Posted on 10/29/2006 4:08:39 PM PST by ARealMothersSonForever
OAXACA, Mexico - Federal police armed with assault rifles and riot shields stormed this normally picturesque tourist destination Sunday, bypassing barricades and touching off fierce street battles as they tried to end five months of protests and violence.
Officers in black helmets entered the city from several sides, reinforced by armored vehicles, trucks mounted with high-pressure water cannons and bulldozers. Helicopters roared overhead.
Police marched up to a metal barrier blocking the historic city center — which has served as home base for the protests since late May — but pulled back as protesters armed with poles and sticks attacked them from behind, hurling burning tires.
Protesters could be seen readying Molotov cocktails and other homemade bombs, but had yet to use them against police, who fired tear gas canisters. The area filled with black smoke from burning cars. Some protesters used syringes to pierce their arms and legs, then paint signs decrying the police in blood.
"I think their strategy isn't working," said protest organizer Hugo Pacheco, leading a group against a column of police holding a position three blocks from the city center. "I don't think this has worked for them because the people, we, the people, are right."
What began in late May as a teacher's strike in this colonial southern Mexican city of some 275,000 people spiraled into chaos after local police tried to retake the central plaza the following month. Since then, anarchists, students and Indian groups demanded the ouster of Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Police and state authorities — often in plainclothes — have shot at protesters, setting off clashes in which at least eight demonstrators have died since August.
Protesters accuse Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and using thugs to kill or intimidate political opponents. They say they will not stop their protest without his resignation.
President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, resisted months of repeated calls to send federal forces to Oaxaca until Saturday, a day after gunfire killed a U.S. activist-journalist and two residents.
Fearing further violence, the president had hoped to negotiate a peaceful end to the Oaxaca unrest. But his top Cabinet member, Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal, oversaw weeks of largely talks that failed to end the standoff.
Normally a beautiful site, Oaxaca's main plaza of historic arched buildings and towering shade trees is now covered with graffiti. Protesters have set up a group of tents that serve as their base of operations.
Before the police closed in on the plaza — which they have not taken back from the protesters — they had to climb over burned-out vehicles and move past hijacked tractor-trailers, buses and sand bags blocking streets. Some residents emerged from their homes to cheer and wave white flags, others fought the police to beat back their advance.
On one major street, police buses had most of their windows shattered by protesters hurling rocks and massive chunks of concrete.
While some protesters retreated as federal forces advanced, others fortified their blockades, pledging a street-by-street defense against police.
But Bertha Munoz, one of the protesters' leaders, said many of the demonstrators were peaceful.
"How can we confront them? We have already seen the R-15 (rifles) and AK-47s they carry," she said. "What do our people have? Most have just come to bring them flowers."
In Mexico City, several hundred supporters of the Oaxaca protests converged on a hotel where Ruiz was rumored to be staying, damaging the grounds around the entrance and screaming "Murderer! Murderer!"
The government news agency Notimex reported that a vehicle transporting federal police to Oaxaca crashed Sunday, killing one officer and injuring 12. Federal officials could not confirm the report, but protesters cheered wildly as it circulated Oaxaca.
Authorities are not saying many officers were sent to Oaxaca, but protesters have estimated there are at least 4,000 in the city.
Late Saturday, protesters gathered to mourn Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old from New York who was killed Friday during a shootout between protesters and men they claim were local police on Oaxaca's outskirts.
Will, whose body was laid out in a white shirt and a glass-topped coffin at a funeral parlor near the central square, was remembered as a video and documentary-maker devoted to the protesters' cause.
A video posted by Indymedia.org showed the last minutes of footage Will shot Friday, apparently including the moment he was hit by gunfire.
U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said Will may have shot by Oaxaca police. Local authorities said five men seen brandishing pistols at the time of the shooting had been turned over to authorities. Two were identified as members of Santa Lucia's city council, two as police officers and one as a former justice of the peace from another town.
In a statement, Will's family said it was "grieving over the tragic and senseless loss of Brad's life."
The tense weekend standoff comes after teachers agreed to return to work by Monday; their strike has kept 1.3 million children out of classes across the southern state.
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Protesters could be seen readying Molotov cocktails and other homemade bombs, but had yet to use them against police
Just another peaceful Marxist uprising. All the rest of the US media said they would be tossing flowers.
Liberals always leave ugliness behind when they're done.
It's a cultural thing. The ancient Aztecs had similarly brutal behavior. At least they don't practice cannibalism anymore.
Reuters take is-
"Hundreds of chanting protesters formed in front of the riot police, waving white flags and banners. Some raised their white-painted hands to show they were unarmed and that their protest was peaceful."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061029/ts_nm/mexico_oaxaca_dc_16
AFP says-
"Although no major clashes erupted, a dozen soldiers in civilian clothes were held by demonstrators Sunday in one part of the city after they tried to pass a barricade on the route to the airport. APPO officials told AFP that the soldiers would be released quickly."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061029/wl_afp/mexicousmediaviolence_061029232642
I'm sure Hugo Chavez gave these kooks some inspiration, not to mention the local leftie Obrador with his defiance of the election results.
The best source we have in the area:
http://markinmexico.blogspot.com/
It took so long for them to start taking this seriously, I have little hope of them doing anything useful on the drug thing.
The drug cartels support the local government. The APPO is supported by Hugo Chavez and his merry men. It is impossible to call a winner on this one.
The Marxists want to take control of the drug lords, and redistribute their wealth and power.
Who are you going to root for?
I would root for the Marxist government to eliminate the drug trafficking and then lose in the next election.
They need to airdrop Dog the Bounty Hunter in there.
A good thread going here with great pics:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1728115/posts
Thanks. Crosslinked it.
"The ancient Aztecs had similarly brutal behavior. At least they don't practice cannibalism anymore."
They're cannibalizing the U.S.
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