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 Editorials | Issues | October 2006 
Mexico Governor Defiant as Oaxaca Protesters Seethe
 Tomas Sarmiento - Reuters
| | With Ruiz reiterating his hard line and demonstrators using protester-run radio stations to call for barricades to be reinforced, analysts said violence appeared to be more likely. |
"Oaxaca can't go on like this, people are fed up."
Oaxaca, Mexico - With his future looking more secure, the governor of Mexico's Oaxaca state defied protesters calling for his head on Friday and predicted a prompt end to the bloody political crisis crippling a colonial tourist town.
A day after Mexico's Senate chided him for not halting the violent political feud but stopped short of forcing him from office, Gov. Ulises Ruiz said barricades that have paralyzed the pretty state capital Oaxaca would likely be lifted within days.
"We don't have much time, I think this situation will be resolved in the next few days," he told foreign correspondents. "Oaxaca can't go on like this, people are fed up."
With Ruiz reiterating his hard line and demonstrators using protester-run radio stations to call for barricades to be reinforced, analysts said violence appeared to be more likely.
Eight people, most of them protesters, have been killed in the five-month-old conflict, and demonstrators accusing Ruiz of authoritarianism have crippled the mountain town whose Indian crafts and nearby pre-Hispanic ruins attract foreign tourists.
The crisis started with a teachers' strike, but leftist and Indian groups have joined the protests calling for Ruiz to step down. He has rejected demands he quit.
Ruiz, who has requested federal police aid in restoring order, said that "it is the job of the Mexican state to offer this assistance."
Ruiz belongs to the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before President Vicente Fox's 2000 election win.
The conflict is a major headache for Fox, who has promised a solution before handing over to President-elect Felipe Calderon on December 1.
A violent showdown at the end of his term could damage Fox's legacy but the conservative ruling party to which he and Calderon belong will need PRI support to counterbalance the strengthened voting power of the left in a new Congress.
Striking teachers among the protesters are set to decide this weekend whether to return to work, but say they will not back down on the demand for Ruiz's resignation.
Oaxaca Governor Promises Capital's Recovery Soon
Jo Tuckman - Copley News Service
| | Striking teachers and members of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) march in downtown Mexico City October 21, 2006. With his future looking more secure, the governor of Mexico's Oaxaca state, Ulises Ruiz, defied protesters calling for his head on Friday and predicted a prompt end to the bloody political crisis crippling a colonial tourist town. (Reuters/Jennifer Szymaszek) |
One day after the Senate voted not to remove him from office, the governor of Oaxaca said that in the coming days the state capital's downtown will recover from its monthslong takeover by teachers and protest groups.
Gov. Ulises Ruiz's statement also came a day after teachers at the root of the conflict made a surprise announcement that they will soon be back at work.
The Senate voted Thursday not to remove Ruiz from office despite enormous pressure from leftist activists who have paralyzed Oaxaca city.
The Senate has the power to force state governors out if it decides their governments are no longer functioning. The legislators backed a resolution, 74-31, that cited “serious conditions of ungovernability” in Oaxaca, but concluded this was not enough to justify the governor's dismissal.
The vote allied senators from Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, with their counterparts in the ruling National Action Party, or PAN.
Also Thursday, teachers union leader Enrique Rueda Pacheco said a teachers' assembly today would decide whether teachers would return to work on Monday, Wednesday or Oct. 30.
“The return to the classroom is a fact, we just have to decide the date,” he said. But, the leader warned, “We are not giving up our main demand, which is the departure of Ulises Ruiz.”
In Oaxaca city, 220 miles southeast of Mexico City, leaders of the movement known as the Popular Peoples' Assembly of Oaxaca, or APPO, had already announced that a vote in favor of Ruiz would result in blockades of major highways.
The takeover of downtown Oaxaca has scared away tourists who used to flock to the colonial city to enjoy the architecture and Indian culture.
For months, much of the city center has been occupied by protesters, who have set up barricades with everything from sandbags to burned-out buses. The APPO has also set itself up as an arbiter of popular justice, regularly tying alleged thieves to lampposts for public humiliation.
The APPO – which has a collective leadership drawn from teachers, indigenous groups and students – alleges Ruiz won office in 2004 through fraud. They also accuse him of brutality during a failed attempt to evict them in June, as well as of being behind a series of slayings of activists.
At least five activists have died, including one teacher killed Wednesday night when gunmen in a car opened fire as he left an APPO meeting.
Talks pushed forward by the federal Interior Ministry had made significant advances toward an agreement addressing some of the original demands made by the teachers regarding wages and conditions, as well as how to organize security in Oaxaca after the protesters left.
But negotiations stumbled over the issue of Ruiz. Ruiz, backed by his party, refused even to consider taking a leave of absence. He said the government in the coming days “will try to restore order because we have reached the limit.” |
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