UPDATED: Please scroll down. I can post but I've got no Email. PJ Media, you'll have to snag this one yourselves.
At a press conference yesterday, APPO vowed to return to Santo Domingo at 8:00 this morning to set up their third encampment around the property. APP said that it was their right to hold peaceful protests and by golly they intended to exercize said right. Mark in Mexico was there. I flipped on the Date/Time stamp on the photos so as not to be accused of posting pictures from this time last year, but something went haywire. The date appears correct but the hour is 2 hours behind. Please add two hours to the time shown as not even Mark in Mexico is dedicated enough to be out and about snapping photos at 6 o'clock in the morning.
APPO didn't show. The only people on the Santo Domingo esplanade were film crews, photographers and reporters, about a dozen in total.
Everyone pictured here is from the media.
If there is trouble, this media vehicle is a gonner.
This was the last car parked too close to the action.
The south side of Santo Domingo where the happy APPO campers would sleep. Nada.
The fellow in the shadows is an undercover agent. We watched each other . . . a lot.
Maybe APPO is a bit hesitant this morning because of this:
More men and materiel packed into the Zócalo than
I have ever seen. They are expecting something big.
Lots of equipment, and I mean a lot.
I could have snapped 20 photos and not gotten it all.
UPDATE I: Damn! The radio is reporting that APPO is marching from Juarez University towards the downtown. A contingent of PFP has been dispatched to Santo Domingo. I'm on my way back.
UPDATE II: Never mind. APPO has canceled the march before it had traveled 10 meters. APPO has also canceled its plan to re-install the encampment at Santo Domingo.
Marcelino Coache, APPO's spokesman for the day, said that outstanding arrest warrants for APPO leaders made any mobilization just too dangerous.
That's a good idea all around. The PFP moved out just after I left the downtown. They've got 100 or more men plus a dozen vehicles in and around Parque Llano. They've got several hundred around Santo Domingo, blocking all accesses except to pedestrian foot traffic.
The PFP does not intend to cede any territory to APPO other than what APPO currently holds; Cinco Señores and Juarez University. With all the additional manpower and equipment that I saw in the Zócalo this morning, I think the PFP intends to recover Cinco Señores. The university, however, is another matter. While it must be remembered that Governor Ruiz Ortiz is not calling the shots right now, he said yesterday that the cleaning out of Juarez University was up to the rector. If it's left up to the rector, APPO will still be in charge of Juarez University in the year 3535, if man is still alive.
I've got more photos but I'm at an internet cafe and cannot upload them from here. Give me about an hour.
On a related note, APPO's canceled march and re-installation of its encampment may be because Flavio "Fat Man" Sosa is busy today seeking new office space. Last night someone broke into the offices of "Nueva Izquierda de Oaxaca" - The New Left - and burned everything. The Fat Man ostensibly heads this fake social movement which is a part of APPO, the bigger fake social movement. Surprisingly, the Fat Man blames the governor for what appears to me to have been the purely accidental spillage of 10 gallons of gasoline on top of his desk and the inadvertant dropping of a match in the middle of it.
UPDATE III: APPO has announced that it will nnot leave Juarez University and that the university is "its last bastion." Taking refuge inside the university are Flavio "Fat Man" Sosa, Zenén Bravo, Erangelio Mendoza, Marcelino Coache among others. They have announced their intention to not leave the university because, according to Coache, they were informed by the federal government this morning that the PFP had "put down its night sticks and picked up firearms."
The APPO spokesmen said that they will put up a "human cordon" around the university radio station since the transmission equipment doesn't hit back nearly as hard as the PFP.
APPO leadership also decried the arrests this morning of 5 truckloads of supporters who were on their way into town for the canceled march and canceled re-encampment. The trucks were stopped by the PFP in Santa María Coyotepec, where the governor has his temporary offices.
APPO says that their new security plan is to not leave the univesity. APPO also promised, and they really, really mean it this time, to march on December 1 to protest the inauguration of Felipe Calderón.
UPDATE IV: Panic in the private schools!
Word swiftly flew around the city that APPO gorillas were seen hanging around some private schools in the city. Panic set in. The schools, including the one which my sons attend, started closing and calling parents to come and pick up their kids. My wife arrived at our school at 12:00 to find that the school director would not allow the gates opened for parents to drive through. She had teachers out on the sidewalk with cell phones calling into the school for the children as their parents arrived. The kids were led out by security guards and taken directly to their parent's car.
Whether this threat was real and whether the private schools will be open tomorrow is all in doubt.
I'm going to post the latest photos in another post.
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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, Santo Domingo
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