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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | September 2006 
Mexican Government, Striking Teachers Break Off Talks on Ending Violent Unrest in Oaxaca
 Associated Press
| | A man walks past protest graffiti showing the face of the state governor of Oaxaca Ulyses Ruiz in the state capital Oaxaca. The captions under each portrait reads in Spanish as follows (L-R top to bottom), 'The innocent, the cynic, the thief, the authoritarian, the repressor, the despicable, the murderer, the feces Ruiz'. (Reuters) |
Striking teachers from the southern city of Oaxaca and Mexican President Vicente Fox's top Cabinet official broke off talks Wednesday, after failing to reach a deal to end months of violence and street protests in the picturesque city.
There were no further talks immediately scheduled, prompting Mexican media to declare that negotiations between Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal and a group formed to oversee Oaxaca's demonstrations had failed.
Thousands of protesters have occupied the leafy main plaza in Oaxaca city, some 200 miles (50 kilometers) southeast of the capital, ever since school teachers walked off the job in May to demand higher wages.
The strike exploded into a full-blown political crisis after Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz sent police to try to dislodge the demonstrators, with thousands of sympathizing leftists, anarchists and students joining the protests — burning cars and city buses, erecting hundreds of street barricades and covering historic buildings with graffiti.
The Oaxaca People's Assembly, the group overseeing the strike, has expanded its demands to include the resignation of Ruiz — which the governor vows he will never do.
Assembly representatives have been in the capital for weeks of negotiations with Abascal, whose office tried twice previously to end the standoff by sending two sets of mediators to the southern city.
On Wednesday, strike leader Enrique Rueda said the movement planned peaceful protests in front of foreign embassies and Congress in Mexico City starting Thursday. Protest leaders had previously threatened to attack embassies if a deal with Abascal failed to materialize.
The Assembly has asked Mexico's Senate to dissolve Oaxacan state authorities, forcing Ruiz from office — a move the protesters say is unlikely to be successful since Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party controls a large bloc of seats.
Abascal and his negotiators "continue to argue that the Senate holds the legal means to resolve this matter," Rueda told reporters outside the Interior Department. "But we don't accept the judicial option because it's a long process. We think it is through political avenues that the government should resign."
The Interior Department did not immediately comment on the breakdown of talks.
Rueda said demonstrators will not take down their street barricades and will violently resist any efforts by state or federal authorities to re-establish control over Oaxaca.
Public schools have remained closed in the poor southern city since the start of the strike, though teachers have continued to collect their salaries. Some private schools have reopened, but others remain shuttered following threats from strikers and fears of violence.
Two people have been killed and dozens more injured in tense clashes and shootouts between police and protesters. International groups such as Amnesty International have complained of human rights violations by government forces. |
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