In Mexico, leaders of the popular uprising in the state of Oaxaca are lashing out at government claims their members were responsible for the fatal shooting of American journalist Brad Will. Will was shot and killed in Oaxaca three weeks ago today. His assailants have been identified as local police officers and government officials. The Oaxacan state government is claiming Will was shot at close range by members of the Popular Assembly of Oaxacan People, or APPO. On Thursday, APPO spokesperson Florencio Lopez Martinez denied the charges and accused Oaxaca’s governor and other officials of backing the crime.

APPO spokesperson Florencio Lopez Martinez: “Now they want to put up a smoke screen to change the real facts about the case to involve even members of the APPO, something we flatly reject. We think Ulises Ruiz, Heliodoro Diaz and Manuel Martinez are responsible for the murder.”