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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | November 2006 
Governor Claims Win After Clash in Mexico's Oaxaca
 Reuters
| | An employee of the government cleans a street in Oaxaca City November 26, 2006. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
The governor of Mexico's troubled Oaxaca state claimed victory in a six-month conflict on Sunday, after riot police fired tear gas and arrested scores of protesters trying to force him from office the day before.
Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, protected by dozens of police, strolled quiet downtown streets where hundreds of activists threw gasoline bombs and rocks at phalanxes of cops in body armor on Saturday.
The city, normally popular with European backpackers, has been in chaos for the last six months because of protests by striking teachers, Indian groups and leftists against the governor, who they say is corrupt and authoritarian.
"We have recovered the heart of Oaxaca for Oaxacans," Ruiz told reporters. "We are overcoming the conflict here and we don't want more delinquents to come."
Federal officials said they had arrested more than 150 people on Saturday, when hundreds of activists, some armed with homemade wooden shields and fireworks, tried to surround federal police occupying the city's central square.
First aid workers treated dozens of people, many of whom had inhaled teargas, although fewer than 10 were hospitalized, local media said. On Sunday, shop owners repaired broken windows while government workers cleared away burned out cars.
The situation in Oaxaca, one of Mexico's poorest states, will be just one of conservative President-elect Felipe Calderon's most pressing problems when he takes power on December 1.
In October, federal authorities forced their way into the city to try to end the conflict that has killed more than a dozen people. Activists had chased cops from city streets, set up hundreds of barricades and taken over government offices.
Ruiz has ignored calls from congress and politicians in his own party for him to quit to put and end to the conflict.
A month ago, angry protesters drove hundreds of riot police backed by water cannon trucks out of a university neighborhood and activists on Sunday said they remained determined.
"Our struggle will continue. We're reorganizing in communities all over the state," Florentine Lopez, spokesman for the Popular Assembly for the People of Oaxaca, told a radio station.
Protesters on Saturday also started blazes in four government buildings, including a court, a museum and the tourism ministry.
150 Arrested, Dozens Injured in Oaxaca
John Gibler - The Herald Mexico
Oaxaca City - A shaken city took stock of its burned out center on Sunday, a day after an intense clash between demonstrators and federal police more than a hundred arrested and at least dozens injured.
In the morning, city workers were busy painting over protesters´ graffiti and sweeping up broken glass in the colonial center. Three bulldozers were brought in to scoop up all the rocks thrown by protesters.
At the charred remains of the state court building in Oaxaca City, only the statue of former president and state hero Benito Juárez remained standing, framed in smoke and sharp blades of sunlight that cut through the burned out roof.
"Only Juárez is still standing," commented one woman who stood with her two daughters looking through the window, "It´s as if he is saying, ´We are still here, and we aren´t going away.´"
The court building was one of 34 that were damaged by fires started during the clash, according to government news agency Notimex, which also reported that 20 vehicles were burned. The Camino Real and three other hotels, as well as the Teatro Juárez, also had fire damage.
Local press reported that around 50 people were injured in the conflict, while demonstrators said more than 100 were hurt.
Meanwhile, bewildered residents toured the destruction, snapping photographs of burned buildings and broken windows.
"Those people are vandals, the real people of Oaxaca are against this," said one woman standing in the scorched doorway of the state court building. She was referring to the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO), which has directed months of protests against state Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who is accused of fraud, corruption and repression.
Most businesses remained closed on Sunday.
Saturday´s five-hour confrontation began after protesters attempted to encircle the federal police in the city´s main square.
Most of the fighting took place Saturday night on Alcalá Avenue, which leads from the central Zócalo square to the Santo Domingo Cathedral, where the APPO had camped out in recent weeks.
After police forced protesters up Alcalá and out of the city´s center, state and federal police trucks surrounded the protesters. Witnesses said that the police beat and detained dozens. Soon afterwards, gunshots could be heard across town.
State police later used helicopters to transport around 150 people to state prisons outside the city. Family members and representatives of local human rights organizations said they were denied access to the detained.
On Sunday morning, dozens of protesters were hiding out in nearby houses as state and federal police patrolled the city in caravans of cars and trucks.
It was the first time since June 14 that uniformed local and state police officers patrolled the city.
Just before noon, several hundred Ruiz supporters marched through the city center, calling for the arrests of APPO members. Soon afterwards Ruiz briefly toured the Santo Domingo area and spoke to members of the press, saying the demonstrators would be prosecuted for the damage. Two police helicopters flew overhead during his tour.
Meanwhile, at hospitals across the city, family members began looking for missing relatives. Witnesses who asked not to be named said that plainclothes police swept the hospitals the night before. They reported armed men came and went throughout the night looking for wounded APPO members.
Felipe Gama, director of the Dr. Manuel Velasco Suárez Hospital, said that seven armed men with pistols forced their way into his hospital, threatening nurses and hospital employees. He denied, however, that they had taken any patients with them.
On Sunday afternoon, APPO council members met in a closed session to discuss the previous night´s battle and their next steps. They released a document restating demands that Ruiz step down and the federal police withdraw.
"We are reaffirming here that only after the fall of the tyrant Ulises Ruiz will peace and governability return to Oaxaca," said spokesperson Florentino López.
The APPO denounced the burning of buildings and private businesses the night before, but upheld the APPO´s "legitimate right to self-defense to avoid a massacre," referring to the use of rocks, Molotov cocktails and bottle rockets to fight the police. |
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