Thread: Shots fired in Mexican tourist city standoff

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Shots fired in Mexican tourist city standoff


REUTERS

4:58 p.m. September 29, 2006

OAXACA, Mexico – Unidentified gunmen opened fire Friday near a road block set up by striking teachers in Mexico's colonial city of Oaxaca, where months of protests against the state governor have scared off tourists.

A Reuters witness heard at least ten shots fired before sun-up close to a barricade in the graceful center of the city, the capital of Oaxaca state in southern Mexico. No one was injured.

The streets around the center have been occupied by months by thousands of striking teachers and left-wing activists trying to bring down the state government, headed by Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Ambushes and drive-by shootings similar to Friday's attack have plagued the protests and five activists have been shot dead since the conflict began.

“We are peaceful, unarmed people, and we were the target of this aggression,” said Angel, a teacher manning a roadblock close to the site of Friday's gunshots. Teachers put up new checkpoints on the streets leading to the city's main square and piled rocks to be thrown at police if they try to dislodge the protesters.

Ruiz, who his opponents say ordered the shootings, refuses to resign and wants federal police to end the protests, which have left elegant buildings daubed with graffiti and devastated the local tourist industry, normally one of the city's main sources of income.

Oaxaca state, famed for beaches, highland towns and elaborate cuisine, is also one of Mexico's most impoverished regions and tensions often run high between its poor Indian population and authorities.


RESTORE ORDER

President Vicente Fox has promised to resolve the conflict before leaving office at the end of November but federal government-brokered talks between the protesters and Ruiz have so far failed to end the stalemate.

Fox's Interior Minister Carlos Abascal vowed to return Oaxaca to normal.

“There should be no doubt. Order will be restored in the city of Oaxaca,” he told journalists in Mexico City. He did not put a deadline on ending the crisis or say whether federal forces would break up the protests.

Ruiz is from the Institutional Revolutionary Party which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000.

More than 1,000 anti-governor protesters marching the 270 miles from Oaxaca to Mexico City are expected to arrive over the weekend. They hope to meet with government negotiators.

Fox says he has not ruled out the use of force to recapture the town if talks fail.

Restaurants, hotels and stores hard hit by the exodus of tourists and have been closed since Thursday in a two-day shut-down designed to pressure authorities to resolve the crisis.

The protests started with a teachers' strike over wages and against the governor, who they accuse of corruption and say has polarized the state by using heavy handed policing to resolve political disputes.

The teachers refuse to return to classes despite being threatened with the loss of their jobs.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/a ... 2003329711

Local businesses in Oaxaca City launch a counter-strike


AP , OAXACA, MEXICO
Friday, Sep 29, 2006,Page 7
Owners of gas stations, hotels, supermarkets and other businesses in Oaxaca City were launching a two-day strike to pressure the government into sending federal police against leftist protesters who have besieged the town for over three months.

Local business leaders said more than 2,000 establishments would close their doors for 48 hours at the end of business on Wednesday, an announcement that triggered panic buying by residents who waited in long lines to stock up on food, gasoline and other supplies.

Oaxaca has been gripped by a protest movement that began with a teachers strike and has evolved into a broader movement demanding the resignation of Oaxaca state Governor Ulises Ruiz. The protesters have set up barricades, burned buses and clashed with local police and movement opponents.

Aside from mediation by federal officials, Mexican President Vicente Fox's government has not intervened in Oaxaca.

no help

"President Vicente Fox has done nothing to help us," Fredy Alcantara, president of the Oaxaca hotel association, told reporters. "He doesn't support us and the situation is very delicate."

On Wednesday, Deputy Interior Secretary Arturo Chavez said the federal government was trying to solve the problem through negotiations, but that use of force was being considered as a "last resort."

The US Embassy in Mexico has warned US citizens traveling to Oaxaca and many have steered clear of the picturesque city, known for its colonial architecture and nearby pre-Hispanic ruins. Local business associations have estimated the protests have cost the city more than US$300 million in lost earnings.

The protesters, a mix of trade unionists, leftists, anarchists and students, accuse Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and violently repressing dissent. The movement gained force in June, when police attacked a demonstration of striking teachers demanding a wage increase.

strike vote

On Wednesday, the Oaxaca teachers' union voted to continue their strike and support of the protests until Ruiz resigns.

Also on Wednesday, thousands of protesters in the city center reinforced barricades made of tires and corrugated iron and piled up dozens of Molotov cocktails, apparently anticipating some sort of police action.

The protesters have occupied government buildings and taken over radio and TV stations, using them to broadcast calls for rebellion.

Two people have been killed and dozens more injured in clashes between the protesters and police or armed gangs.

Ruiz has repeatedly called on the Fox administration to send in federal police to restore order.