Oaxaca, Mexico: Fireworks here and political wriggling in Mexico City

There are fireworks going off all over the city right now (10:30 AM). I don't know why. The APPO occupiers in the downtown and those manning the permanent barricades all over the city use rockets and bombs to signal one another. This goes on especially heavily during the night or whenever there is something that gets them all stirred up. No one has yet been able to determine exactly what the signals, er, signify.

Originally, APPO said that the fireworks would be used by any blockade or roving brigade that ran into trouble and needed help. By now, however, the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air occur sporadically, day and night, and with no clear meaning, other than, "Hey, I gots me some dry matches!"

Meanwhile, in Mexico City, Governor Ruiz Ortiz met with the Undersecretary of the Interior, one Arturo Chávez Chávez (I kid you not, that's his name). That kind of reminds me of a fellow I used to see on TV a lot. His name was Raymond J. Johnson Johnson, Jr. -- "Just don't call me 'Johnson'." Anyway, Ruiz Ortiz Ortiz and Chávez Chávez Chávez jointly announced that the state governor would abide by the Senate's pending decision on his fate, no matter the outcome. They added that, regardless of that outcome, the problems in Oaxaca would not go away. Profound.

At Los Pinos (the presidential palace), President Fox met with the Senate's leading PAN representatives to ask that the PAN senators vote on the Ortiz Ruiz matter as a united bloque and that there be no "waste". His comments were reported in the Senate by Senator Santiago Creel as "Every senator is free to vote his conscience on this matter." Uh-huh.

Undersecretary Chávez Chávez Chávez Chávez's boss, Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal, held a press conference on the Oaxaca issue with reporters where he refused to answer any questions. He asked, instead, for more time to do his work and complained that press conferences were interfering with his thought processes and work ethic. He also reportedly exclaimed, "Progress? We don't have no progress. I don't have to show you no stinkin' progress!"

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, APPO, Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz