The PFP won several victories for the city of Oaxaca this past Saturday. Not only did the PFP send Flavio Sosa's thugs running for their lives, but APPO's retreat during which they caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to private, city, state and federal properties showed the true colors of this organization's leadership.
The PFP's quick and decisive reaction this morning (photos are coming, I promise) to APPO's threatened march and re-occupation of Santo Domingo forced APPO to scrap those plans within minutes after they were launched. In addition, the PFP has announced publicly that new arrest warrants have been issued against APPO leadership for the damage done to the city. These warrants are not covered by the now defunct peace treaty between APPO and Carlos Abascal, the Secretary of the Interior. This announcement has forced the APPO mafia chieftains to take refuge in Juarez University and stay hidden there.
I was shocked, shocked to learn that, once again, classes at the university have been canceled. The university rector, who has provided succor to APPO thugs since July, is learning a hard lesson that my grandfather described to me many years ago. "When you burn your ass, you've got to sit on the blister." Everytime he opens the university's gates, APPO closes them right back again. And then there's that Churchillian thing about running out of food for the crocodiles.
Now, APPO's political wing has been forced to take a giant step backwards, Simon says. APPO has insisted since the end of October when the PFP arrived that it had two non-negotiable demands. First, that Governor Ruiz Ortiz leave office. Second, that the PFP leave Oaxaca to its fate at the hands of APPO.
Now, APPO says that the demand that the PFP leave Oaxaca is, er, no longer non-negotiable. Providing, of course, that any negotiations take place at all. APPO and Sección 22 of the SNTE (remember them?) negotiated a far reaching agreement with the Secretary of the Interior back in, uh, early October, I think. This agreement, besides the profane pay raise and back pay given to the teachers, included amnesty for all the APPO criminals, both in custody and those still on the streets. After APPO immediately broke every agreement that they had made with Abascal, he stopped talking to them. Their last meeting was, if I recall, on October 9.
This cutoff in negotiations resulted in the hilarious scene in the Zócalo when APPO, lead by The Fat Man, faced off against the PFP for the first time. That confrontation lasted only about 15 minutes before APPO fled the scene without a rock being thrown. Flavio Sosa marched into the Zócalo at the head of his contingent while the PFP centurians waited on the other side. The Fat Man mounted the bandstand with cell phone in hand so that everyone could see. He ostentatiously dialed Abascal's number in Mexico City. Abascal wouldn't come to the phone. After 5 minutes of fruitless dialing, Fatso raced out of the Zócalo and his stunned supporters followed after.
Now cometh Gustavo López, consiglierre for the APPO mafiosi, to declare that the exit by the PFP is no longer "a condition" for restarting talks with Interior. Provided, of course, that Interior has any desire whatsoever to talk with a bunch of criminals now on the run.
López says the PFP "may leave",
"Whenever they want, at whatever time they want, with the necessary conditions of security for their transfer, but only after establishing some preliminary measures such as an end to repression, an immediate end to persecution and an end to the harrassment of the Oaxacan people."That sounds like a cleverly worded suicide note. It sounds more like APPO now doesn't want the PFP to leave, and here's why.
The PFP transferred 140 prisoners from a state penitentiary where they were being held to a federal prison today. They did this because of supposed threats to the physical well-being of the prisoners by state authorities. The fear was that the state prison officials were warming up their waterboards, charging up their 12v/60 amp batteries and polishing the testicle clips.
APPO knows now that when the PFP does finally pull out of Oaxaca, it will leave law enforcement back in the hands of state and local authorities. The PFP has been making sure that the state boys have kept their noses relatively clean. When the PFP goes, APPO fears a bloodbath. The PFP is the only thing standing between the APPO godfathers and long, tortuous prison sentences or death by hit squad.
The big problem that APPO now has is that their "movement" has just about run out of gas, as well as gasoline bombs, and Carlos Abascal knows it. Why should he deign to sit down with these jerks who, back in October, took so much delight in making him look bad.
Screw'em.
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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, PFP
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