human rights observers, please contact Ms. Connor's Press Secretary Al Giordano at [EMAIL PROTECTED] See also: Miss Universe 2007 Canceled in Oaxaca (from Noticias de Oaxaca)
