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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
UNICEF Wants Oaxaca Strike Resolved
 AP
| | A van carrying Mexican senators that was spray painted by protestors with the words, 'die Ulises,' leaves a state building in Oaxaca City, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006. Mexican senators considering whether to remove the Oaxaca governor in the face of protests accusing him of vote-rigging and using armed gangs met with his opponents on Thursday to determine firsthand whether the government had ceased to function. (AP/Alberto Cruz) |
The U.N. children's fund called Friday for the government and teachers who have been striking for the last five months in the southern city of Oaxaca to resolve the dispute so children could return to school.
The statement from UNICEF came as the government said time was running out on its offer to raise teachers' salaries in exchange for strikers ending their takeover of the city.
Tensions rose as a Senate commission wound up a two-day visit aimed at determining whether the protesters' main demand, the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, can be met.
The Senate — which can remove a governor if it determines that the state government has ceased to function — is scheduled to vote on the matter next week.
The teachers and a coalition of leftist protesters have said they will accept nothing less than Ruiz's resignation, and refused to consider a government offer to increase wages if the protesters agreed to go back to work and let police re-enter the city.
That proposal will run out on Monday if not accepted, and the government will consider "other types of actions," Deputy Interior Secretary Arturo Chavez said Friday.
Though he did not specify those actions, calls have mounted for police action to retake the picturesque colonial city, where protesters have hijacked buses, erected street barricades and run off police and other authorities.
The government says one of its main concerns is to get more than 1 million children back to classes. They have been out of school since the strike and protests began in late May. |
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