November the 12th.

Cinco Señores crossroads looks like a battlefield and, in fact, it is. This is one of the points where the clash wit the Federal Police PFP got harder. Today it keeps being a hot spot, shots from paramilitary have become everyday life. Towards the within of the Popular Assembly of the Towns of Oaxaca, APPO, this has become an uncomfurtable subject, as this organizations leaders negociated to deliver the crossroads but they're defenders oposse it.

Eventhough it is known as "The Cinco Señores barricade" it consists really of a series of barricades towards a crossroads near UABJO's University City, where Radio Univrsidad is. This barricades are formed with several trucks and buses crosed on the avenues wich gather here, some of them cvered with grafitti, other burned down, mute skeletons of the battle of november the 2nd, on "el Día de Muertos". Around the center sits the "armament" for the defense; bottle racks and more bottle racks ready to be filled and turned up in molotov cocktails, a table with the materials for making home bombs, nails, metalic waste, super market cars filled to the top with stones. The "bazukeros" show off their allready famous home - made rocket guns, PVC pipes designed for shooting rocket based home made bombs. This night, several busses form a caravan coming from Mexico City arrived and some people, must young students, join the defense of the barricade and soon are initialized on how to use the home made bombs and the molotov cocktails. Amazed, they hold the greasy bottles on their hand while staring at it with rounded eyes. Later, the instructions about what to do in the case of an attack with guns., how to react. It is very clear that this isn`t a game for those wich guarde the barricade.

The APPO decided to set free this spot, as a messure for releasing the tension. But the barricade integrants were not consulted. This spot is important for two reasons. Along with the Soriana barricade, it has becomne an icon of Oaxaca's resistance. Here, using stones, rockets and molotovs, the defenders of the University Campus hold back the attack from the Federal Police, wich had to withdrew after seven hours of combat. Without this blockades, attackers could get to the fence surrounding the university's buildings. So the importance of the site is not only strategical but also simbolical. Gathered in assembly, the barricade holders agreed not to deliver it. The decision also obeys the high cost of the defense. The fallen ones in the sruggle, the wounded, the kidnaped ones on the surroundings of the campus, all of it adds more points to the reasons for keping the barricade.

"You know allready this one is the barricade of death, right?" Visitors admit so with their heads. The "compas" are not kidding. The paramiltary have attacked constantly, using AK-47 and r-15 rifles. They travel on white or red trucks. One time they came aboard taxis. About one kilometer away lies the "Parque del Amor or Love Park, where the PFP has stablished a camp. But they have done nothing to stop the shooters incomings. On the contrary, the short distance between the University and the Police is something to worry about. Many peolpe has been arrested and moved away in helicopters, flown into militar camps. Some of the holders of Cinco Señores are students from the university. But others are "chavos de la calle", homeless kids. They used to inhabit the crossroads before the PFP offensive. Now they're it's more fierceful defenders. The Soriana barricade is formed by students as well and for "la banda okupa", agoup of young people who had decided to okupy an abandoned police station. All of them participated in the combat on november the second. They represent, within the movement, the youth, the students from one of the poorest states of Mexico, together with those who has nothing to loose, and everything to win.

Underneath their improvised masks, you can gess their young characters, some of them are almost kids. Every night they risk to get hit by machinegun fire, but they do not hesitate to jump outside the barricade when they spot a suspicious vehicle. They shout ordering to stop and to shut off the headlights. If not obeyed, a molotov cocktail or a home made bomb exploding near the car, serves as a warning. The night goes on with small scares and false alarms. Most of the time its about drunk people returning home. On the back of the barricade there's an improvised kitchen with some food, cofee and bread. There is "La Doctora" The Doctor, a very well known voice from Radio Universidad. But right now she's attending her primary dutty at a medichal post. A tense moment was when a big white car with no plates didnt attended the warnings. It got hit by stones and later was forced to stop. They turned out to be to men, visibly drunk. They got searched and after a warning, they let them go. Even with their commitment, and fierce ways, and their impresive gear, the whole thing seemed to me as completely suicidal. Wich chance does this people, armed with rockets and stones, could have against a group of trucks armed wit assault rifles? Novody sleeps, the alarm state is constant, at the least sign, everybody runs, "bazukeros" ahead, behind them others with home made bombs and molotov cocktails, lots of shouting, nothinga happens. They turn back to their posts untill another suspicious car gets near or when somebody does not identifies himself and then more hussle. And again, and again, untill morning comes, and Oaxaca City awakens, if it ever slept. This was a calm night, "Only some gunshots were heard near Soriana, but nothing else",one compa tells me, while holding a radio.

The discussion about delivering or not this barricade reflects the diferences between two ways of making politics that flow within the APPO; that one of the leaders, and piramidal structures, one one side, and the horizontalty on the other. The APPO gathers more than 380 political groups tha within these days, 10, 11 and the 12th of november are looking forward to become a permanent and solid organization. First used around the central square in down town an then by neighbours through many spots all over the city, the barricades have become a strong simbol of the resistance and the struggle, of organization and fraternity. Many refuse to dimantle them, for these motivs and, of course, for security. The "Caravan of dead", the paramilotary, keeps acting with impunity with nothing to cross in its way. The city is unsafe, activists and supporting neighbours are under constant threat, they are followed by strangers, kidnapings and disapereances keep happening. In streets where barricades were lift up, neighbours have received threats. Cinco Señores, the most radical barricade but also one of the most heroic shows a small sign in one of the grafitty painted busses wich reads "The barricade is not for sale or negociation"