U.S. journalist killed by Oaxaca paramilitaries

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
October 28, 2006, 12:40 a.m.

Contact:
Beka Economopoulos, (917) 202-5479
Brandon Jourdan, (646) 342-8169
Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452

WILLIAM BRADLEY ROLAND, U.S. JOURNALIST/CAMERAMAN, KILLED BY OAXACA
PARAMILITARIES
KILLER ID'D - ACTIONS BEING PLANNED IN U.S.

William Bradley Roland, aka Brad Will, a U.S. journalist and
cameraman, was shot and killed yesterday in Oaxaca, Mexico, by
paramilitaries affiliated with the PRI, the former Mexican ruling
party. Will was in Oaxaca covering the continued resistance of
teachers and other workers against the PRI-controlled government of
the State of Oaxaca. According to reports from New York City
Independent Media Center and La Jornada, Will, 36, was shot at the
Santa Lucia Barricade from a distance of 30-40 meters in the pit of
the stomach by plainclothes paramilitaries and died while enroute to
the Red Cross.

Centro de Medios Libres (http://vientos.info/cml ) in Mexico City
reports that from Will's recovered videotapes, they have identified
his killer as a paramilitary named Pedro Carmona, ex-president of
Felipe Carrillo Puerto de Santa Lucia del Camino, a colonia in Oaxaca.

At last report, Will was one of five people who died in the last day,
along with 17 wounded, as paramilitaries and federal police poured in
to retake the city, according to Centro de Medios Libres. The city had been in the hands of the workers for five months. Will is the first American to be killed in the months-long confrontation. A longtime journalist and activist, he covered land occupations in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., direct actions and rebellions in
Argentina and Ecuador, land occupations in Brazil, and anti-privatization struggles in Bolivia. He was a much-beloved figure in the global justice movement in the U.S. and leaves behind many grieving friends.

Friends of Brad in the U.S. will be calling actions in the next day to demand that the U.S. State Department press the Mexican government to investigate Brad's murder and address the terror tactics of the regime that made it possible. Additionally, they will press for solidarity in the U.S. with the Mexican movement for social justice that Brad gave his life to document in Oaxaca.