The unfolding events in Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, should be of great interest to Americans because the outcome will profoundly affect the future of Mexican society and U.S.-Mexican relations on issues including immigration.
Federal riot police, backed by tanks and helicopters, are preparing to attack protesters in the capital city, also called Oaxaca, to end the turbulent protests which have lasted for months.

President Vicente Fox ordered in the federales after three people were killed on Friday, including a New York photographer, Bradley Roland Will. He was shot twice in the abdomen by a plainclothes police officer, according to witnesses. According to an article in today’s (online) New York Times, Mr. Will was a well-known activist on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He was filming for Indypendent, “a radical collective that published a weekly newspaper and maintained a Web site dedicated to subjects like immigration, the Iraq war and the struggles of the developing world.” The Times article continues:

“The Oaxaca attorney general, Lizbeth Cana, labeled the protesters urban guerrillas and said it was understandable that local people were lashing out at them violently. ‘The people are fed up with permanent violence, threats and kidnappings,’ she said, according to The Associated Press. But the mayor of a nearby town said the five men being detained for possible involvement in Mr. Will’s killing were not disgruntled ordinary local citizens but police officers and local officials.”

The struggle began in May, when the state’s 70,000 schoolteachers went on strike, as they have done in every year since 1980. This year the demands included higher pay, more schools in remote villages, and free breakfast and uniforms for all students.

According to an article in The American Prospect, “The strike mushroomed in size and significance this year after [Governor Ulises] Ruiz ordered the use of tear gas and police power on June 14 to try and disperse protestors. The violent police action outraged many in the city, and as a result the teachers’ union, in coalition with other groups including farmers’ cooperatives, Indian rights organizations, and revolutionary parties, revised their demands to include the governor stepping down from power.”

The teachers reached an agreement last week, but the protesters have not backed down from their demands that Ruiz be removed and corruption in government be eliminated.


The confrontation should be seen as a prelude to the impending crisis over presidential succession. On December 1st President Vicente Fox’s is due to hand over power to Felipe Calderon, of Fox’s PAN party, who the courts have said won July’s presidential election.

It’s a situation similar to that in this country in 2000, except that unlike the gutless Democrats here, the declared loser of the election, Manuel Lopez Obrador, has suggested that he will set up a parallel government and shadow cabinet. In sending the federal riot police to “restore order” in Oaxaca, Fox is also sending a clear message to the poor and disenfranchised of Mexico City and throughout the country, that any attempt to contest the succession of Calderon will meet with similar repression.

This is undoubtedly the most explosive situation Mexico has faced since 1968, when police massacred hundreds – perhaps thousands – of protesters in Tlatelolco, Mexico City.

Who will win? The answer was foreshadowed in the Times article which reported the following incident:
“Riot police stood in formation across the main highway leading to Mexico City, facing down protesters waving white flags and protest signs 20 feet away.
“A demonstrator, Gloria Juarez, approached the officers and stuck white roses and carnations in their black uniforms.
“‘It makes me sad that they want to kill my people,’ she said. ‘I want to change their hearts.’”
How many more Gloria Juarezes are there? And will the police and military heed their pleas?
Will Lopez Obrador play a role similar to that of Francisco Madero, who led the revolution that overthrew the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz in 1911, only to be murdered less than two years later by the forces of reaction? That was followed by two decades of terrible bloodshed. Will the Mexican workers and their leaders have learned any lessons from that bitter experience?
And what will be the role of the Bush Administration? One important reason for the poverty and unrest in Mexico and the flight of workers northward is the draconian social policies imposed by the Washington-based World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Porfirio Diaz famously said: “Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States.” I doubt that Mexico is any closer to God, but it is much closer to the U.S. when you consider all the modern military technology of the juggernaut to the north. The American economy was expanding then; now we are the world’s leading debtor nation. And Bush is no Woodrow Wilson.

Thanks for the positive comments. No one brought up my new word, which I’ve decided for now to move from the text to the title. If it’s gonna fly, or go down in flames, it might as well be on top. If the piece gets published, it should be an attention-grabber

Thanks to Phil for the link to the Cal Thomas column. Go to Archives, Oct. 26:
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?catid=1117