Oaxaca: After the Barricades (#4)

[struggle4progress]

To Speak and Be Heard: Making Rights a Reality in the 2006 Oaxaca Social Movement

Lynn Stephen | July 17, 2008
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

... Elected amid widespread charges of electoral fraud in 2004, Governor Ruiz Ortíz (also known as URO) took office with a pledge that there would be no more social protests in the streets and public spaces of Oaxaca. He moved the seats of the state senate and the governor's palace to the sleepy, pottery-producing town of San Bartolo Coyotepec in an attempt to dissuade the continual occupations of these public governance spaces by relocating them outside of the capital city of Oaxaca. His removal and re-inscribing of state governance spaces as well as his brutal treatment of social protesters and anyone who criticized his government set the stage for a prolonged period of conflict, polarization, and violence that intensified during the summer and fall of 2007 (see LASA 2007, Martínez Vásquez 2007).

After state and local police attempted unsuccessfully to violently evict thousands of teachers from the Oaxaca Zocalo on June 14, 2006, efforts by the teachers in Sección 22 of the CNTE, members of the APPO, and others to force the resignation of the state governor intensified, as did protests of official state cultural events and the occupation of state and federal buildings.

By the time I arrived in Oaxaca in July, 20061 the teachers and those affiliated with APPO controlled the center of the city. Soon after arriving, I went out to observe and film a protest. The protest was a gathering of APPO members in a local park who were trying to prevent a Oaxaca-state sponsored official Guelaguetza celebration from being performed, albeit on a small scale. Guelaguetza refers to the institution of reciprocal exchange in Zapotec, but in the hands of the state came to refer to a commercialized festival of folkloric dances and gift-showering with a high admission price. Many locals never attended the event because of its prohibitive price tag ...

On Aug. 1, 2006, I was driving on the Pan-American Highway from Teotitlán del Valle to Oaxaca and turned on the radio to FM 96.9, one of the radio stations that belonged to the Oaxacan Corporation of Radio and Television (Corporación Oaxaqueña de Radio y Televisión or COR-TV). The TV and radio stations were known locally as Canal 9/Channel 9. Usually during that time of day the station had a program of mixed music including jazz and reggae. But that day, a young woman was announcing that she and a larger group of women had just taken over the TV and radio stations. "We have taken over Channel 9. Right now we are seeing if the technicians are going to stay and if they can make an agreement to help us with our television transmissions ... we are waiting to see if they will answer the call of the people to stay and help us with our transmissions. If not, we will be calling for other technicians to come and help us with our TV transmissions ... All of the workers who are here have been treated well" ...

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5384