Protesters, Teachers Part Ways in Oaxaca

by REBECA ROMERO
OAXACA, Mexico

Radical protesters and teachers who have taken over the city of Oaxaca appeared to be parting ways on Friday after the teachers' leaders agreed to end a strike and return to work.

Embattled Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz predicted that the protesters' barricades blocking highways and streets would be taken down within a week.

An end to the strike could weaken the protest camps that dot Oaxaca city. Both the teachers and the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, or APPO, which is overseeing the protests, planned meetings to analyze their next moves.

Leftists who have taken over private radio stations in Oaxaca broadcast diatribes on Friday calling teachers' union leader Enrique Rueda "a traitor" and a "sellout," after Rueda said on Thursday that the strikers would return to work, even though they didn't achieve their main goal of removing Ruiz from power.

Rueda said the teachers would return out of sense of loyalty to Oaxaca's schoolchildren and solidarity with the people of the state. He did not explain the timing of the decision.

Many leftists remain convinced the protests should continue, even though their last legal recourse _ the Senate _ voted on Thursday that there were no grounds to remove Ruiz from office.

Ruiz appeared convinced that the protest movement, which has set up barricades, taken over government buildings and media outlets and hijacked and burned buses in Oaxaca City, 220 miles southeast of Mexico City, would soon end.

"I think that in the coming days, in the next week, the conflict will be resolved," Ruiz told reporters. "Oaxaca can't go on like this."

Oaxaca city residents welcomed the news of a possible finish to the conflict.

"It's gone on too long," tortilla shop owner Joel Ayala Dominguez said, speaking at his business near the city's main square.

Protesters and teachers had vowed not to consider offers from government negotiators _ including wage raises for teachers, and federal control of the widely distrusted local police _ until Ruiz left office. They accuse him of using fraud to win his 2004 election and of sending armed thugs against protesters.

Since late May, violence related to the strike has cost at least five lives. The federal government has been loath to intervene in the conflict, fearing more bloodshed.

But pressure has been mounting for a rapid solution, because the dispute has scared off tourists and hurt businesses in the state, as well as keeping 1.3 million schoolchildren in Oaxaca out of classes.