Davies: Federal Police Authorized to Enter Oaxaca
October 28, 2006
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Nancy Davies continues reporting on the chaotic and violent situation in Oaxaca after yesterday's attack by state and
local police leaving at least four dead.
Davies writes:
"President Vicente Fox, through his Secretary of Internal Affairs Carlos Abascal, has authorized the entry of the
Federal Preventive Police (PFP in its Spanish initials) into Oaxaca, in direct response to the events of October 27 in
Oaxaca. Following a declaration by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) to launch an all-out work
stoppage and boycott to force the hand of governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (known as "URO"), Institutional Revolutionary Party
(PRI) supporters, both police and private individuals, assaulted the population in several different areas of the city
on Friday. The result, according to the Radio Universidad, was four dead, thirty wounded. The dead have now been
identified as Emilio Alonso Fabián, Bradley Will and Eudocia Olivera Díaz. The fourth reported death, of Esteban Zurita
López, is at the center of accusations by both sides of the conflict, with each blaming the other.
"Airplanes full of PFP officers and riot gear have already arrived, with the police now gathered at a nearby military
base, reports the national daily El Universal.
"My analysis is that if the PFP enter the city by day, a negotiated exit is open for the APPO, possibly implying the
removal URO from office. If they come by night, they're likely coming to dislodge by force the resistance lodged in the
zocalo (central city plaza) and barricades. URO precipitated the intervention by his attacks. The question is, does the
PAN party of Fox and Calderón want to maintain URO as a sop to the PRI, or has URO become so costly that the PAN may
choose to dump him? If so, URO's setting up of the APPO backfires.
The state assembly of the local teachers' union, Section 22, called on URO to resign before November 30 and to guarantee
the physical safety of teachers returning to work, pay salaries in arrears, release political prisoners, and retract
arrest warrants for the leaders of both the APPO and Section 22, among other demands. These demands were part of the
decision of the teachers' vote to return to the schools, scheduled tentatively for October 30."
Read the whole story here:
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin