Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Oaxaca, Mexico: National Senate refuses to remove Governor Ruiz Ortiz


The Mexican Senate will officially announce later today that it cannot justify the removal from office of Oaxaca's Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. According to sources inside the Senate, the holdup on the official announcement is due to ongoing negotiations over whether or not to request that Governor Ruiz Ortiz voluntarily step down and in what, if any, language that request should be broached.

The basis for the petition presented to the Senate demanding the governor's dismissal was the alleged "non-performance of the three powers of the state" -- the legislative, ejecutive and judicial powers. As evidence of the "disappearence" of these powers, the petitioners provided documentation that many state offices were forced to move their operations to alternate sites because of the insurrection in the streets.

The Senate replied that, on the contrary, relocating state offices proved that the state continues to perform its official duties. Had the state simply shut down the various branches of its government as offices and other facilities were attacked, occupied and/or barricaded, that might have been a different matter.

We'll see how APPO and Section 22 of the SNTE respond. Supposedly, the teachers union will hold forums with its rank and file later today to consider, again, their return to classrooms. It has been the position, self-declared as non-negotiable by APPO and the teachers, that they would not return to their jobs without the removal of Ruiz Ortiz from office


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