Gabriela León
Sunday Walk to the Zocalo of Oaxaca

A BRIEF CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN OAXACA, MEXICO

Oaxaca, Mexico is a major international tourist destination, with its vibrant folklore, architecture, and scenery. It is also the second poorest state in Mexico – 75% of its 3.4 million residents live in extreme poverty.

The catalyzing event that set off the battle between a large section of the population and the Oaxacan government took place when the state's school teachers went on strike May 22, 2006, to demand raises and bigger budgets for critically under funded schools. Of note, 2006 is the 25th year running that Oaxaca’s teachers have staged a strike in front of the Governor’s offices in the zocalo (the main square).

20,000-30,000 teachers from around the state physically occupied the zocalo and the surrounding six square blocks, eating, sleeping and meeting there. Usually the strike lasts a couple of weeks: they receive a small raise, and then get back to work. When Governor Ulises Ruiz refused to budge, the teachers refused to leave the streets in the downtown historic district.

Their support and their numbers grew to the point that Governor Ruiz launched a pre-dawn raid on June 14, 2006, in which Oaxacan police on foot and in helicopters attacked the demonstrators armed with tear gas and their rifles. This proved to be a turning point that sparked the fusion and proliferation of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) all over the state of Oaxaca.

The following months in 2006 of August and October were particularly bloody. On October 27, 2006, a day after APPO called for "a popular peaceful insurrection" Indymedia reporter, Brad Will, and two local protesters, were fatally shot by a paramilitary squad that is believed to support Ulises Ruiz. But by becoming the first American journalist killed in the unrest, Will became a pretext for Mexican president Vicente Fox to send in 4,000 federal police officers to put down the revolt, which Fox characterized as "radical groups, out of control," who "had put at risk the peace of the citizenry."

The greatest repression came on November 25, 2006. The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) encircled the federal police who had been stationed in the center square of Oaxaca City since November 2nd. The federal police responded with massive amounts of teargas and water cannons.

Two days later, the "extraordinary" program for the "total recuperation" of Oaxaca announced by President Vicente Fox went into effect; thousands of federal police with water cannons, tear gas, helicopters, and armored vehicles knocked down barricades and forcibly took control of the city center, killing at least two people and arresting another forty. Fox described this operation as "bloodless."

Organizations and Mexicans in other parts of the country showed solidarity, such as the Zapatistas, maquiladora workers, leftists, trade unionists, neighborhood block committees, students, and indigenous and peasant groups, who took up the call for the governor's resignation.

On Monday, December 4, hours after he said at a news conference in Mexico City that he had gone to the capital to negotiate a peaceful solution, police arrested the symbolic leader of APPO, Flavio Sosa, on charges related to the barricades, vandalism and irregular detentions carried out by some protesters. The following week, Federal Police seized armament from Oaxaca's State Police, and said that local forces were under investigation based on accusations of murder that the APPO made against them. The APPO reported that the Federal Government offered to not detain any other members of their movement. By some estimates up to 500 local citizens were taken from the streets by the state polices and put in an out of state prison, separated from their families and friends with no means of communication.

Although ignored by mainstream media in the U.S., the revolt in Oaxaca was being hailed by many in the U.S. and abroad as the next Paris Commune or a sequel to the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas.