MEXICO: Tensions remain high in Oaxaca after federal police move in

Mexican riot police backed by helicopters and armoured trucks tightened their grip over the colonial city of Oaxaca on Monday (October 30) after seizing it from leftist protesters in clashes that left one person dead. Thousands of federal police, some armed with assault rifles, stormed the beautiful city popular with foreign tourists early on Sunday and steadily gained control by using tear gas and water cannon. They finally occupied its central square as night fell and demonstrators armed with metal poles and sticks pulled back. Armoured trucks with water cannon were deployed in the main square early on Monday to stave off a possible counter-attack from activists who had held control for five months in protests aimed a toppling Oaxaca's state governor, Ulises Ruiz, who they accuse of corruption and repression. "They (adults) should solve the problems through discussion," one school girl, Lesly Janet, said after arriving at the building and finding it closed on Monday. "I'm quite bothered because they (the teachers) caused this, that the children do not get an education all this created chaos and it has effected us not only in the education sector but in the economy as well," one parent, Eduardo Cuevas, said outside the closed school. One man was killed on Sunday. Protesters said he died after being hit by a tear gas canister and they covered his body with a white sheet and a Mexican flag. The acrid smell of smoldering buses and barricades drifted across Oaxaca, and some said the fight was not yet over. President Vicente Fox had resisted pressure to send federal forces in sooner but changed his mind after three people, including a U.S. journalist, were shot dead on Friday, apparently by local police in civilian clothes. After breaking through burning barricades and clashing with protesters throughout Sunday, hundreds of police slept under the arches off the main square and in streets. The government said they would stay until order was fully restored. Oaxaca is best known for its architecture, cuisine, indigenous crafts and nearby archaeological ruins, but the centre has been badly scarred in the past five months. Graffiti covers almost every wall, the garbage of barricades litters the streets and many shops and restaurants have closed down. Although it is being fought over local issues, the crisis has raised concerns it could spark unrest elsewhere in Mexico. While Oaxaca city is one of Mexico's cultural treasures, it is surrounded by rural areas of crushing poverty. Those tensions reflect a broader divide in Mexico which was highlighted in a bitter presidential election this year. Fox has vowed to end the crisis before handing over power to President-elect Felipe Calderon of the conservative ruling party on Dec. 1.

ITN Source | October 31, 2006

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