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 Editorials | At Issue | September 2006 
Sense of Urgency Dominates Debate
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - Herald Mexico
| | Two men grimace after they were tied up by neighbors who accused them of stealing a man in the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, Monday Sept. 25, 2006. Residents of this city have been forced to take justice into their own hands due to the ongoing teachers strike that has paralyzed the city for months and the police are unable to patrol the streets. (AP/Luis Alberto Cruz Hernandez) |
Private citizens and public officials from across the political spectrum pressed Tuesday for a quick solution to the Oaxaca teachers strike, as fears of widening unrest and possible violence lent a new sense of urgency to the four-month-old crisis.
"It´s ready to boil over," said Emilio Gamboa Patrón, coordinator of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) legislators in the Chamber of Deputies. "We´re at the point of violence, the kind we´ll all regret."
The Fox administration refused to answer questions about the situation Tuesday, insisting that the Interior Secretariat was handling Oaxaca affairs. Arturo Chávez, an undersecretary, spent much of the day meeting with local Oaxacan legislators and municipal presidents.
Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal has not ruled out honoring Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz´s request for federal troops - police or military - to put down the protests and force the teachers back to work.
The striking teachers and their allies within the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO), an ad hoc organization of community groups demanding Ruiz´s ouster, fully expect a federal crackdown. Groups of demonstrators in Oaxaca City were reported to be amassing supplies of sticks, rocks, tubes and Molotov cocktails.
An EL UNIVERSAL poll published Tuesday showed 54 percent opposing the use of public force against the teachers and APPO, with 15 percent in favor.
Meanwhile, some 5,000 Oaxaca teachers and APPO members continued their march to the capital. They have reached the state of Puebla and hope to reach the city of Puebla by the weekend.
The demonstrators´ expected arrival next week in Mexico City, where they are expected to camp out in the Zócalo, has stirred concern among business groups, who have expressed their displeasure at what they consider a less than energetic effort so far by the Fox administration to end the crisis.
"The federal government could have intervened some time ago and started negotiations before the problem grew," said León Halkin, president of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers.
In Oaxaca, business leaders have called for a two-day work stoppage for Thursday and Friday to force state and federal authorities to find a solution.
While business organizations in Oaxaca and Mexico City are worried about revenue losses, especially in the tourism sector, Oaxaca residents are more concerned about the closed schools. Most children there have not attended classes since last May. An attempt by Ruiz to force the schools open Monday failed.
A group of Oaxacan parents in Mexico City briefly closed off Bucareli Avenue Tuesday near the Interior Secretariat, demanding an end to the strike. Reyes Tamez, the federal education secretary, said Tuesday that officials are working on a plan to reschedule the school year in Oaxaca so students will be able to complete the year´s requirements.
The Senate joined in the plea Tuesday, issuing a resolution calling for the federal government to "guarantee the constitutional right to education by immediately re-establishing the school year in the state of Oaxaca."
President Fox´s National Action Party (PAN) has supported Ruiz, partly from aversion to an elected official being forced out by street protests, and partly in the interest of forging a legislative alliance with the PRI to help President-elect Felipe Calderón when he assumes office on Dec. 1.
There were indications Tuesday that a sizeable contingent of PAN senators is growing impatient with the impasse and are ready to take bolder action, even at the risk of alienating the PRI. "We can´t just stand around shrugging our shoulders," said one PAN senator.
EL UNIVERSAL staff writers Francisco Reséndiz, Alejandro Torres and José Luis Ruiz in Saltillo, Coahuila, contributed to this report.
Gunfight in Oaxaca Sends Tourists Running for Cover
AP
Oaxaca, Mexico - Gunmen exchanged fire with leftist protesters outside Oaxaca's Camino Real hotel, injuring two men and forcing dozens of tourists, residents and journalists to run for cover.
On Monday, a day after the gunfire, President Vicente Fox's spokesman Ruben Aguilar said officials "absolutely promise that the problem in Oaxaca will be resolved before this administration ends" on December 1.
The clash at the hotel came hours after the U.S. Embassy in Mexico renewed a warning to U.S. citizens traveling to Oaxaca, where protesters have camped out for months, burned buses and fought pitched battles with police.
About 300 demonstrators armed with machetes, knives and pipes descended on the Camino Real searching for Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose resignation they demand. They accuse him of rigging the 2004 election to win office and violently repressing dissent.
Thirty protesters searched room by room for the governor, who later said he had been at a nearby restaurant but never went inside the hotel.
A group of about 40 men armed with sticks and guns then attacked and fired at the protesters outside the hotel's front door. Some protesters drew guns and returned fire, creating panic among dozens of people in the street.
Zenen Bravo, a spokesman for the Oaxaca People's Assembly, which is coordinating the protests, said one demonstrator was shot in the elbow and another had been beaten with sticks. Bravo accused the governor of being behind the armed group.
Ruiz denied that and condemned the violence.
"We cannot tolerate these acts of vandalism and aggression against Oaxacan citizens," he said.
Hours before the confrontation Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico extended an existing advisory for U.S. citizens heading to Oaxaca city, saying they should "consider carefully the risk of travel at this time due to the recent increase in violence there."
The embassy also said it had received reports of robberies and assaults in the city, which normally has a low crime rate and is popular with tourists for its cobblestoned streets, craft markets and cuisine. The advisory warned that protesters might try to close the local airport and that travelers should monitor developments.
Aguilar said at his daily briefing on Monday said the government still encourages tourists "from all over the world to visit Mexico" and added, "There have been no problems with tourists in Oaxaca city or in other parts of the country, despite violence committed by organized crime."
Aguilar said negotiations led by Fox's top Cabinet member, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, were ongoing and that federal authorities will not forcibly intervene to restore order.
Asked if Fox would defend Ruiz, Aguilar replied, "He who has been elected by voters cannot be fired by street protests."
Oaxaca teachers went on strike in May to seek higher wages. Protests exploded a month later when police tried to evict teachers from the city's main plaza. Joined by leftists, anarchists and students, the teachers have since taken over government buildings, as well as radio stations to broadcast calls for revolt.
Police and armed gangs have shot at demonstrators on several occasions, leaving at least two dead.
On Saturday, Ruiz warned the teachers that they would be replaced by substitutes and lose their pay unless they immediately returned to work. |
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