In a raid on the 12th of June in downtown Oaxaca approximately 1200 police officers violently repressed members of the National Front in Defense of Sovereignty and Rights of the People (FRENDESDEP), which was aiding the Government Workers Union (STSPEIDCEO) in their demands for immediate liberation of leader Oliverio Nery Lopez and the autonomy of their union. The raid was characterized by the use of excessive violence against peasants, women and children, and resulted in 4 detainees, 30 injuries and 24 disappearances. Protestor of the National Front had formed an encampment outside the state Supreme Court and Governor's Palace in a demand for negotiation on the 9th of June.
The same day, Hector Anuar Mafud, Secretary General , named a hotel in Oaxaca as the forum for dialogue. When negotiators for the protestors arrived police operatives were waiting to detain them. The following day, Raul Bolaños Cacho, Supreme Court President , in a new attempt at "dialogue," said that negotiation must take place in the offices of the same police organization that perfomed the raid two days later .
Governor Jose Murat, in a local radio interview broadcast just two hours before the raid, said that "[his] government is not repressive, but it is a government of dialogue" and that among the protestors exist those with "radical affiliations" who would have his administration resolve the situation with a "mano duro" (iron fist).
Protestors request that the National Comitee for Human Rights investigate these events and aid to gaurantee the liberty of detainees and the safe apeareance of those missing since the raid, the lives of whom may still be in danger.