Oaxacan leftists (APPO) threaten to expand and unite protest with Lopez Obrador (Translation)

El Universal ( Mexico City ) ^ | November 13, 2006 | Alejandro Torres & Jorge Octavio Ochoa ( translated by self )

[StJacques]

APPO will reactivate blockades in Oaxaca

They also agree to extend their protests against the government over which Felipe Calderon Hinojosa will preside if when he begins his mandate Ulises Ruiz Ortiz still remains in his position [as Governor of Oaxaca].

Alejandro Torres & Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondents
El Universal (Mexico City)
Oaxaca City, Oaxaca
Monday 13 November 2006

1:17 p.m.   Reinstalling barricades, taking state public offices and town councils, and the closure of major highways are some of the conclusions which the constituent congress of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) approved upon concluding its work early this Monday morning.

The 1,700 delegates to the congress, representing eight regions of the state and of the labor, native people, student, union, and the suburban secotrs, reiterated that the demand for the fall of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz is neither negotiable nor renounceable.

To release the resolutions of the constituent congress, Zenen Bravo Castellanos, who acted as President of Speaker's Desk, said that APPO also will extend its protests against the Government over which Felipe Calderon Hinojosa will preside if when he begins his mandate, starting December 1, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz still remains in his position [as Governor of Oaxaca].

The delegates to the congress also approved that APPO be run by a collective body without a particular leader. The organ of leadership of that movement will be a state council composed of 260 people who will represent the eight regions of the state and the different sectors who adhere to APPO.

Moreover, said council will include as honorary members ex-political prisoners and those who have had arrest orders [issued] against them for their participation in the movement.

Over the course of this Monday the state council will take up in its time the different committees in which they will distribute the tasks of the nascent organization.

Zenen Bravo explained in a press conference, at the beginning of a march of some thousand APPO members, that the plan of action of the organization contemplates, among other means, the reactivation of the mobile brigades who would blockade the state public offices, in addition to reinstalling barricades and carrying out blockades of the major highways in the state.

"The proposal is to demonstrate what there is no governability," he explained. He said that, within the bosom [of the organization], they are still about to set the moment in which they will bring about such actions.

  

[StJacques]

Somewhere in Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is smiling. His protest against the July 2nd presidential election, in which Felipe Calderon -- now preparing to take office the first of December -- was declared the winner, has for the most part fizzled into a sideshow that is nowhere near the level of intensity Lopez Obrador and his allies demonstrated in July, August, and early September. And just when it seemed that the Fox presidency might end on the high note of a resolved conflict in Oaxaca, which was a sideshow throughout AMLO's protest, giving Mexico a break by dealing with each crisis in its proper turn, the two may now be coming together as one. And judging by the spate of news stories up in the Mexican press today, everyone is now beginning to turn their attention to the impending presidential transition, now less than three weeks away and for perhaps the first time APPO is a major player in the presidential succession. This is something new.

In Mexico City the leftist PRD Party has threatened to disrupt the proceedings of the presidential transition if the event is not rescheduled to take place somewhere other than the National Legislature in the San Lazaro district. Calderon's staff shot back that there will be no alternative seat and assured everyone that the transition will take place as scheduled. With memories of the PRD members taking the rostrum away from President Vicente Fox in September still on everyone's minds, when the managing desks of the legislature did not use police power to clear the way, this time the PAN leaders assure that public force will be used if it is necessary. That's the first official threat of the use of force I have seen stated directly in all my examination of this controversy. And finally, the PRI Party assures it will support Calderon's transition and that it will be present at the ceremony, wherever it may be.

In Oaxaca, tensions remain high, but things have settled somewhat. Officials are beginning to address the problem of replacing all the public transport vehicles APPO destroyed in their protests. This damage has been estimated at hundreds of millions of pesos. Over most of the rest of Oaxaca City, it is a daily routine of constant APPO protests meant more to harass the federal police presence in the city than to inflict damage. Schools are reopening in many parts of the state, but I do not have a clear picture as to what is driving this or what the percentage of schools reopened are at the moment. Benito Juarez University has reopened, so there is some semblance of normality at the site of the recent clash between the Federal Preventive Police (PFP), who still control the center of Oaxaca City, and APPO-inspired students. And in spite of the PRD's call for the withdrawal of the PFP, Fox has refused.

It is difficult to tell whether APPO's threat to join in Lopez Obrador's protest of Calderon's accession to the presidency bodes ill for the maintenance of peace through the process. But the attention of everyone is now shifting back to Mexico City, which is where we will likely see the most telling evidence of its effect.

[StJacques]

A Mexican Left Watch ping for you all.

Anyone wishing to be added to the ping list may contact me via Freepmail or post within this thread.

[Alia]

From Article: "But the attention of everyone is now shifting back to Mexico City, which is where we will likely see the most telling evidence of its effect."

This, I have no doubts, was the intended goal of the PRD/APPO, in the first place. Start somewhere south of Mexico City and pinch the populations between the two centers of Obrador's intentions, with an arm south of Oaxaca spreading to Central America, meeting Chavez' Klan at tip. A metastasizing Socialist cancer, topographical positioning.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

I predict that the majority of Mexicans will think Obragore has a sour grapes/ sore loser problem. He will be marginalized like ALgore.

[StJacques]

The possibility of a leftist "seizure" of much of southern Mexico must now be treated more seriously in the wake of the announcement of what is, according to the language they use, an impending APPO-Lopez Obrador alliance. I personally think a widespread challenge to "governability" is possible across Oaxaca, Chiapas, and even touching into areas like Morelos, portions of Guerrero and Tabasco. But I do not think it will happen.

The matter of the presidential succession will now be played out with higher stakes on the board. That is what this really all amounts to in my opinion.

[StJacques]

". . . He will be marginalized like Algore."

Right now, he is marginalized. But the prospect of APPO reviving his fortunes raises some dangerous implications. And if Calderon's succession is disrupted in just the wrong way, in some manner in which it is "delegitimized," Lopez Obrador may then feel himself revived. But APPO has been much more dangerous in its tactics than AMLO and the PRD ever were in Mexico City. That is not reassuring.

[goldfinch]

Please add me to the ping list. This is an interesting situation...

[A CA Guy]

THe bastard is a communist with all the big union labor communists behind them. They won't get gored as easily IMO.

[StJacques]

I got you on the list. And welcome!

[Alia]

The matter of the presidential succession will now be played out with higher stakes on the board. That is what this really all amounts to in my opinion.

So, the point is to sway what platforms will be given to the appo/prd as a compromise, placating move?

[Truth29]

A missed opportunity to lock up all 1700 APPO delegates?

[StJacques]

"So, the point is to sway . . ."

The real danger in Lopez Obrador's protest has always been that he might force the federal government in Mexico to overreact and provide the Left with a provocación they could use to rally support among their base, which truly could promote mass ingovernability. With APPO now adding its voice to the PRD the chances of a provocación are far greater with APPO and the PFP staring at each other quite nervously in Oaxaca City right now. Pro-APPO protests in Mexico City recently have also been worrisome. They are student-dominated and show much less restraint that the pro-AMLO PRD-led demonstrations we were witnessing this past summer. Bringing APPO into the mix clearly raises the stakes.

[rovenstinez]

People in OaXaca have had one barricade to deal with, now face TWO. The obstructions put up by APPO and now the Security Forces of the Fed. Gov't. Estimates that 20% of the population has gone NORTH, mostly to Mexico City are reasonable. And for those up in the FARTHER North, be warned, many of the population working undocumented jobs in America, are from the FAR SOUTH, where politics is not decided in debates, Internet Blogs, and TV ads, but it is violent, street waged IN YOUR FACE, 'give me what I want or ELSE'.

[kidd]

Thanks for your report.

APPO and AMLO have entirely different goals. Any hint that this "unified front" is being driven by an outside agitator (Chavez, Ortega)?

[StJacques]

". . . Any hint that this "unified front" is being driven by an outside agitator . . ."

We have evidence that Venezuelan "activists" are circulating through the "Bolivarian Circles" associated with APPO (see this thread through post #2 and more) in Oaxaca and we also know (see comments in previous link) that Venezuelans are actively involved with Lopez Obrador. That's a pretty strong hint.

[kidd]

In that case, this is an invasion by proxy.

The use of force to maintain order is warranted and necessary. Another good move by the Mexican federal government.

[Alia]

I see. Thank you.

[StJacques]

". . . Estimates that 20% of the population has gone NORTH . . ."

What worries me about migrants leaving Oaxaca for Mexico City and its environs is that they are the good people Oaxaca needs to fix its problems. If Oaxaca's good people are in Mexico City Oaxaca will suffer for their absence.

[Thunder90]

If there is a leftist seizure of Southern and Central Mexico, you can gurantee that Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba will show up to assist. And, that would bring in "Ex" soviet advisors (AKA Spetsnaz), and Chicoms too.