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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2006 
Fresh Violence Flares in Oaxaca
 Frank Jack Daniel - Reuters
| | A member of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) stands at the scene after a shooting, during a protest in Oaxaca City October 11, 2006. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Masked protesters hijacked buses and forced government workers from offices in the Mexican city of Oaxaca on Wednesday as violence reignited in the troubled tourist town.
Striking teachers and leftist activists occupied much of the colonial city four months ago, storming Congress and blocking hundreds of streets in an effort to oust state Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Fears of violence before Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon takes office in December had eased after protesters tentatively agreed this week to loosen their grip while a Senate commission studies whether Ruiz has lost control.
But gunmen shot at a group of about 100 masked protesters who roamed Oaxaca in hijacked public buses, demanding government workers who were trickling back to their offices go home.
A Reuters photographer saw a gunman firing a pistol at masked, fleeing protesters as a handful of people ran out of one government building. Protest leaders said one demonstrator was wounded by the gunfire.
News reports said teachers had postponed a planned return to classes pending a decision on Ruiz's future, and that a group of senators who planned to visit the city on a fact-finding mission on Wednesday had called off the trip.
A protester who declined to give his name displayed several bullet casings he had picked up in the street. "I hope the senators that visit us in Oaxaca see that things are out of control," he said.
Referring to Wednesday's protesters, Interior Minister Carlos Abascal told reporters, "Every time we get near a solution ... there are violent people who act in this way."
WIDESPREAD POVERTY
The protesters accuse Ruiz of stealing an election, using police violence to break up protests and ignoring widespread poverty in Oaxaca. He belongs to a traditional wing of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years until 2000.
"I hope there is a solution before I take power," Calderon, who belongs to outgoing President Vicente Fox's party, said in a television interview late on Wednesday. He takes office on December 1.
If senators decide Oaxaca's government has lost control, it could lead to Ruiz's ouster.
Several government offices in Oaxaca had reopened in recent days and protest graffiti was painted over as Ruiz tried to show he was in control.
"They were wiping away our slogans, so we came out to prove that this city is ungovernable right now," said teacher Ruben Villavicencio, clutching a can of spray paint. Police have not entered the city center since being beaten back when they tried to break the strike in its early days.
Protest leaders tentatively agreed on Monday to scale back blockades, but many supporters say they will not leave Oaxaca unless Ruiz resigns.
Activists on Wednesday reinforced some roadblocks and threatened to shut the highway between Oaxaca and Mexico City.
Oaxaca state is popular with visitors for its beaches and Indian culture, but its remote villages are some of Mexico's poorest.
(Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan in Mexico City) |
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