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By Patrick Harrington
Bloomberg
Friday 03 November 2006
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Mexico's next president, Felipe Calderon, will inherit an old battle over wealth and poverty that may force him to
spend more on the country's southern poor than he had anticipated.
A five-month revolt by thousands of teachers and free-trade opponents in Oaxaca state is a replay of conflicts between
the central government and the poor that have erupted several times since the 1980s. The protesters' demands range from
the resignation of the state governor and imposition of a socialist system to better pay for farmers.
President Vicente Fox sent more than 4,500 federal police into Oaxaca City Oct. 29 to restore order. The rebellion will
ensure that Calderon, who takes office Dec. 1, spends more money on narrowing the income gap between Mexico's North and
South, said Jorge Chabat, a political science professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching in Mexico City.
"The challenge for Calderon is not just in Oaxaca but in all of Mexico's southern states, where there is very little
distribution of wealth and inequality is much greater than in the North," Chabat said. "The federal government is going
to have to intervene if they don't want to see movements like the one in Oaxaca in several states."
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