Mexican bishop says church unable to grant asylum to Oaxaca activists

OAXACA, Mexico

The Roman Catholic bishop of Oaxaca said the church lacks the resources to grant asylum to four leftist leaders who led a five-month takeover of the city.

The leaders of the Oaxaca People's Assembly had publicly asked for asylum or sanctuary in one of the colonial city's churches earlier this week, fearing they might be arrested on charges stemming from the sometimes-violent demonstrations.

Bishop Jose Luis Chavez Botello told reporters Saturday that the church does not have the facilities to provide them sanctuary.

"We don't have the resources or the infrastructure to guarantee their physical integrity, which involves a serious responsibility," the bishop said.

Chavez Botello said the church was trying to act as a facilitator for understanding and dialogue, and has not taken sides in the conflict that began as a teachers' strike in May.

"We have cared for average citizens, policemen, teachers and state government employees, without distinction," he said.

The movement's most visible leader, Flavio Sosa, faces arrest warrants on riot and conspiracy charges and says he has not slept at home in months.

He has been engaged in on-again, off-again talks with the federal government and frequently speaks to reporters and supporters just blocks away from positions taken by the federal police following a raid in late October, but police have apparently not pursued him.

On Saturday, a convention of the People's Assembly met to plan out the movement's strategy, after striking teachers voted to accept pay increases and many agreed to return to work.

The protesters have set up their headquarters at Oaxaca's state university in the city, after being expelled by police from the city's arch-ringed main square. Francisco Martinez Neri, the university's rector, has refused to allow police to enter the facility.

But the rector also said that classes suspended for weeks because of the university takeover should resume, and suggested that police presence in the city "will prevent acts of bloodshed."

For five months, Sosa's supporters, then-allied with the striking teachers, seized the city center, kept out state police and drove away tourists from one of the country's top destinations. They built barricades, burned buses and took over private radio stations to broadcast calls for revolution.

On Oct. 29, President Vicente Fox sent 4,000 federal officers, backed by helicopters and water cannons, to push the leftists out of the city center.

But the violence persisted elsewhere as federal officers clashed with protesters using gasoline bombs and fireworks packed with glass and nails. Last week, 30 people were injured in confrontations with police.

There have been at least nine political killings in Oaxaca city since August, mostly of Sosa's fellow leftists.

Federal police said over the weekend that they would start assuming anti-crime operations in the city, because some criminals had taken advantage of the political upheaval to commit robberies and other crimes.