Perhaps Oaxaca's Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz was out shaking hands and smiling at everyone yesterday because he knew how pissed we were going to be to read about this today.
The governor will send a sweeping amnesty law to the state's Congress on Monday. The amnesty law proposes to exonerate members of APPO and the striking teachers union of all crimes committed from June to November. In addition to suspending outstanding arrest warrants, the governor proposes to release all prisoners, both convicted and those in custody awaiting trial. This includes 49 who have been arrested just since October 29. I don't know what the law's official title is, but I would propose, "La Ley de Carte Blanche de Oaxaca", in honor of its being so, uh, French-like.
The governor says that there are 250 outstanding state warrants against members of the teachers union and APPO militants for a whole host of crimes ranging from sedition to assault to causing the mass extinction of Big Macs and Double Whoppers with Cheese. Officially, there have been 11 deaths, 7 of them APPO members, 3 who opposed APPO or the teachers' actions and the one poor kid decapitated by the wire cable at an APPO barricade.
APPO, of course, claims 17 innocents have been brutally murdered by the government's jackbooted Nazi death squads, 105 arrested and 30 "disappeared", never to be seen again until their bones are dug up in the year 3535, if man is still alive. More likely, I should think, that their bones will be dug up from a cemetery in East LA. All this in addition to the 2000 kitty cats personally strangled by Governor URO.
Along with the amnesty law, the governor will present his budget requests, which include 600 million pesos ($54,397,098.82 US -- Banamex exchange rate 12:54 pm) to buy anti-riot tanks, anti-riot gear and high powered weaponry -- presumably something more lethal than the slingshots seen being used here. All of this war materiel will be warehoused until needed to be brought out onto the streets to be brandished menacingly just prior to the next governor's sweeping amnesty offer. In 2000, ex Governor José Murat granted amnesty to 143 convicted felons in the Loxichas region of the state.
The governor has also presented his "6 point plan" to return peace and prosperity -- well, peace anyway -- to Oaxaca. That plan includes his promise to throw several of his staff under passing buses, those not burned or damaged beyond repair by the feisty APPO boys. The governor will sacrifice Emilio Mendoza Kaplan, Secretary of Public Education; Lizbeth Caña, State Attorney General; Lino Celaya, Civil Defense Secretary and Francisco José Santiago, Director of Public Security. Command of all law enforcement would be provisionally turned over to federal PFP officer Rafael Ríos.
I will say this for the governor: At least he is trying to do something even if it is the wrong thing. APPO and the teachers union, however, have not budged one inch from their demand that the governor step down or they stay in the streets. While the teachers have promised to return to classes tomorrow, they also have promised to increase their acts of resistance, including blocking the main highway to the isthmus.
One might question how the teachers could be in their classrooms while at the same time standing in the middle of a highway. I would answer that they'll do it the same way Flavio Sosa and APPO get their "volunteers" to man the barricades at Juarez University. They pay them 200 pesos per day.
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
Thanks!
TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, Gobernador Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, APPO
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