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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Spoon-Wielding Mexican Women Besiege TV Studio
 Scotsman.com
| | A protester grabs the throat of a plainclothes policeman as others surround him after the policeman fired shots into the air during a demonstration against the state governor in Oaxaca July 31, 2006. The demonstration was held to stop a state-sponsored local festival by teachers and students. The protesters later took the policeman to a university building to interrogate him. (Reuters/Stringer) |
Oaxaca, Mexico - A mob of 500 Mexican women armed with kitchen spoons laid siege to a state-run television station studio.
They trapped 60 employees inside for hours before broadcasting a message calling for the resignation of the governor.
The protesters accused Ulises Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election victory and of violently suppressing opposition groups.
They surrounded Oaxaca's Channel 9 television station yesterday and held employees for about six hours before releasing them and taking over the building.
They continued to occupy it late last night, and it was unclear how long the siege would last.
Police were nowhere to be seen near the station on the outskirts of Oaxaca.
Station director Mercedes Rojas said the state had filed a criminal compliant against the protesters.
The standoff is the latest in a wave of confrontations related to a teacher's strike that has driven most tourists out of this southern Mexican colonial city.
Tensions have been on the rise since June, when state police attacked a demonstration of striking teachers who had occupied the historic central plaza, demanding a wage increase.
Since then, thousands of teachers, unionists and leftists have camped out in the plaza, spray-painting buildings with revolutionary slogans, smashing hotel windows and building makeshift barricades.
The unrest has badly hit one of Mexico's top cultural tourist attractions, where visitors normally browse traditional markets for Indian handicrafts, hike ancient pyramids and stroll along cobblestone streets.
Officials recently cancelled a prominent cultural festival because of fears that tourists and residents would be injured if violence erupted.
Tourism in the area is down by three quarters, costing the city more than £20 million. |
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