Oaxaca, Mexico: APPO holds first congress. Weapons were checked at the door.

APPO has just concluded its first "congress", where supposedly its future organization and future leadership were to be decided. We haven't heard much about the results of the congress, other than they decided to hold future elections at a future time to choose future permanant ledership (that is, leadership not likely to spend the next 15 years of its future in prison) and write some future governing statutes.

This probably sounds the death knell for the organization. So long as the current felons-in-charge could pay their thugs to man barricades, burn buses, attack police, steal, rob and assault while the leadership was able to convince innocent but naive poor people to march in the streets against injustice, everthing was hunky dory. Now that they must get organized and try to demonstrate some type of leadership, progress, programs, plans, organization, financial solvency and all those other difficult things that a social organization has to do, they're lost.

La Cronica also reports that APPO officials were checking everyone for weapons before allowing entry. A top secret operative for Mark in Mexico was able to sneak this photo out of a Yahoo cache.



APPO also denied charges that its representatives were visiting various business around the city demandng protection money be paid. Reports that large sums were being extorted from businessmen was hotly denied by APPO officials who told La Cronica that APPO's Comisión de Vigilancia (Vigilante Committee) should be informed of any such extorsion attempts.

However . . . see next post.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO