Mexico: Crisis deepens in Oaxaca after the police stormed the embattled city

National leftist leaders protested to support the Popular Assembly that have ousted the controversial governor.

Soon after Mexico’s federal police stormed the embattled city of Oaxaca to take away it from the ruling Popular Assembly, leftist national leaders rallied to support the movement that had ousted the controversial governor of what was once a peaceful resort. The reaction came as leaders of the Assembly denounced that Monday’s air-land operation involving 1,536 federal officers resulted in two deaths and over 50 arrests.

The National Democratic Convention and the Progressive Wide Front lead by the opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rallied on Tuesday to support Oaxaca people. The country’s powerful leftist movement showed their solidarity with Oaxaca’s people and reiterated their condemnation of the use of public force to solve social and political problems.

A statement signed by the former Mexico’s City mayor, Lopez Obrador, said that the police deployment has extended the possibilities of more victims and greater violence increase. “The intervention of the Preventive Federal Police (PFP) into Oaxaca city did not solve the conflict, rather deepened the political crisis,“ assured the text.

In the meantime, chaos reigned in Oaxaca, where street violence continues as Mexico’s Senate urged the State governor to resign. Thousands of protesters also faced off with police outside the city's central main plaza, screaming "Murderers! Murderers!" as they lit fires and tossed Molotov cocktails and fireworks toward the police lines.

On May 22, a strike for better pay by Oaxaca's 70,000-member teacher's union spiraled into a catch-all protest, with activists occupying state buildings, and radio and television stations, and demanding Ruiz's resignation.

Ruiz on Monday returned to offices he had been forced out of months ago by the protesters. But he is only supported by federal troops as is now very unpopular among the local population. Not to mention that police control of the city remained only partial at best; new barricades sprung up on the road to his offices in a matter of hours after police had cleared the way.

Incumbent President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, had resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to Oaxaca until gunfire killed a U.S. activist-journalist and two residents on Friday. On Monday, Fox said social order and peace had been "restored" in the city.

Since May Oaxaca’s popular uprising and the subsequent crackdown on protesters headed by State and federal forces left at least 13 killed and tens of wounded.

Hernan Etchaleco
Pravda.ru

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Author`s name Dmitry Sudakov
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