ZNet | Mexico
Showdown looms as Mexican riot police move in on city occupied by protesters
by Jo Tuckman; The Guardian; October 31, 2006 Oaxaca - Riot police look on as a protester waves a national flag during demonstrations in the Mexican city of Oaxaca yesterday Riot police look on as a protester waves a national flag during demonstrations in the Mexican city of Oaxaca yesterday.
Thousands of federal riot police backed by armoured trucks and helicopters pushed into the Mexican city of Oaxaca yesterday as a protest that began over teachers' pay spiralled into a major confrontation.
Police wearing body armour and carrying riot shields and submachine guns were accompanied by water cannon and helicopters as they moved from the outskirts of the city towards the central plaza that has been occupied by a leftwing movement for months.
Hundreds of protesters shouted their fury as the wall of police advanced, sometimes managing to push it back a few inches. Housewives, workers, students, teachers and others chanted: "The people united will never be defeated" as they were pushed back.
Police in the line stared impassively ahead towards a large green sign over the road inviting tourists to enjoy the colonial and indigenous charms that have made Oaxaca particularly popular with European visitors. But most tourists have been scared away from the picturesque centre, which has been occupied for months by a movement that began as a dispute over teachers' pay and conditions in May, but has since grown into a social revolt.
The protesters have occupied the city's central plaza, seized radio and television stations, and blocked main roads. To reach the movement's stronghold in the central square, police will have to get through dozens of barricades made from pieces of corrugated iron, burnt-out buses and lorries driven across the road.
The protesters' main demand is the removal of the governor of Oaxaca state, Ulises Ruiz, whose failed attempt to evict the teachers in June led to the radicalisation of the movement.
Organised into a loose coalition of unions, residents' associations, indigenous and student groups, the so- called Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, Appo, accuses Mr Ruiz of everything from electoral fraud to murder. According to some members, the coalition includes representatives of small armed guerrilla groups active in the state.
Appo, which has made it impossible for Mr Ruiz to appear in public in Oaxaca, says the governor has set up paramilitary groups to attack its members. It claims that 14 people have died since the occupation began, with several killed at the barricades at night in drive-by shootings.
The federal government of President Vicente Fox stayed out of the conflict for a few months, claiming it was a local matter. When it failed to go away, the interior ministry sponsored talks, which led to a deal with teachers' leaders. In the first real sign that a peaceful end to the conflict might be possible, most of the teachers voted last week to go back to work today. However, the tension rocketed on Friday again when a day of violence throughout the city left two protesters dead, along with a US journalist sympathetic to their cause who was shot in the chest twice as he filmed an attack by armed men on one of the barricades.
A national newspaper later identified the gunmen as police in civilian clothes.
The protesters accuse Mr Ruiz of stepping up the attacks in order to force the federal government into quashing their movement in the name of restoring order.
If so, the strategy appears to have succeeded, with the government announcing it was sending in the police on Saturday.
"Shame on President Fox," said a retired builder Arbado Corteza. "How can it be that the job of one governor is worth more than the entire population of Oaxaca?" But the claim that the entire state backs the movement is belied by some residents who are frustrated by the closed schools and the occupation that has devastated the local economy.
Others balk at what they see as anarchy taking hold, with instances of alleged thieves beaten and tied to lampposts with signs around their necks.
However, Appo does have significant support among ordinary people, who responded to calls on a radio station controlled by the movement to provide non- violent resistance to the military-style police operation to retake the city. Elsewhere there were reports of protesters stockpiling stones and petrol bombs for a more active resistance to any police advance.
"They will be able to get through, what can we do, we don't have the weapons to stop them, we are peaceful," said 33-year-old Rosa Jiménez as she stood a few metres from the police frontline. "But while we can't stop them going in, perhaps we can stop them getting out."
Next photo is from: La Jornada, October 30 2006
