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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
Senate Readies for Vote on Oaxaca
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - The Herald Mexico
| | People cross a barricade of sacks placed in the center of the City of Oaxaca, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006, for the teachers who demand the resignation of the Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz. (AP/Marco Ugarte) |
As chances for the legal removal of Governor Ulises Ruiz appeared to weaken Monday, Oaxaca activists camped out in Mexico City´s historic center began a hunger strike aimed at pressuring the federal government into finding a solution to the five-month-old crisis.
Senate sources indicate that a bid to declare the Ruiz administration unable to govern will likely fail in a vote Tuesday. EL UNIVERSAL was reporting Monday evening that a subcommittee majority has prepared a report concluding that no "disappearance of powers" in Oaxaca exists.
The full Interior Committee was set to present to the Senate a draft reflecting the finding.
Without a determination that Ruiz has lost the power to govern, the Senate cannot remove him from power. The ouster of Ruiz is the top demand of striking teachers and the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO), who have virtually taken over the state capital since June.
Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, who is in charge of settling the Oaxaca conflict, seemed to differ with the Senate committee when he said Monday, "The local authorities haven´t had the capacity to maintain peace, order and security. That´s why what´s happening in that state is happening."
The hunger strikers - 21 so far - are carrying out their vigil in a makeshift tent in front of the monument to Benito Juárez in front of the Alameda park in the capital. Juárez, a 19th century president revered for his reforms, was born in Oaxaca state.
Asked how long the protesters will fast, APPO spokesman Flavio Sosa said, "Until there is a solution."
The strikers themselves made it clear Monday that any such solution has to include the ouster of Ruiz, whom they claim has a history of violent repressive measures, including allegedly killing and beating protesters.
Cruzita Ramírez Ramírez, a fasting teacher from the city of Oaxaca, who completed the recent 19-day march to the capital along with thousands of others, said the hunger strike had long been contemplated as a strategy if no solution was gained by other means.
"It´s a symbol of what´s been happening to us," she said. "They have been killing us with hunger, as well as with bullets and blows. Now the public can see how they are killing us."
Abascal has on several recent occasions said he has no plans to send in the military to take back the city of Oaxaca. But asked directly Monday when he would send in the federal preventive police (PFP), he said, "All in it´s time, all in it´s time."
Abascal is under increasing pressure to use force. That pressure has come from legislators in Ruiz´s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), from influential leaders of Abascal´s own National Action Party (PAN) party, and from much of Oaxaca´s business sector.
If the Senate, as expected, decides not to pursue dissolution, the pressure can be turned up even more.
Ramírez said a crackdown would only widen the crisis. "By not giving us a peaceful solution, they would be falling into a horrible error," she said. "If there is no peaceful solution in Oaxaca, all the other states will soon unite."
GORDILLO ON THE SCENE
A new factor entered the fray over the weekend when Elba Esther Gordillo, the recognized head of the national teacher´s union (SNTE), threatened to have the Oaxaca chapter (known as Section 22) removed from the national organization. Gordillo, who fell out with the PRI last year and is now close to President-elect Felipe Calderón of the PAN, criticized the Oaxaca teachers for acting politically rather than in the interest of the union.
Section 22 has traditionally acted independently of the national union.
All three major parties reacted negatively to Gordillo´s sudden involvement in the situation.
"It´s the last thing we needed," said Carlos Navarrete, Senator for the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), which is in favor of dissolving the Ruiz government if he doesn´t resign or take a leave of absence. "A rift in the teachers union is only going to aggravate the state´s political situation."
EL UNIVERSAL staff writers Jorge Ramos and Ruth Rodríguez contributed to this report. |
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