After Violent Clashes with Leftists Yesterday, Mexican Federal Police Arrive in Oaxaca (Translation)

El Universal ( Mexico City ) ^ | October 28, 2006 | J.O. Ochoa and A. Torres ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

That's a PRI-affiliated web site. Did you notice that their "news" page links to former President Ernesto Zedillo's web site?

[Thunder90]

I agree. If the Oxaita protest is pushed too much, the AMLO elements will begin to riot themselves.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

"PEDRO MATÍAS/ROSALÍA VERGARA
Viernes negro para Oaxaca. La ciudad quedó literalmente sitiada y paralizada la entidad en medio de barricadas y bloqueos carreteros, lo que desencadenó balaceras en 15 puntos estratégicos de esta capital, que dejó hasta el momento dos muertos, entre ellos, el camarógrafo estadounidense Bradley Roland Hill y el maestro Emilio Alonso Fabián, además de 10 heridos, un desaparecido y al parecer tres profesores secuestrados.
El portavoz de la APPO, Florentino López Martínez, confirmó la muerte del camarógrafo de Indymedia Nueva York, Estados Unidos, y del profesor del sector D-III-34 de Candelaria Loxicha, y dijo que decretaron la “Alerta máxima” ante nuevos ataques perpetrados por el gobierno del estado y apoyados en las autoridades municipales priístas."

The story is being manipulated.

http://www.noticias-oax.com.mx/

[StJacques]

"The story is being manipulated"

Yes it is. I'm going to put up a translation of that for the rest of our group who may show up.

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Black Friday for Oaxaca. The city left literally besieged and the state paralyzed in the midst of barricades and major highway blockades, which triggered shootouts in 15 strategic points of this capital, which up to now left two dead, among them, the U.S. camera photographer Bradley Roland Hill and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabian, and 10 wounded moreover, one person disappeared and what appears to be three kidnapped teachers.

The spokesman for APPO, Florentino Lopez Martinez, confirmed the death of the camera photographer of Indymedia, New York, United States, and of the teacher of sector D-III-34 of Candelaria Loxicha, and said that they decreed a "Maximum Alert" facing new attacks perpetrated by the state government and supported in the PRI-controlled municipal authorities.
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There's no mention of APPO doing anything, one might just get the feeling from reading the above that they are nothing but a peaceful group of people struggling on in the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, blah! blah! blah!

No one's heard about APPO and their actions yesterday ...

This is APPO at Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca yesterday:

[StJacques]

Thunder90 I meant to ping you to my #24 just posted and forgot.

It's late and I'm a little off my game.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Your pix links no workie no more!

[StJacques]

This has to do with page refresh issues. Click on "pings" and go to "My Comments" and then click on the title for this thread to reload the page and see the pics.

Blogspot.com pics do this on occasion.

[livius]

Great picture!

The teachers were just a pawn in this; the left is famous for using "the people" and then crushing them on its ascent to power.

Regardless of whether Ruiz is a lousy governor or not, he is the elected governor and should stay in place until there is some legitimate legal process undertaken by the state and the government of Mexico for his removal. If the radical left wins in Oaxaca, they are going to be trying this in other states soon.

I am thinking that to some extent Fox held off because he may have regarded this as an internecine dispute between leftists and felt that the presence of federal authorities would complicate the issue. But it seems to me that the principle of the stability of an elected government and the rule of law are the things actually being challenged here, and that if the radical left wins here, any provocation (that is, somebody or something they don't like) will be sufficient for them to try this elsewhere.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Leftist playbook. Cause civil unrest and violence. Destabilize society. Use the confusion to step in and establish a communist paradise.
Looks like they are having some success.
The left and the jihadists are both trying to overthrow peaceful civilizations. Both have to be stopped. Both are being encouraged and actively helped by the left.

[Founding Father]

StJacques--no real good place to post this so I stuck it here and hopefully it will be read.

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Friday, October 27, 2006
POLL NUMBERS!!! October 27, 2006
Back with polls from the four final races of the year in Latin America. The numbers from two weeks ago are here.

In Nicaragua, Cid Gallup says it's Ortega 33, Montealegre 22, Rizo 17, Jarquin 13.
Borge has it Ortega 34, Montealegre 29.
U Central America did a huge sample ballot and came up with Ortega 38, Rizo 20, Montealegre 17.
Zogby has the race Ortega 35, Montealegre 20, Rizo 16.

In Venezuela, Zogby has the race Chavez 59, Rosales 24.
Consultores21 has the race Chavez 50, Rosales 33.
Cifras has the race Chavez 59, Rosales 22.
CECA claims the race is nearly tied and Datanalysis says Rosales is closing in.
The head of Hinterlaces agrees with me, saying that Rosales is slowly gaining and although Chavez is still likely to win, his popularity has taken a hit during the election.

In Ecuador, Informe has the race Noboa 47, Correa 34.
Cedatos has it Noboa 49, Correa 34.
Consultar has it Noboa 53, Correa 26.

In Brazil, Sensus says it's Lula 57.5, Alckmin 33.5.
Ibope has it Lula 62, Alckmin 38.
Datafolha has it Lula 61, Alckmin 39.
I feel fairly confident in saying Lula is going to win this one.

http://bloggingsbyboz.blogspot.com/

[Founding Father]

ditto my last ping

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"...nobody owns that [Venezuela's central bank] money"

Miguel, Daniel, and F. Toro have typically kept us blog readers very well informed about the ever so transparent debt bond purchases from Argentina. For those interested here is an article from the Economist that is worth a read, plus who might be getting rich?:



Oct 26th 2006 | BUENOS AIRES
From The Economist print edition
Venezuela's president tries his hand at financial arbitrage

JUST as Venezuela is known for its exports of crude, Argentina is famous for its exports of IOUs. Less than two years after it handed its creditors a world-record loss in a sovereign debt-exchange, Argentina's government has found an eager new patron in its oil-rich ally. Over the last year, the government in Caracas has bought some $3.1 billion in Argentine bonds. Is this a case of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's tub-thumping president, putting political solidarity ahead of fiscal prudence? Look closer.

The roots of the deal lie in the currency controls Mr Chávez imposed on his country during the economic meltdown of 2003. To halt capital flight, he pegged the bolívar, Venezuela's currency, to the dollar (the official rate is now 2,150 to 1), and sharply curtailed opportunities to buy dollars at that price. As a result, a black market in foreign exchange soon opened up. The bolívar could not hold its value at the kerbside—a dollar has traded for anything from 2,400 to 2,900 bolívars in the past year—adding to inflationary pressures.

However, unlike most of his countrymen, Mr Chávez can help himself to dollars from the state oil company, PDVSA, or from his own central bank at the official rate. This he did to acquire the $3.1 billion he needed to buy the dollar bonds from Argentina's government, which started issuing debt with indecent haste after completing its huge bond restructuring in mid-2005. Argentina's president, Néstor Kirchner, was more than pleased to borrow directly from Venezuela. Doing business with a fellow Latin American leftist is more palatable than asking for money from the private international lenders he repeatedly bashes. Moreover, Mr Chávez was, in effect, offering to underwrite his debt issue. Venezuela's big purchases meant that Mr Kirchner did not need to test the market's appetite for his government's bonds too deeply.

But almost as soon as he got the Argentine paper, Mr Chávez began to sell it to local Venezuelan banks, at the rate of 2,400 bolívars to the dollar. All told, his government off-loaded $2.4 billion-worth of bonds, pocketing a tidy profit. How tidy? His finance team eagerly announced a gain of $309m to the press last month; though the true figure may be a bit different.
The banks too were happy. They were free to sell the bonds abroad for dollars, which they promptly did for a handsome profit. Some of them converted the greenbacks back into bolívars at black-market rates, others hung on to them. Either way, this new source of foreign exchange has relieved pressure on the black market; the bolívar has stabilised and one source of inflationary pressure has eased.

Within Venezuela, critics have complained not about the deal itself, but about who was in on it, and who wasn't. The government has still not revealed its method of choosing which banks would be eligible for a chunk of the massive return Mr Chávez was offering. “Any operation that hands out $300m discretionally, regardless of the mechanism, is a clear incentive for corruption,” says Alejandro Grisanti of the Caracas consultancy Ecoanalítica. In the absence of an open bidding process, government officials were free to route the Argentine bonds to banks already supportive of Mr Chávez, to tie the sale to future support, or to receive payments or favours in exchange for offering them.But despite this carping, can the two presidents not congratulate themselves on a clever financial manoeuvre that had something for everybody who was party to it? Argentina's government found a reliable customer for its debt; Mr Chávez achieved lower inflation and a $309m profit for the Venezuelan exchequer; and the local banks divvied up a further gain of $250m-300m.

Unfortunately, there are no free lunches, and there is one big, hidden loser in this transaction: the Venezuelan central bank. Mr Chávez, in effect, plundered its reserves for about $580m, both by forcing it to sell him dollars at the official exchange rate, and by taking dollars from the state oil company that traditionally went to the central bank. That is a heavy loss to the country, which might need its reserves in a pinch. “But no one's going to complain,” says Walter Molano of BCP Securities, “because nobody owns that money.”



So who could be getting rich? Well Juan C. Escotet the owner of Banesco seems to be doing quite well by expanding into the US market. Throw in deposits form the military and Banesco I'm sure is swimming in money. I also wonder if the Makarem and Valbuena family have expanded into the banking system. One would think they would since they already hold business dealings in the oil industry (Petrotulsa), fake polling agencies (North American Opinion Research) , and legal and consulting offices (click here to read more in depth on the topic), among a few other business ventures. So why not expand into the lucrative banking systems too?

http://venezuela-usa.blogspot.com/

[StJacques]

"The left and the jihadists are both trying to overthrow peaceful civilizations. Both have to be stopped. Both are being encouraged and actively helped by the left."

You know; a couple of years ago I would have argued with you that the goals of the left and the jihadists were radically different, at least in terms of their immediate effect. But after what I've seen over the past two years I'm going to stop and say that, in the final analysis, you are right.

[StJacques]

I'm just posting a general update on the Oaxacan situation for the moment, since I won't have time to sit down and do any translating until later this afternoon. But in one sentence, it appears clear that there is not going to be a negotiated way out of this from the federal perspective, or at least not until they put APPO in a very weakened position so as to force them to deal honestly.

The following are the news items of note up on El Universal:

APPO has put up new barricades and strengthened existing ones to prevent the Federal Preventive Police from entering the city center, especially along the Oaxaca-Mexico highway where they evidently see evidence of a PFP advance.

APPO has called on its followers not to confront the PFP. This may mean that APPO is hoping for a positive response from the federal government to its offer to reenter negotiations or it could mean they don't want a fight until the PFP reaches the city center. APPO says it wants to bring "a class of civility" to the people of Mexico. Ahem! They have ordered a withdrawal of their supporters facing the PFP.

The PFP has already moved to within five kilometers of the city center. Some locals of the outlying areas of Oaxaca City are not reacting favorably to their approach, though there have been no confrontations reported.

The PFP are bringing armored cars into Oaxaca City in preparation for an evident move to enter the center of the city. Seven armored cars equipped "to remove obstacles" and carrying water cannons.

The PFP has already begun taking down APPO barricades in outlying areas. This means they have freed up the Procurator of Justice offices and the "official house of Government" (I don't know if this means the Governor's house or not), which are located between the airport and the city center.

Finally; the PFP is shutting down highway access to Oaxaca City, especially along the "international highway," which I assume to be the "Pan American Highway." This may fall under the heading of "securing your flank" prior to entering the city's center.

So that's everything of note -- there are numerous smaller stories about APPO activists burning fires in city streets, a PFP officer killed in an accident, local residents worried about the outcome, etc. -- up to this time. We will all be waiting to see if the PFP intends to enter the Zocalo capital square forcefully later today, which is where the mierda might really hit the fan.

I'll be checking back in later this afternoon.

[norton]

"There's no mention of APPO doing anything, one might just get the feeling from reading the above that they are nothing but a peaceful group of people struggling on in the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, blah! blah! blah!"

FOX News reported today that the protesters were "teachers and poor people".

I think they also made sure to note that the Indymedia guy was shot by police.

[DaoPian]

Ha! That is exactly the stuff my wife told me this morning exactly. She too mentioned Gandhi. The more extreme memes going around actually claim Will was "assassinated by paramilitary police sent by Ruiz". I had to spend about 20 minutes on Skype this morning explaining the nuances of collateral damage vs. planned assassination. She finally agreed to not use that term unless she had proof. She was just about to blame Bush, but I had to go get another cup of coffee and had to sign out.

[Jack Black]

Here, I've tried to make a "show and tell" story using the pictures on the web that even a demented leftist can understand. Link is here.