As Violence Escalates Labor and Community Forces Challenge Mexican Government

After five months of struggle and violent repression, Local 22 of the Mexican Teachers Union (el SNTE) and the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) continue their fight to remove Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz.

Ruiz, however, has refused to resign, President Vicente Fox has said he does not have the power to remove him, and the Mexican Senate, which has the power, has declined to do so. Ruiz’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has reportedly stated that if senators from the National Action Party (PAN), the party of Fox and president-elect Felipe Calderón, vote to remove Ruiz, the PRI will join with the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) to block Calderón from taking office.

The senate passed a non-binding resolution on October 30 urging Ruiz to rethink his decision to continue in office. He has not responded.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the PRD presidential candidate who lost the election by a narrow margin, says his party will once again put forward a motion to impeach Ruiz.

For the moment though, Ruiz remains in power and the movement for his removal, and the repression of that movement, continues.

FEDERAL OCCUPATION

During the last week of October there was a spike in violence as assassins and death squads, believed to be directed by Ruiz, murdered several union and community activists. Between 12 and 20 people were reportedly killed in that latest round of violence.

In response, President Fox ordered agents of the Mexican internal security police (CISEN) and the Federal Preventive Police (PPF) to Oaxaca. The Mexican Navy also sent ships to the ports of Oaxaca.

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The primary mission of these police and troops was to secure control of the capital city of Oaxaca and its zócalo (Oaxaca City’s central square, currently held by APPO), and to capture the university radio station from which APPO broadcasts.

Since federal forces arrived in the state, Mexican and international human rights groups report that 85 people have been arrested, many arbitrarily, and 24 are still being held; 59 had been reported as “disappeared.” Many of those arrested were reportedly beaten and tortured, according to one human rights group.

The federal dragnet caught up many Oaxacans not involved with Local 22 or APPO. The federal authorities claim that those detained had been carrying illegal arms blocking highways, or engaged in other illegal activities.

Mexican law forbids the federal police and military from entering the country’s public universities and so far they have not done so, though they did drop tear gas bombs on the campus. The university-based radio station continues to operate.

RESISTANCE HEATS UP

APPO responded to the occupation by extending its takeover of town halls throughout the state, defending its barricades in Oaxaca City, and organizing tens of thousands of protestors to march through the city, demanding Ruiz’s removal and the withdrawal of the military and federal police.

APPO also sent members on a march to Mexico City (hundreds of miles away) where they have helped organize protests and demonstrations. There have been solidarity demonstrations in many Mexican states, often raising the slogan, “We are all Oaxacans.”

In the U.S., solidarity demonstrations have taken place at the Mexican Embassy and over a dozen consulates.

The rank-and-file opposition caucus within el SNTE, known as the National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE), has called for teachers strikes in 15 of Mexico’s 32 states. Such strikes have already occurred in several states.