Coalitions claim early victories

UPDATE

The alliances appear to have toppled the PRI in Oaxaca, Puebla and Sinaloa, although the votes are still being tabulated. The PRI is leading in the other nine states and should take Tlaxcala and Aguascalientes from the PAN and Zacatecas from the PRD. It also is leading in municipal races being held in the PAN stronghold of Baja California - most notably in Tijuana.

Former PRD national executive committee member Fernando Belnauzarán succinctly summed up the early results with the Twitter posting: Without the alliances, the PRI has a clean sweep.



The multi-party coalitions formed to slay the Institutional Revolutionary Party in six states have declared victory in Oaxaca and Puebla, potentially ending 80 years of PRI rule in two of the country's most notorious political backwaters.

Exit polls give the PAN-PRD-PT-Convergence coalition the lead in Oaxaca. It remains to be seen if the exit polls prove accurate as Oaxaca - where the geography resembles a crumpled-up piece of paper and rural villages are difficult to access - is considered difficult to poll. The state electoral institute also isn't considered especially trustworthy by opposition parties and the PRI is legendary for marshaling its vote.

For its part PRI officials in Oaxaca have already rejected any talk that the party had lost. But political observers and some in the opposition say the PRI was forced to campaign especially hard this time around, suggesting its leadership knew the race would be tight.

Coalition candidate Gabino Cué ran a strong campaign in Oaxaca and seemed able to tap an enormous discontent with Gov. Ulises Ruiz, who developed a sordid reputation for repression and presiding over a crackdown on striking teachers that led to months of violent protests in the state capital. The PRI candidate Eviel Pérez Magaña also came across as being a subordinate of Ruiz - and someone who would be easily manipulated by Ruiz while holding office.

The coalition also claimed victories in Durango and Tlaxcala, but exit polls couldn't confirm those claims - and one poll published by Excélsior gave the PRI the advantage in Tlaxcala.

In the states holding gubernatorial elections July 4, the PRI appeared set to roll. It led in Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, Veracruz and Quintana Roo. If the polls prove accurate, it would take Aguascalientes from the PAN and Zacatecas from the PRD.

But losing Oaxaca especially hurts the PRI, mainly in terms of prestige as it had been a state the party had invested heavily in holding. It was deemed so important that the party's main attraction, State of Mexico Gov. Enrique Peña Nieto campaigned on several occasions in Oaxaca. Some local paníistas suggested a deal was afoot in which Peña Nieto would campaign heavily in Oaxaca and back Ruiz for the PRI presidency. Peña Nieto would, in turn, gain the backing of a major PRI state in his bid for the 2012 presidential nomination - and access to the state budget in a jurisdiction with little transparency to promote his candidacy.

The coalition winning Oaxaca sends a message that the PRI - which had rolled on the local level in recent years - is not invincible, which is why the coalition parties will take great pleasure in this potential victory, even though they lost two state governorships. It also sets the stage for a mega-coalition next year in the State of Mexico, where a defeat of the PRI might damage Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential aspirations.

It must also be said that any coalition success saves the jobs of PAN president César Nava and PRD president Jesús Ortega - and makes Andrés Manuel López Obrador look like a hypocrite as he has blasted the PRI as a great looming danger, but did his best to scuttle any anti-PRI alliances. (It's suspected, though, AMLO's tours through the "Usos y Costumbres" communities of Oaxaca might have paid dividends for the coalitions and the same network that got out the vote for him in Oaxaca in 2006 might have been revived. Many of AMLO's people were also less intransigent than him and participated in the coalitions.)

Now comes the hard part for any coalition: Governing. Flavio Sosa, the APPO protest leader from 2006, now goes into the state legislature, sitting in a caucus with the PAN, a party many in the Oaxaca social movements loath - although just perhaps slightly less than the PRI, which is why the coalition appears to have won.

More strange political bedfellows

In 2006, Flavio Sosa led an uprising of groups agitating under the banner of the Oaxaca People's Assembly (APPO) that called for the head of Gov. Ulises Ruiz - who made a botched attempt at removing striking teachers from the central square of the state capital, Oaxaca city. The ensuing conflict shut down the capital for months and ruined the state's tourism economy.

In 2009, Sosa tops a list of Labor Party (PT) candidates seeking the seats in the state legislature distributed through a proportional representation system known as the "plurinominal."

The PT is participating in a coalition of opposition parties - along with the PAN, PRD and Convergence - that united to oust Ruiz and the PRI in the July 5 gubernatorial elections.

Sosa's placement at the top of the PT plurinominal list almost guarantees his arrival in the state legislature - a long way from the street protests of three years ago and the prison cell he subsequently occupied while waiting for charges against him to be dismissed. (He was never convicted of any crimes from the 2006 uprising.)

It would also put him in a caucus with the PAN, a party which many leftists believe rigged the 2006 federal election and which has helped keep Ruiz in power - a condition demanded by the PRI for its allowing President Felipe Calderón to take the oath of office in a divided Congress.

But such is the dislike for Ruiz among all the opposition forces in Oaxaca that they backed Convergence candidate Gabino Cue for the 2009 election. Even the small, left-wing PT, which withdrew from coalitions in other states such as Hidalgo at the behest of 2006 election runner-up López Obrador, has backed the coalition - although López Obrador, who has been running roughshod over much of the PT in recent years, has not endorsed the Cue's candidacy.

Polls show a tight race in Oaxaca - closer than most of the other states contesting gubernatorial elections on July 5. A Reforma poll put the race between Cue and PRI candidate Eviel Pérez in a statistical tie.

Sosa wasn't the only plurinominal candidate in Oaxaca to raise attention, however. The PAN list of plurinominal candidates included Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza, who made news in 2007 for unsuccessfully trying to run for the mayor's office in the municipality of Santa María Quiegolani.

The mostly indigenous Zapotec municipality is governed using something known as "usos y costumbres" (local customs) - something common in much of rural Oaxaca - which were invoked to prevent her participation in the last election due to her gender and, according to Cruz, her professional status.

Gubernatorial politics makes strange bedfellows

Politics makes strange bedfellows - and nowhere more so than Oaxaca, where the oft-conflictive southern state holds local and gubernatorial elections July 4 that will choose a successor to polemic Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

To refresh memories, Ruiz heads an old-school state chapter of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), clashes frequently with Section 22 of the SNTE teachers union and various left-wing movements and presided over a 2006 uprising by the teachers and their allies that descended into lawlessness and destroyed the state's tourism-dependent economy.

The National Action Party (PAN) and Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) so dislike Ruiz - who last fall was found responsible for human rights violations in the uprising by a Supreme Court investigation - that the two political foes appear willing to join forces in an attempt to oust the PRI, which is said to be largely under Ruiz's control.

Both PAN president César Nava said PRD president Jesús Ortega have already spoken favourably of a possible alliance - even if the logistics of carrying it out would be difficult. It would require the PAN to back a candidate - most likely former Oaxaca city mayor and Convergence party Sen. Gabino Cué, who was backed by a similar coalition in 2004 - that is considered close to Andrés Manuel López Obrador, an anti-establishment figure the PAN party branded, "A danger for Mexico," during the 2006 presidential election. For the PRD, forging an alliance with the PAN requires still-scorned members to partner with a party that López Obrador derides (along with the PRI) as the "mafia" and is run by close allies of President Felipe Calderón - a man they accuse of stealing the 2006 election and refuse to recognize as legitimately elected.

López Obrador has rebuked the prospect that any of the country's left-wing parties - PRD, Convergence and the Labour Party (PT) - might even consider forging alliances with either the PAN or PRI.

The Oaxaca state chapters of the PAN, PRD, PT and Convergence already all have signed onto the alliance. Any alliance must be registered by Feb. 10.

DIFFERENT POLITICAL LANDSCAPE
The Mexican political landscape has changed over the past three years, however, making a possible alliance and cooperation between bitter enemies a possibility. The PAN has lost ground in Congress, while the PRD has been beset with internal divisions. The PRI juggernaut appears set to roll once again in 2010, too. The PRI enters 2010 on a roll, having captured a plurality in the lower house of Congress last year and having dominated state and local races in the years since the party's disastrous third-place showing in the 2006 presidential and congressional elections.

For some political observers, the willingness of disparate opposition parties to now forge electoral alliances reflects the revival of a once-popular strategy for taking down the PRI during the 1990s, when its grip on power began to weaken.

"It's the old opposition strategy against the PRI," said Federico Estévez, political science professor at ITAM. "It makes the PRI fight for every last vote."

NOT JUST OAXACA
But Oaxaca could be just one of many unlikely alliances in 2010, when 12 states - including such PRI bastions as Oaxaca, Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo and Durango - elect new governors.

PAN officials have already said that they would consider electoral alliances in states with polemic PRI governors - such as Puebla, where Gov. Mario Marín gained infamy in 2006 for attempting to railroad journalist Lydia Cacho - and strong PRI machines that produced clean sweeps in for the party in the 2009 midterm election.

Ortega from the PRD said his party would consider alliances in places with "absolutely authoritarian governors."

Oaxaca tops that list for many political observers and non-PRI politicians. The state is among the poorest in Mexico and governance among the least transparent. Violence long has been a calling card of Oaxaca politics - and critics of the PRI such as Section 22 and the Oaxaca People's Assembly (APPO) have been accused using tactics such as intimidation, vandalism and extortion, too.

Current PRI Deputy Elpidio Concha is accused of belonging to a mob that beat a protesting teacher to death five years ago. (He enjoys immunity from prosecution as a Chamber of Deputies member.

Diego Petersen Farah, former editor of the Guadalajara newspaper, Público, opined during the 2006 uprising, "Ulises Ruiz is a troglodyte and the Oaxaca PRI is more a criminal organization than a political party."

López Obrador spent the latter part of 2009 touring the more than 400 Oaxaca municipalities that use non-partisan forms of local governance that are based on traditional "usos y costumbres." Cue travelled with López Obrador - who carried Oaxaca during the 2006 presidential election - during the tour, which featured outbursts blasting both the PAN and PRI.

The former presidential candidate has been critical of Ruiz and the Oaxaca PRI for years. The criticism increased after the April 2009 assassination of an Oaxaca activist for his "legitimate government," Beatriz López Leyva, that was blamed by her family on a PRI mayor.

HARD TO UNSEAT
Ruiz won a disputed election in 2004 and, according to his critics, proceeded to run run the state with a heavy hand. He brought about an unpopular gentrification to the popular Zócalo square in the center of the state capital without holding proper consultations, for example. But his July crackdown on striking teachers in the Zócalo provoked the 2006 uprising. (The teachers in Oaxaca have struck annually for more than 25 years.)

Opposition politicians called for Ruiz's head, but he refused to back down. The PRI also refused to abandon Ruiz. Political circumstances ultimately saved him - along with political tactics for survival by the PAN and Calderón, who barely won the 2006 election and risked having the PRD block his taking the oath of office.

With the PRD attempting to prevent Calderón from taking office, the president began working with the PRI.

As Grupo Reforma columnist Sergio Sarmiento told me in Nov. 2006: "Either (PAN) makes agreements with the PRI or they forget about ruling the country for the next six years."

The cost of making agreements with the PRI appears to have been high. Former PAN deputy Gerardo Priego told me numerous times in 2008 that his party erred by making so many legislative and political deals with the PRI - at the price of sparing governors such as Ruiz and Marin - and that voters would punish the PAN because they would "see no difference" and opt for the more experienced party.

Now the PAN wants the PRI out of the Oaxaca governor's office - and could be willing to make agreements with a man they consider "a danger for Mexico" to do so.

Estevéz gives the coalition a chance of success since the PAN has reasonably a good organization in some parts of the state and former interior secretary and former Oaxaca governor Diódoro Carrasco defected to the PAN in recent years. Cué performed strongly in 2004 and Ruiz has been polemic since taking office.

The terms of agreement might derail any coalition, though.

"PAN is usually unwilling to go into alliances if it's the junior partner," Estévez said.

And then there's the prospect of trying to unseat a party that has always governed Oaxaca and operates a legendary political machine that produced a clean-sweep in last summer's midterm elections and reputedly is operating on all cylinders - especially in the "usos y costumbres" municipalities.

"Oaxaca is old-time Mexico, in terms of politics," Estévez said.

Strike took its toll on tourism

In a state dependent on tourism, striking schoolteachers assail Oaxaca's economic engine – again

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

Strike took toll on tourism

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

Strike took its toll on tourism

OAXACA – Striking teachers pitched tents and held demonstrations in front of the El Importador restaurant over the past three weeks in the popular and leafy central square of this colonial city and state capital. According to shift manager Juan Vázquez, the protests drove down sales by 50 percent.

But even before the demonstrations began, he said, business had yet to fully rebound to levels achieved prior to the teachers strike in 2006 that descended into five months of violent street protests.

And so it was with a sigh of relief that he watched strikers packing up and heading home Saturday after a noisy rally, during which a band of young men wearing gas masks and toques used spray paint to scribble anti-government slogans on the walls, sidewalks and historic buildings that ring the Zócalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“This state depends heavily on tourism,” Vázquez said. “People here want to work.”

Ongoing disruptions by striking teachers and protesters from a left-wing group known as APPO have seriously damaged Oaxaca's tourism-dependent economy, according to many in the tourism sector, which the state government says directly and indirectly accounts for 80 percent of the region's economic activity. And the lack of visitors and plunge in sales comes mere weeks before the state's premier culture festival, the Guelaguetza, is scheduled to commence.

Some tourist-dependent workers expressed worries that the strikes and protests would continue keeping tourists away from the state famous for its archeological sights, diverse indigenous cultures and gastronomic delights like mole, mezcal and chocolate.

Like Vázquez, cabbie Daniel Moldonado, who ferries visitors from the airport to various parts of Oaxaca City, reported a 50-percent drop in business over the past three weeks.

While running a fare to the Zócalo on Saturday, he pointed at people waiting along the highway for buses that wouldn't arrive due to the “mega-march” that capped off the weeks-long sit-in.

“There's a way of protesting without interfering with bystanders,” Maldonado said.

Closer to the Zócalo, Ricardo Cruz, who teaches computer courses at a private college, said enrollment had dropped by two-thirds during the recent strike. He said the strike had divided Oaxaca residents – including his own family.

“Of every 10 people you meet, eight of them have teachers in their [immediate] family,” he said while eating a breakfast of tlayudas (a delicacy known as “Oaxacan pizzas”) at a café.

As if to illustrate his point, one elderly diner who identified himself as a teacher took exception to Cruz’s grumblings and stormed off.

Not all local entrepreneurs reported suffering from the strike, however. Local street vendors peddled everything from ice cream to pirated movies amidst the makeshift tent city that blanketed the city center.

And while local media reported that the teachers union and APPO had charged the vendors up to 150 pesos a day for the right to work in the encampment, those interviewed by The News denied the allegations. Some, in fact, said they were able to work more freely, since the municipal government was unable to carry out campaigns aimed at removing them.

“The teachers and APPO let us do our jobs,” said Ángel Ríos, a veteran vendor of ice cream bars.

“They're good people ... and good customers,” he added.

David Agren, The News

Guerrilla group sabotages pipelines

The Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) claimed responsibility for two pipeline attacks near Salamanca and Celeya in Guanajuato state that cut the supply of natural gas into the Guadalajara area. Another attack in Queretaro happened earlier today.

EPR, reportedly a group that was active in southern Mexico in the 1990s, demanded that Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz and President Felipe Calderon release two members detained on May 25 in Oaxaca. The group promised that the attacks would continue until their demands are met.

Ulises Ruiz's resignation is long overdue, but groups like EPR hurt that cause with these attacks. Perhaps the Oaxaca conflict will blow up again, deepening the misery for the beleaguered residents being hurt by a lack of tourism.

Meanwhile, the pipeline explosion shut down many factories in Guadalajara and Western Mexico. Residential customers were spared since not many homes are hooked up to the natural gas network. Interestingly, the municipality of Guadalajara has no residential natural gas service as the prospect of combustibles running under the city unsettles quite a few residents, who no doubt vividly remember the April 22, 1992 explosion, which was caused by gasoline that leaked into the sewer system.

Update: As per usual the Mexfiles blog has a thorough analysis of this issue and even presents some of the contrarian opinions voiced in the Mexican media.

So-called "Indy" media gloats over Oaxaca reporter's firing

A friend once caustically commented to me that the tenor of the Indymedia coverage streaming out of Oaxaca last fall was making him look like a hardened right winger due to his moderate views and less-than-favorable opinion of the actors in the unrest that consumed his city last fall. (Indymedia coverage was decidedly on the side of those battling the embattled governor.)

Indymedia - more specifically, The Narco News Bulletin- are now at it again, this time tossing dirt on the grave of former Associated Press stringer Rebeca Romero, who critics accuse of bias and exaggeration - a truly curious charge considering Indymedia's lionizing of left-wing radicals.

Perhaps Romero's biggest sin - and the one Narco News found most objectionable - was that her small Oaxaca news agency accepted government advertising. (The Oaxaca conflict pitted striking teachers and a leftist group dubbed APPO against thuggish and corrupt PRI governor Ulises Ruiz.) Taking government advertising, according to Narco News, violated the AP stringer agreement. And on the surface, it taints Romero's coverage.

Now as someone who has previously, but no longer, worked as an occasional AP stringer, there are rules and the company, in my experience, was diligent about checking our backgrounds and how we were earning our livelihoods. Attacking AP is quite frankly stupid.

As for Romero taking government advertising money, it would be a lot more remarkable in Mexico if she refused to take such funds. Governments at all levels here run an endless stream of ads, boasting all sorts of dubious accomplishments and ambitions. What I'm saying is her actions are not especially unusual in this country. But don't expect Indymedia to point that out.

UPDATE

As I suspected, comments left here have both been anonymous and sympathetic to APPO. I published the comments - hit-and-run style comments - since I'm not going anywhere and hey, perhaps I'll be next on somebody's threat list.

First, let's start by saying that if Rebeca Romero violated the AP's rules, then obviously they should take action. But having Narco News pompously take issue with her supposed bias is absolutely absurd. The hagiographical portraits of groups like APPO and the EZLN coming out of some "media" outlets are downright silly. Two colleagues, both sympathetic to the EZLN, covered the otra compana and produced a story full of quotes from supporters lamenting things like "witnessing a dead movement."

Sergio Sarmiento - not a supporter of left-wing causes - pointed out in a column that some of those involved with APPO used to receive money from the Oaxaca state government, but the funds were axed by Ulises Ruiz. Why is he the only one pointing this out?

Ultimately - and this bugs me more than anything else about the Oaxaca coverage - everything is being presented as good vs. evil. APPO = good and Ruiz = bad. How about seeing some shades of gray? Ruiz is bad. (Perhaps evil is a better word.) But does that make APPO the good guy?

Writing in BeyondChron.com, Barbara Lopez, who grew up in Oaxaca, said of APPO:

While there are very positive elements to APPO such as the Indigenous rights group and NGO’s, APPO has also included very violent elements such as anarchists from the U.S., Mexico City, and Puebla and many street children and drug users who are rightfully angry, but whose actions have hurt the movement.

I did not meet a single Oaxacan who hasn’t had a violent confrontation with APPO – except for those very involved. My cousin, a single mother who lives near the television station, was told by a group of drunken “APPO leaders” to provide food and money or they would harm her and her children. The same group dictated to her when she could leave the house or not.

My aunt who owns a restaurant downtown was forced to give $22,000 pesos or her restaurant would be burned down. My uncle was stoned in his car because he had government plates (ironically he has them just so he can sell trinkets in the airport). Our housekeeper was also coerced into giving whatever money she had and a bus was burned in front of her house, scaring her and her family.

People we talked to at the bus corner spoke about wanting peace again while the APPO-controlled radio stations called for violence in the streets. The streets are covered in graffiti, including the 400-year-old churches made of green stone that cannot remove graffiti. This is not what a social movement should look like because violence only further divides a town, usually affects the poorest members of society, and brings on a stronger repression.

I'm checking out of this mess. It's just bizarre. Teachers go on strike for the 25th consecutive year - and are lauded as heroes. APPO protests cripple the state's tourism-based economy, but they're supposedly the good guys. Ruiz acts like a troglodyte and ... he deserves all of his bad press. Adios to this subject.

Weavers struggle with drop in tourism

Last year's Oaxaca teachers' strike diminished tourism in the southern state - not just in the capital, but also in the numerous artisan pueblos of the Central Valley. I visited Oaxaca in late January and spent some time in Teotitlan del Valle, a Zapotec Indian community, where most of the population weaves rugs. Tourism boosted fortunes in Teotitlan over the past 20 years, but with no tourists last year, an estimated 25 percent of the population left for the United States.

Here's what ran in today's Miami Herald, Mexico Edition: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/23781.html

Update: Teotitlan weaver Luis Lazo Mendoza launched a website: http://www.luislazomendoza.com/ his work is impressive - especially the attention to detail.

Another tale of a Canadian experiencing Mexican injustice - or not

An interesting press release (for lack of a better description) from an expatriate couple in the Huatulco area contradicts the woeful story of Peter Kimber, a British Columbia native locked up in an Oaxaca jail who has recently been the subject of nationwide media coverage in Canada.

The Canadian, who was in Mexico with his common-law wife and children, said Mexican authorities tossed him in jail after hotel owners Kevin and Tess Hunneybell supposedly sent the cops after him because of $20,000 that was owed. The money was paid, according to the Hunneybells, for Kimber to construct a building. Kimber's completed work was apparently shoddy.

The couple took exception with this line from The Globe and Mail story on Kimber's plight and the work the Canadian was hired to for:

At a site where he was helping to build a hotel, a dispute developed with the owners who told police that he owed them money.

The Hunneybell's countered:

(Kimber) was NOT ‘helping’ to build the hotel, he WAS the contractor and was paid to do this work. He was later found to be both negligent (unsafe foundations) and illegal (had no permit to work, nor build, nor to remain in the country.)

Kimber's story of spending more than two years in a Mexican jail ran in The Province (Vancouver) on Jan. 31 and later in both national newspapers. Coincidentally, a spate of newspapers stories on Canadians' misfortune have come out around the same time.

This is, unfortunately, part of a feeding frenzy. Canadian newspaper editors generally show a crushing disinterest in Mexican affairs - except when a Canadian tourist meets an untimely end or misfortune. For an alternative opinion on Mexico, a media outlet could run a dispatch from Ajijic, Jalisco, where the Canadian population keeps on swelling each year. It's one of the largest enclaves of Canadians outside of Canada. The Kimber story, though, fits what they're looking for. And, in fairness, Peter Kimber could be the victim of an injustice and his accounts of prison life are certainly hellish.

The Hunneybells perhaps should have scrutinized Kimber's immigration documents - which the couple said were fakes - a little more thoroughly, although in expatriate circles, there tends to be a lot of good will and a willingness to give people the benefit of the doubt. And no shortage of charlatans and people with shady backgrounds pass through.

The other side of this story definitely needs to be reported more thoroughly.

The Mexfiles blog summed up this situation quite nicely and the author quite accurately commented towards the end of his post, "Canadians, for all their good qualities, sometimes can be awfully provincial."

Update: The Globe and Mail reported on Saturday that police in Acapulco impounded a green Nissan Tsuru taxi (aren't all taxis Tsurus in this country?) and are searching for the driver who usually rents the vehicle, which might have struck and killed Ontario native Adam de Prisco on Jan. 7. The family said it hasn't received updates on the case and maintains that de Prisoco was beaten prior to being involved in the hit-and-run collision that two coroners concluded was responsible for his untimely death.

Chilling in Oaxaca

I've been in Oaxaca for the past nine days and loved pretty much every minute of it, spare the mezcal hangover this morning. For a place that just exited almost six months of turmoil, it's remarkably calm and tidy - not to mention friendly and safe.

For anyone contemplating a trip, check out planeta.com and be sure to visit the artisan towns, which are explained in detail on the website. For those living in Guadalajara or the Lake Chapala area, discount airline Avolar has round trip fares for only 1,500 pesos.

Oaxaca no longer off limits - for some

The U.S. State Department rescinded its travel advisory for Oaxaca yesterday, but the Canadian government still says its citizens shouldn't go to the southern Mexican state - scene of a nasty teachers' strike that descended into open revolt against the local PRI governor. The Canadians at least acknowledge, "The situation is showing signs of improvement."

Headlines of a 19-year-old Canadian traveler in Acapulco meeting an untimely end on Jan. 7 generated endless headlines in Canada and promoted no shortage of calls for a blanket advisory cautioning against Mexican travel. Perhaps that explains the Canadians' tepidness in lifting its Oaxaca advisory. But Adam DePrisco was struck by a vehicle, according to autopsies performed in both Canada and Mexico. It was most likely a hit-and-run collision, although his family alleges murder.

The two situations shouldn't be linked in any way. I've booked my ticket for Oaxaca - just 2,150 pesos round trip from Guadalajara on Avolar - and I suspect others will follow suit. The state could use the boost and it's not to be missed - even if the Canadian government can't get its act together and scrap the travel advisory.

*For a telling statistic on how bad the tourism economy in Oaxaca is, look at these stats from the local airport operator, which saw a 32.6 percent fewer passengers in Dec. 2006 than in Dec. 2005.

APPO leaders arrested

While not entirely placid, a sense of normalcy is returning to Oaxaca. And sadly, Governor Ulises Ruiz is still in power.

After the late November dust up, which saw a number of buildings burn, more than 100 APPO supporters were arrested and jailed in Nayarit state - a long ways from Oaxaca. Several top APPO leaders were also apprehended yesterday in Mexico City and are now apparently in Altiplano, one of the country's most notorious prisons.

This whole Oaxaca situation is tough to completely understand and no side is without blame. Seemingly, there are just varying degrees of bad.

Why, for example, do the teachers strike every year? Or, why, despite assertions to the contrary, do APPO-led protests sometimes descend into violence? Of course, Ulises Ruiz and his thugs in the PRI have much to answer for - and his ousting would effectively put an end to much of the unpleasantness.

One troubling part is how APPO has garnered such sympathy. Are their motives entirely pure? Sergio Sarmiento pointed out in one of his Grupo Reforma columns that APPO used to receive money from the Oaxaca government, but Ruiz put an end to the payments.

That fact doesn't negate many of APPO's grievances, but it raises questions.

Labour unrest casts shadow over popular vacation mecca

This piece was published in Sunday's Calgary Herald. It focuses on the strife in Oaxaca, but also the political implications of the unrest as it coincides with Fox's departure from Los Pinos (the president's residence.)

Labour unrest casts shadow over popular vacation mecca

DAVID AGREN FOR THE CALGARY HERALD

Potential Oaxaca visitors frequently query ecotourism promoter Ron Mader about the situation in his strifetorn Mexican state, where over a six-month period a teachers' strike has descended into open revolt against the state government. He often demurs, though, before suggesting people read the message boards at his popular website, Planeta.com, after which, travellers can make an informed decision about going to a part of Mexico the Canadian government recently admonished its citizens to avoid.

But when asked about the impact of the dispute, which has scared off tourists and generated negative international headlines, he responded, "You've taken a poor Mexican state and made it 90 per cent poorer."

Given the backdrop of conflict in Oaxaca, drug gang-related beheadings in Michoacan and a bitter presidential election, which was never conceded by the runner up, reports of a bombing last Monday at a Scotiabank Inverlat outlet in Mexico City — along with explosions outside the nation's election tribunal and the headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) — seemed disturbingly routine.

Over the past six months, the news streaming out of parts of the Republic has at times been decidedly grim — if not absurd.

And it all comes with less than three weeks remaining in President Vicente Fox's term in office. He'll leave Los Pinos (the president's residence) having achieved little, spare unseating the long-ruling PRI after 71 years in power — no small feat — and improving the country's macroeconomic climate. (Interest rates and inflation have both dipped to seldom-seen low levels.)

Perhaps most disappointing, much of the old Mexico his gobierno de cambio (government of change) was supposed to supplant stubbornly endures.

Unwelcome brushes with the country's corporatist and authoritarian past also keep resurfacing, reminding an increasingly-jaded population of the failures of the Coca-Cola executive-turned-president — not to mention nearly six years of dashed expectations.

But the ongoing conflict in Oaxaca state, which the Mexico City bombers cited as their motivation for action, will most likely go unresolved until Fox leaves office and it becomes the responsibility of president elect Felipe Calderon. Depending on how the two men manage the Oaxaca situation, the conflict could spread, plunging Mexico into even deeper turmoil. Its outcome could ultimately determine Fox's legacy.

For some observers, Oaxaca — and much of the recent upheaval in Mexico — is the symptom of two of the president's biggest shortcomings: an inability to broker deals and an unwillingness to get tough when needed — perhaps due to fears of inadvertently emulating the often inglorious suppressions carried out during the PRI years.

"He's never understood that in order to rule a country as difficult as Mexico you have to use the police once in a while," said Sergio Sarmiento, a columnist with Grupo Reforma, who cited a long list of inaction dating back to 2002, when machete wielding farmers thwarted plans for a new Mexico City airport. "He often simply gives in to the demands of people who use or threaten to use violence." The Oaxaca situation started off rather quietly though after the teachers walked off the job — an annual occurrence in the culturally rich, but impoverished southern state. According to Sarmiento, "The teachers' union in Oaxaca has struck every year for 26 years." (They all have drawn paycheques while off the job.)

This time around, the teachers demanded not only better pay, but wage parity with their counterparts in wealthier parts of Mexico — something that was eventually achieved. (Teachers in Oaxaca may earn less than teachers in other states, but according to Sarmiento they receive Christmas bonuses worth approximately 90-days' pay.)

After negotiations bogged down in June and a botched attempt at dislodging the strikers from protest sites in the state capital of Oaxaca de Juarez was made, the labour dispute turned violent as the striking teachers were joined by farmers, students and leftists protesting under the name: the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). A call for the governor's head was issued shortly thereafter.

After abiding months of protests, Fox finally ordered in the federal police after a U.S. journalist was shot to death in late October. The journalist's colleagues alleged gunmen loyal to the governor pulled the trigger. The PRI denied any culpability, but promised to protect any party member accused of the murder and keep PRI Governor Ulises Ruiz in power.

Ruiz, a polemic figure with a sordid reputation for corruption and thuggery, obtained power after a scandalous 2004 election. His state chapter of the PRI has always governed Oaxaca. Diego Petersen Farah, director general of the Publico newspaper in Guadalajara, wrote last week, "Ulises Ruiz is a troglodyte and the Oaxaca PRI is more a criminal organization than a political party.

"Keeping Ruiz in office will be costly for Oaxaca, costly for the country and a tragedy for the PRI."

But removing Ruiz would trigger political consequences that could jeopardize the president-elect, who disgruntled presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez

Obrador vowed would never take office. Thus, despite decades of ill-will, a sort of mutual blackmail has started flowing between the federal PRI, which was embarrassed in the federal election and won't let one of its governors fall, and Fox's National Action Party (PAN), which barely held on to the presidency.

"The reason Ruiz hasn't fallen is because the PAN has decided not to antagonize the PRI. They have no choice," Sarmiento said.

"Either (PAN) makes agreements with the PRI or they forget about ruling the country for the next six years."

For months, the Oaxaca conflict was overshadowed by the country's close election race and the subsequent post-election fallout. After narrowly losing the July 2 election by less than one percentage point, Lopez Obrador of the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) screamed "fraud," began floating wild conspiracy theories — like subliminal messages being placed in pre-election ads — and assailed the country's electoral institute. He caustically commented after losing an appeal, "To hell with Mexico's institutions."

Lopez Obrador eventually launched a massive six-week shutdown of central Mexico City and had himself declared the "legitimate president of Mexico." The PRD congressional delegation has already prevented Fox from delivering the annual "informe" (state of the nation address) and according to Sergio Sarmiento, the PRD won't play ball with Felipe Calderon.

Despite being weakened — the PRD just lost a governor's race in Lopez Obrador's home state — the former Mexico City mayor recently backed the APPO protests and officially assumes the "legitimate president" title on Nov. 20 in a ceremony Fred Rosen, a columnist with The Herald Mexico, dubbed, "Pure theatre." "It's not serious politics anymore." And while targeting the PRI and elector tribunal held some logic — five leftist guerrilla groups wanting Ulises Ruiz ousted claimed responsibility — why they would target Scotiabank Inverlat remains a mystery. (Mexican banks are generally reviled after a clumsy nationalization in 1982 and a later bailout after a crony-driven privatization in the 1990s went awry — something Lopez Obrador railed against during his campaign.) Away from the political theatrics of Mexico City and conflict in Oaxaca, additional unrest is also brewing. A rash of drug-related beheadings and gangland killings in Acapulco, Michoacan and Baja California has continued unabated for months.

Even pipe-smoking bandit subcomandante Marcos reappeared recently after the EZLN established roadblocks in parts of Chiapas state in order to support APPO.

Fox once infamously promised to resolve the EZLN crisis in Chiapas state in 15 minutes. It never happened. Oaxaca might go the same way for the president, giving Fox the dubious privilege of starting and ending his regime with a crisis in Southern Mexico.

University of Guadalajara political scientist Javier Hurtado predicted the Oaxaca conflict would be resolved in the first week of December after Felipe Calderon takes office and some of the mutual blackmailing ends.

"The problem is what's going to happen from now until Dec. 1," he said.

"How many more people are going to die?"

CALGARIAN DAVID AGREN IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST LIVING IN GUADALAJARA.

Should travellers avoid Mexico? Depends on who you ask

David Agren
Calgary Herald
Friday, November 10, 2006

November 10, 2006 - With newspapers splashing headlines from Mexico about bombs, beheadings and barricades, many travellers might think twice before jetting south. And yes, avoiding Oaxaca state, scene of a teachers' strike gone awry, might be advisable--the Canadian government says it is. People in the area, though, say going to Oaxcaca at this time isn't an entirely foolish proposition either.

Oaxaca-based ecotourism promoter Ron Mader advises, "As long as you're not a tourist pretending to be a journalist, taking photos of gunfights, I think you're going to be pretty safe."

He recommends reading the discussion boards on his website Planeta.com, where potential travelers can pose questions for knowledgeable locals. Mader also points out that for people experienced in Mexico travel (read: people who actually put down their margaritas and leave their all-inclusive resorts), the uproar in his state wouldn't be a large deterrent.

"The people that are here in Oaxaca and are traveling to Oaxaca ...are people who love Mexico and love Oaxaca and aren't going to cancel their plans."

With last Monday's bomb blast at a Scotiabank outlet in Mexico City, the Canadian government once again emphasized its running advisory, which admonishes citizens to take precautions when visiting the capital.

All of it is sensible advice, yet I've disregarded much of it on my five trips to Mexico City this year. Although sketchy in parts and horribly polluted, it's an endlessly fascinating place and the site of everything imaginable--good and bad.

The reality is that with the exception of Oaxaca, rural zones populated by dope growers, some of the northern border cities like Nuevo Laredo and certain Mexico City neighbourhoods at night, the country is generally safe--not to mention quiet.

Canadian-educated columnist Sergio Sarmiento quite accurately points out that most of the country is perfectly safe.

However, he cautions that "it's riskier to be here (in Mexico City) than in Toronto or Calgary.
"Mexico City's not much riskier than it was a year ago and Cancun is not riskier either, [but] Oaxaca, it's not a tourist paradise right now."

Having traveled from Tijuana--a place with an undeserved bad reputation--to Veracruz over the past year, I've yet to encounter trouble beyond a few dishonest cab drivers and contaminated taco dinners.

I regularly flag down green Volkswagen taxis in Mexico City--despite warnings not to--eat street tacos and ride the chicken bus to some of the country's less glamorous pueblos.

Perhaps, I've just been lucky.