MEXICO: Teachers in Oaxaca return protester-run radio; federal police clear barricades

Members of the APPO, the teacher's union asking for Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz's resignation in Oaxaca, returned on Wednesday (November 29) Radio Universidad, after running the station for a few months despite the occupation of Oaxaca by federal police forces. Police proceeded also on Wednesday to clearing the colonial city of barricades. "They went on air five, ten, minutes ago, after the doors were closed," said the university spokesperson, Carlos Pasaran. Oaxaca has been in chaos for the last six months because of protests by striking teachers, Indian groups and leftists against Ruiz, who they say is corrupt and authoritarian. The last violence flared last Sunday (November 26) after the governor of the troubled state claimed victory after riot police fired tear gas and arrested scores of protesters trying to force him from office the day before. Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, protected by dozens of police, strolled quiet downtown streets where hundreds of activists threw gasoline bombs and rocks at phalanxes of cops in body armor on Saturday (November 25). Federal officials said they had arrested more than 150 people during the weekend, when hundreds of activists, some armed with homemade wooden shields and fireworks, tried to surround federal police occupying the city's central square. The situation in Oaxaca will be one of conservative Calderon's most pressing problems when he takes power on Dec. 1. He also faces protests in Mexico City from leftist supporters of losing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who claim that Calderon won July's election by fraud. The local conflict in Oaxaca spiraled into a national problem when President Vicente Fox sent thousands of federal riot police to expel striking teachers and leftist activists from the street barricades they had built. Before the crisis, Oaxaca was popular with visitors for its Spanish colonial buildings, Indian cultures and thriving art scene. But in the hills beyond Oaxaca city's wide valley, villagers live in grinding poverty, with poor schooling, few jobs and bad health care.

ITN Source | November 30, 2006

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