Violence flares in south Mexico

[NashVegas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4782837.stm

Gunmen have fired on striking teachers marching through the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca, killing one man.

Protesters responded by setting fire to a house where the gunmen fled. They blamed Governor Ulises Ruiz for the attack, a charge his office rejected.

Tens of thousands of teachers have been on strike for weeks, demanding higher pay and the governor's resignation.

Mr Ruiz is accused of rigging the 2004 election to gain office and of using force to suppress dissent.

With all the focus on the election fraud, I thought this quite interesting.

[Peace Patriot]

1. It's quite related to election fraud, as I understand it. The trouble in

Oaxaca started with a midnight assault by the police on sleeping teachers, who were camped out in a union protest/strike. The local population rose up and created a parallel state of Oaxaca government. The Oaxaca constitution allows for a more indigenous-style form of government. This rebellion is led by pillars of the community--teachers and others--who are completely fed up with the Fox/Calderon rule in favor of corporations and the rich. The local governor of Oaxaca is especially bad. He seems to be the lead thug enforcing corporate rule. All this happened in June (--triggered initially by Ruiz's election theft in 2004). The recent presidential election--and the election theft by Fox/Calderon--is adding fuel to the fire. But of course it's the fascists who are committing violence--on the teachers, initially, in the middle of the night, and now this.

Also, there is the Zapatista rebellion--also allied with the poor in Mexico City. Lopez Obrador was the very popular mayor of Mexico City, and has a strong base of support there as well.

Basically, it's the impoverished south (impoverished by global "free piracy" policies) allied with the great majority in Mexico City (many of whom have migrated to the city because of destructive ag land policies in rural areas), against the north, where the technocrats and professionals live, who have benefited from corporate rule.

Here's an example of what Ruiz did/does (besides brutalizing striking teachers). Protests (peaceful civil protest) have become so frequent in front of state government buildings in the capital of Oaxaca that Ruiz MOVED government offices OUT OF THE CITY to avoid them. He turned the traditional main state government building into a museum. It is this "museum" that the citizen rebellion has taken over and RESTORED to government use--THEIR government! So, if you read crap in the corporate press about wild-eyed leftist revolutionaries "invading" a museum, you'll know what that building really means to the local people. Repeat after me: government of the people, by the people and for the people. And government NEAR the people!