Update from Oaxaca, pt 3 : AZ IMC

Left out of the last update was the fact that the Mexican Federal Preventative Police (PFP) were yesterday afternoon storming areas of the Miguel Aleman neighborhood, going house by house looking to arrest certain key figures in the APPO.

At this moment, the PFP are concentrated inside Oaxaca City’s Zocalo, or central plaza, and are blocking all entrances with in riot gear with batons, assault weapons, and gas masks. Some entrances are backed up by “mini-tanks”, armored vehicles equipped with cowcatcher plows and high-pressure water guns mounted on rotating turrets on top of the vehicle.

Protestors are gathered at all entrances. Some are sluggish, standing around and talking to each other, while other larger groups are actively taunting police, and some rocks have been thrown. New barricades are being built, small lines of tires, a few new vehicles blocking intersections, nothing comparable to what had been constructed before, but not all old barricades have been removed, and many burnt cars and busses still ring the Zocalo. At least one car is burning at this moment, and there are a handful of tire fires as well.

Mexican president Vicente Fox claimed today that “holy peace” had arrived to Oaxaca, but that is certainly not the case. The PFP seems to be playing a defensive role at the moment, holding the Zocalo, undoubtedly while preparing for another offensive, but the city is still tense and the situation is far from resolved. There are reports that there is a PFP presence in other areas of the city, but in the historic downtown area they’ve taken all officers off the street corners and are only in the Zocalo.

The response to the movement, both nationally and internationally, has been strong. There are Indymedia and infoshop.org reports of protests and occupations at Mexican consulates across the US and in Spain. In addition to other activities, at least 400 APPO supporters in Mexico City are at this moment marching towards the offices of the Secretaria de Gobernacion, the Mexican equivalent of the Secretary of the Interior. The Mexican National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE) has declared indefinite work stoppages in several states in protest of PFP presence in Oaxaca. However, Reyes Tamez, the Mexican Secretary of Education, said today that roughly 4,000 of the 13,000 schools in Oaxaca were starting classes today. This was confirmed by the leader of Oaxaca SNTE section 22, Enrique Rueda Pacheco. Rueda Pacheco is viewed by many teachers and APPO members as selling out the movement by agreeing to return to classes before governor Ortiz was out of office.