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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
Oaxacan Teachers, Activists Ready Counter-Offer
 Wire services - El Universal
| | Teachers gesture during a news conference at the Section 22 national syndicate of education workers assembly, in Oaxaca city, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2006. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
After rejecting an offer from the federal government to end the five-month standoff in Oaxaca, teachers were preparing a counter-proposal on Sunday in the high-stakes negotiations.
Meanwhile, thousands of teachers and activists who have directed the protests were on the verge of entering Mexico City after marching 466 kilometers (290miles) from Oaxaca.
The counter-offer will be given on Monday to Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, who has led negotiations over the conflict. It is expected to reiterate demands that Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz resign his post. President Vicente Fox´s administration has argued that only the Senate has the power to remove Ruiz.
Late Saturday night, both the Oaxacan People´s Popular Assembly (APPO) and the local chapter of the teachers union, which have led the protests, rejected a government offer that would have likely increased the teachers salaries, arguing the offer was "unilateral."
The teachers have also demanded that thousands of Army and Navy personnel posted in Oaxaca - in what they claim are preparations to forcibly retake the city´s center - be removed.
In announcing the rejection, union leader Enrique Rueda Pacheco said "we have decided to open ourselves to negotiation, but that does not mean we´re taking off the table our demand that Mr. Ulises Ruiz resign."
The teachers and the APPO have erected barricades, run off police, scared away tourists and seized radio and television stations in the southern city.
The protesters detained three police officers on the city´s outskirts on Friday before releasing them.
On Thursday, a teacher belonging to a group that opposes the strike was killed by two assailants who stabbed him in the neck with an ice pick. Fellow dissident teachers accused militant leftists and strike supporters of carrying out the killing, after dissident teachers reported receiving death threats.
On Saturday, grieving relatives buried the slain teacher, Jaime Rene Calva Aragón, 53, at a Oaxaca cemetery. His sister, Marilu Calva, told reporters, "it´s not right, because he was good man."
Mourner Agustín Vázquez Romero, who traveled from Mexico City to attend the funeral, said "Rene, we´re with you. It´s not fair that they killed you just because you cared about your students."
Calva Aragón had apparently angered strike supporters by teaching students at his home during the work stoppage.
Union representatives have said the state government was responsible, accusing Ruiz of ordering the killing to discredit the movement.
The violence has raised fears a wider confrontation could take place; Oaxaca businessmen and workers who have lost millions of dollars in tourism income due to the protests have pressed the federal government to restore law and order.
Thousands of state police have gathered outside the city in recent days, and helicopters and military planes have flown over the demonstrators.
The teachers also rejected a government invitation for a meeting Sunday in Oaxaca; the main talks have been held in Mexico City. Strike leaders said the government had also asked that they return to classes and allow federal police to patrol the city, but the teachers said they would only consider those issues after their main demand - the governor´s resignation - was resolved.
The protesters claim Ruiz won his post in a rigged election and used violence against them in a previous attempt to break up protest camps in the city´s picturesque, arch-ringed main plaza.
Both the U.S. and British embassies in Mexico have issued advisories warning their citizens about going to Oaxaca, which is normally popular for its colonial architecture and ancient pyramids. |
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