Help Clue the Clueless: Oaxaca

[Posteritatis]

*dons his The Clueless hat*

Okay, so something's been going on in the city of Oaxaca as far as the growing protests against the Mexican election (or "election" or selection or whatever it is - insufficient data, at least in my as-yet ignorant head). I've seen news articles here and there over the last couple of days saying one thing or another - that there's been shots fired there, that the city's been overtaken by peaceful demonstrations, etc. Past that, all I know (thanks to an earlier thread here, at that!) is that it's apparently a fairly large city known for tourist festivals and that folks seem to speak well of the place and its population.

That's also about the bulk of what I've been able to get out of the news so far, being on the opposite corner of the continent in a country traditionally not that interested in Mexico, and juggling a bunch of other more pressing concerns at the same time. Past that the main thing I know about Mexican politics is that they're emerging from a fairly long period as a de facto one-party state, and there's obviously going to be growing pains with that. So I'm wondering if someone or folks in general could help paint a picture for those of us whose radars don't reach the place but want to know what's up.

So what has been going on there, and for how long? Is it "just" continued demonstrations, or are more drastic things happening? How's the government responding, if it has? Is there precedent in the past for this sort of thing, and if so, what ended up coming out of it? Is this happening in other towns and cities in Mexico (probably the most important thing to know!)?

[fasttense]

1. Here are some links about it.

The last link is more in-depth and more recent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060721/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_oaxaca_unrest_1

http://deletetheborder.org/node/1354

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/21/world/main1825445.shtml

[dipsydoodle]

2. Also try this site

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={C0E43990-8BCE-47C8-85E3-68D7C955257B})&language=EN

That's a Latin American News Agency the link to which I found here on DU a few weeks ago.

[Peace Patriot]

3. The Oaxaca protest, which is massive, and started before the

stolen election protests, was triggered by a brutal (state) government assault on striking teachers, in the night when they were asleep at a campout protest, with tear gas and thousands of police. The local community was outraged. The protesters' particular target is Gov. Ruiz, whom they accuse of stealing the 2004 state elections, and of oppressive rule. Teachers, other union members, farmers and many other local people--many sober, upstanding people, with an investment in their community--have taken over the city of Oaxaca, and old state government offices, and are PEACEFULLY establishing an alternative government (by a methods spelled out in the Constitution of the State of Oaxaca--an indigenous-based method of consensus decision-making). Ruiz moved government offices outside of town, to avoid the frequent protests of his rule, and turned the old state gov't offices into a museum. The protesters have taken over the museum and turned them back into offices for the alternative government. The protest is so massive (I've seen estimates of a million people) that Fox doesn't dare move against them. The recent stolen presidential election came in the midst of this, and protests against that have been added to the original protests. The region is largely brown, indigenous and poor. An example of their grievances: The local festival has been turned into a tourist event, with a per head ticket cost of $42, which local people cannot afford. They suspended the tourist event, and held their own free-entry festival.

Here's a good source: http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1964.html. The main page also has lots of great info: www.narconews.com.

The Oaxaca movement is part of a much bigger, and truly profound Leftist movement that is sweeping Latin America--with Leftist governments elected in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia, and growing movements in Peru and even in Columbia. The movement is based on the foundation of TRANSPARENT elections (long hard work by the OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups, and local civic groups.) (U.S. voters, take note!) In Mexico, it started with the Zapatistas, began to gel with the big campesino protests at the WTO meeting in Cancun in 2003 (big revolt of third world countries, led by Brazil), and has found political expression in Mexico in the remarkable candidacy of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a true populist, former mayor of Mexico City (where 1.2 million people recently demonstrated, demanding a full and real handcount of the recent, hairsbreadth-close presidential election--supposedly won by the corporatist and rep of the super-rich, Felipe Calderon, by only .06). As the recently elected, first indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has said: "The time of the people has come."

And I believe him. This movement is unstoppable.

------------

See also www.venezuelanalysis.com - for developments in South America.

[bananas]

4. see this thread

lots of discussion of Oaxaca the other day: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2405744&mesg_id=2406144

also lots of real news here: http://www.narconews.com/en.html