Oaxaca, Mexico: Cinco Señores cleared

The PFP arrived at the Cinco Señores barricades on the Periferico and Avenida Universidad at 3:30 this morning to find them abandoned by APPO. More than 150 workers arrived shortly thereafter with front-end loaders, forklifts, dumptrucks and high pressure water hoses to start the cleanup.

I am at an internet cafe directly in front of Juarez University watching as cars, trucks and buses pass for the first time since the PFP entered the city in late October. I have walked the entire length of Avenida Universidad taking photos, including some inside the university. There is not an APPOite in sight. No flags, no banners, no masks, no rockets, nada. The university is open but I don't know how many of their colleges are holding classes this morning.

The APPOites fired rockets into the air as they abandoned the barricades and spread out throughout Colonia Cinco Señores, fleeing the approaching PFP. By the time the PFP arrived at the barricades, the APPOites were gone.

I've got a good bunch of photos but I cannot post them from here. I still owe all you people the photos from, er, Monday PFP deployment which I have been promising you for 2 days. APPO has been vandalizing Telmex boxes for two weeks or more and, while telephone service seems uninterupted, internet connections are shaky to non-existent.


My former Official bus (El Universal photo)

I can tell you this. Mark in Mexico walked the entire length of Juarez University's outer wall and found not one pockmark in the walls and gates from bullets. It has been APPO's, Narco News' and Indy Media's claims for weeks that "paramilitary gunmen" have been driving past the university late at night firing at the APPOites inside. I did not believe those stories then and now I can tell you now that they were false, unless the "paramilitary" forces' weapons were loaded with blanks or they were blasting away with squirt guns.

Some weeks ago, before a big march to the downtown, a Tech University student inside Juarez University was shot at about 6:30 in the morning. Narco News and Indy Media inmediately reported that he had been shot in one of the "paramilitary" drive-bys. Mark in Mexico reported that he had been shot during a gunbattle between rival gangs of APPO thugs inside the university. I report, you decide.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico[tagname], Oaxaca teachers strike, UABJO, Juarez University, APPO, Cinco Señores