OAXACA--In the old Indian towns and villages that were once the victims of the Aztecs, leftist protestors have been erecting barricades and fighting pitched-battles with local officials and what they describe as 'hired-thugs' and goons. This began, ironically, as a teacher's strike, but has grown with the sense that recent state elections were not secure. The AP is reporting that 'leftists have blocked streets for months demanding the ouster of Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz. They claim the state government has sent gunmen and thugs to provoke them.' The story that Fox has just sent Police troops into Oaxaca is untrue, Federales have been spotted in a number of acts of unprovoked-violence against citizens of the city, and protestors.An American journalist has also been killed in shootouts, and it appears our ambassador to Mexico is conceding it was by Mexican Police from Oaxaca. Local leftists want the PRI-governor to resign based on what they claim was a fixed-election in 2004, and have seized TV and Radio stations, as well as running-out the local Police. It doesn't take a genius to understand that most Mexican states are run by corrupt, incompetant modern-day campesinos who brutalize their mostly-impoverished subjects through the corrupt Policia. People can only take so much, and it resulted in the situation we have today. But, the job of the press is to make you forget or ignore the context that led to all this. People have to be pushed to this, remember that much.
Ruiz has been appealing to President Vincente Fox (also PRI) for months to send Police paramilitary-units, and the President has only now responded. It appears Mexican-elections have something in-common with American ones, and that there is a stronger-desire for direct democracy in Mexico than in the USA. With indigenous leaders rising in other Latin American states, we are witness to a major-shift in the politics of the Western Hemisphere. Expect more insurrections by our neighbors, uprisings that should be supported by working-class North Americans--that means you, AFL-CIO, and all North American unions. The protestors have been holding the center of the city for months now. It will be interesting to see what this event's effect on the other contentious-election (this year's Presidential election) will be. We could be seeing the disintegration of Mexico as a modern nation state, into zones of indigenous-control and autonomy.
Expect more of the same misinformation--the cops attack the protestors, then the violence is blamed on the victims by the mainstream media.
Fox is not from the PRI. Fox defeated the PRI 10 years ago, and is from the PAN. If left alone, the country still has a good chance of improving into a true democracy. However, there are always people wanting personal power more than democraticly based governement.
ReplyDeleteWatch Obrador..... he was a PRI (rightist) official until he was not allowed the personal power he craved. Then, he started his own leftist party in order to gain personal power. He will work to build himself into power, regardless of the harm done to the country.
The common people of Oaxaca are being damaged so greatly by the manifistacions! I was there in mid-July, and they want these people out of their city. Innocent people are losing their means of living by these protesters. The closer you get to the zocolo the more revolutionary, leftist/marxist slogans you see painted on the sides of shops and people's houses. The citizens are being threatened and intimidated. They state that this will backfire on the leftist protesters some day soon.
All revolutions have their sacrifices. Do you think things get-better instantly? And how could they be any worse for most Mexicans? You're ignoring the violence of the Policia of the local/regional-government. People have had enough, so go back to your tourist-paraidise in Belize.
ReplyDeletePRI, PAN--it's all in the service of the oligarchs...
ReplyDelete