Mexico: Situation in Oaxaca Heating Up
The residents of Oaxaca, Mexico are facing a major crackdown from the Mexican state.
La Jornada: Oaxaca Teachers Agree to Continue Protest Until Gov. Ulises Ruiz Falls
OAXACA CITY, Sep. 27: In a city permeated by tension in the face of widespread rumors of immanent attacks by Institutional Revolutionary Party-aligned “shock troops” and corresponding intervention by federal police, the state teachers’ union agreed to continue its struggle “in a massive and united fashion… until the fall of the tyrant Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is achieved, and only then begin the school year.” Enrique Rueda Pacheco, general secretary of the local Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers, publicized the agreements through a new consultation with the rank-and-file on the continuation of the strike, which began 129 days ago.
OAXACA, Mexico (AP) -- The federal government would consider using "measured" force only as a last resort to end four months of unrest in the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said in comments published Thursday.
Mexican city grinds to halt amid violenced- Mexico´s Oaxaca Conflict Paralyzes State
- Gunfire in Oaxaca City
Subject: Urgent Solidarity Call for Oaxaca
At the federal level in Mexico, the current discourse signals an imminent arrival of Federal Police Forces in Oaxaca. The feds claim that, if federal forces are sent to Oaxaca, they will only maintain a presence on the outskirts of the city, to "ensure civilian safety." However, it is widely known that local PRI-sympathizing groups can be mobilized to provoke a confrontation with the sectors of civil society partiapting in the popular movement, which would justify the entrance of the federal police.
If the federal police enter Oaxaca, it will be a blood bath...
Please call or send faxes and emails to President Fox and to Secretary of Interior Affairs, Carlos Abascal, demanding the immediate withdrawal of threats to send police forces into Oaxaca, and the immediate resignation of Oaxacan governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Write in Spanish. Write in English. Just write, or call, or both.
Get down to your local Mexican consulate or embassy. Make a lot of noise. Spend the night out front if you have to.
President Vicente Fox:
Email: vicente.fox.quesadda@presidencia.gob.mx
Fax: 011-52-55-52-77-23-76
Phone: 011-52-55-27-89-11-00
Sec. of Internal Affairs, Carlos Abascal
Tel: 011-52-55-50-93-34-00
Email: cabascal@segob.gob.mx
From: "Jordan Presnick" (jpresnick @ gmail.com)
Mexico's president Vicente Fox announced today that he is considering sending federal forces "to reestablish order" in the state of Oaxaca. For the past several months, the teacher's union there has been on strike and has been met with brutal police and paramilitary repression including, recently, drive-by shootings. APPO -- Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, formed in June in response to the police violence -- has received strong public support and is now reinforcing their strongholds in preparation for the worst. Fox's "preventive action" is thinly-veiled military fortification and Operativo Oaxaca could turn the region in to a veritable war zone.
I am in Mexico now, in touch with activists and academics who agree that the effects of this militarization could be serious for the people of Oaxaca. Fox's decision would suppress dialogue and seriously violate human rights. If the situation escalates in the coming days, I think people should mobilize, make some noise, show the Mexican consulate that we know what their government is planning to do and we don't like it. This is what transnational solidarity is all about.
Jordan
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2006/09/27/003n1pol.php
Oaxaqueños march to Mexico City
Even as the administration of President Vicente Fox renewed its pledge to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in Oaxaca, some 4,000 protesters left the state capital Sept. 21 on a planned two-week cross-country march to Mexico City, where they intend to establish an encampment outside the Senate to press their demand for the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz. El Universal reports that the march kicked off amid some dissension, as leaders of local Section 22 of the National Education Workers Syndicate (SNTE), which has been at the forefront of the movement, said they were "re-evaluating" the strategy and asked their followers to stay put. But a large contingent of teachers set out anyway, joining members of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) in a procession north on the Oaxaca-Mexico City highway.
by Bill Weinberg
Even as the administration of President Vicente Fox renewed its pledge to find a negotiated solution to the crisis in Oaxaca, some 4,000 protesters left the state capital Sept. 21 on a planned two-week cross-country march to Mexico City, where they intend to establish an encampment outside the Senate to press their demand for the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
El Universal reports that the march kicked off amid some dissension, as leaders of local Section 22 of the National Education Workers Syndicate (SNTE), which has been at the forefront of the movement, said they were "re-evaluating" the strategy and asked their followers to stay put. But a large contingent of teachers set out anyway, joining members of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) in a procession north on the Oaxaca-Mexico City highway.
Fox had warned the day before that, while negotiations with the APPO continue, "patience has a limit." APPO leader Flavio Sosa responded to El Universal: "If the PFP [Federal Preventive Police] enters Oaxaca, it will be the biggest political error Fox could make. The message would be that he could not consolidate democracy." (La Jornada, Sept. 23; El Universal, Sept. 22)
The day after the march set out, the disputed president-elect, Felipe Calderon, held a three-hour closed-doors meeting in Mexico City with politicians and business leaders from Oaxaca and around the country to analyze the conflict in the state. Among those present were Jorge Alberto Valencia, state leader of the National Action Party (PAN); Santiago Creel Miranda, PAN leader in the Senate and Fox's former Government Secretary; federal deputy and former Oaxaca governor Diodoro Carrasco; and business magnate Alfredo Harp Helu. After the meeting, Valencia told the press that the PAN has never supported Ruiz, but that it would be against the law to "yield to the blackmail" of APPO. (La Jornada, Sept. 23)
Meanwhile, in a case of poetic justice, the former prison and headquarters of the notoriously brutal and corrupt state Preventative Police in Oaxaca City is being occupied by a group of young anarchist squatters under the banner of the Intercultural Occupation in Resistance (OIR). (La Jornada, Sept. 19)
All sources archived at Chiapas95
http://www.eco.utexas.edu/%7Ehmcleave/chiapas95.html
See our last posts on Mexico http://ww4report.com/node/2521
and the struggle in Oaxaca http://ww4report.com/node/2501
posted by Alice at
Friday, September 29, 2006
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