Demonstrators set up camp outside prison

Relatives of prisoners detained during a Nov. 25 federal crackdown on Oaxaca demonstrators set up a protest camp outside the Miahuatlán prison in Oaxaca City Monday, and vowed to stay there until all the jailed sympathizers of the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO) are set free

Another encampment outside a prison 40 kilometers away in Tlacolula, where others arrested on Nov. 25 are being held, was planned for later on Monday.

The new actions started just hours after 18 more detainees - 11 from Miahuatlán and seven from Tlacolula - were released on New Years Eve. That brings to 102 the number of prisoners set free, 54 of them since Dec. 21.

The total number arrested on Nov. 25 was officially 171.

Those still being held include key figures in the APPO protest movement, which staged demonstrations and manned barricades in Oaxaca City from June through November, demanding the ouster of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Many had originally been transported to a high security prison in the state of Nayarit, before being returned on Dec. 22 to Oaxaca state facilities.

APPO and the protesting relatives said the only acceptable outcome is the release of all detainees.

"During our talks with the Interior Secretariat, we were told that before the year ended, all of the political prisoners would go free as a minimum condition for the negotiations on Jan. 8," said APPO spokesperson Cástulo López Pacheco.