Activists, politicians call off aid caravan heading to conflictive village in southern Mexico
By APWednesday, June 9, 2010
Aid caravan to torn Mexican village called off
SAN JUAN COPALA, Mexico — Mexican politicians and activists have called off an aid caravan heading to a conflictive village in southern Mexico after authorities said they couldn’t guarantee their safety.
About 150 people in eight buses were heading to San Juan Copala in southern Oaxaca state on Tuesday to deliver two tractor-trailers carrying 40 tons of food. They turned back three miles (five kilometers) before reaching the town.
Oaxaca state Attorney General Maria de la Luz Candelaria insisted “the conditions were not there to enter the town.”
In April, gunmen attacked a caravan carrying observers and activists amid a decades-old political dispute in the Indian community. A Finnish rights observer and a Mexican activist were killed.
