Oaxaca, Mexico: Fireworks here and political wriggling in Mexico City

There are fireworks going off all over the city right now (10:30 AM). I don't know why. The APPO occupiers in the downtown and those manning the permanent barricades all over the city use rockets and bombs to signal one another. This goes on especially heavily during the night or whenever there is something that gets them all stirred up. No one has yet been able to determine exactly what the signals, er, signify.

Originally, APPO said that the fireworks would be used by any blockade or roving brigade that ran into trouble and needed help. By now, however, the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in air occur sporadically, day and night, and with no clear meaning, other than, "Hey, I gots me some dry matches!"

Meanwhile, in Mexico City, Governor Ruiz Ortiz met with the Undersecretary of the Interior, one Arturo Chávez Chávez (I kid you not, that's his name). That kind of reminds me of a fellow I used to see on TV a lot. His name was Raymond J. Johnson Johnson, Jr. -- "Just don't call me 'Johnson'." Anyway, Ruiz Ortiz Ortiz and Chávez Chávez Chávez jointly announced that the state governor would abide by the Senate's pending decision on his fate, no matter the outcome. They added that, regardless of that outcome, the problems in Oaxaca would not go away. Profound.

At Los Pinos (the presidential palace), President Fox met with the Senate's leading PAN representatives to ask that the PAN senators vote on the Ortiz Ruiz matter as a united bloque and that there be no "waste". His comments were reported in the Senate by Senator Santiago Creel as "Every senator is free to vote his conscience on this matter." Uh-huh.

Undersecretary Chávez Chávez Chávez Chávez's boss, Secretary of the Interior Carlos Abascal, held a press conference on the Oaxaca issue with reporters where he refused to answer any questions. He asked, instead, for more time to do his work and complained that press conferences were interfering with his thought processes and work ethic. He also reportedly exclaimed, "Progress? We don't have no progress. I don't have to show you no stinkin' progress!"

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, APPO, Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz

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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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, Section 22

Enron: Ken Lay's conviction erased

Ken Lay innocent! Stll dead at last report, however.

This means that his wife gets to keep the $44 million he stole from Enron employees and stockholders. How nice for her. This also means that patrician-coiffed but IQ-challenged Democratic Senators will be lining up their marriage proposals, ala John Kerry/Teresa (Tay-RAY-sah) Heinz. Git it while it's hot!

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TAGS: Enron, Kenneth Lay

Computer crashes: You've got to RAM your ROM

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data are corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

When the copy on your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk,
and the macro code instruction's causing unnecessary risk,
then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM,
then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your mom!

By Graham Hicks, published in the Edmonton Sun, Oct. 16, 2006

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TAGS: computer crash, RAM your ROM

Mexico election: AMLO and his PRD -- slowly twisting, twisting in the wind

Andrés Manuel López Obrador -- AMLO -- is from the state of Tabasco. He is revered as a near saint in that poor southeastern Mexican state. It was from Tabasco that he launched his presidential aspirations which he so bitterly watched crash and burn in July.

Now, AMLO has been abandoned by his own people.

AMLO spent the past 3 weeks on his home turf campaigning desperately to salvage the gubernatorial election for his PRD candidate, César Raúl Ojeda. And he was not alone. He was joined in the state by just about everybody who is anybody in the PRD, save Cuahtemoc Cárdenas, the grand old man of the PRD who has no use for AMLO.

Campaigning alongside AMLO were Leonel Cota Montaño, PRD National Director; Guadalupe Acosta, Secretary General of the PRD; Gerardo Fernández Noroña, national spokeman for the PRD; PRD Senate Coordinator Carlos Navarrete; Mexico City Coordinator Víctor Hugo Círigo; the PRD's representatives in the IFE (federal election institute) as well as various PRD Senators and Congressmen.

Ojeda was crushed yesterday by the candidate of the formerly hated PRI, Andrés Granier Melo. It looks like Granier has defeated AMLO's guy by at least 10 points and maybe as many as 14 and that would have to be considered a landslide victory or a humiliating defeat, depending upon your political persuasion.

From what I have been able to glean, it looks like AMLO has tried to take control of the PRD party in the much same manner that the caciques (despots) controlled the PRI (and probably still do) for so many decades. He has been accused of foisting an unpopular candidate on his formerly loyal supporters in Tabasco and running roughshod over state and local PRD officials. He is accused of using the infamous "dedazo" -- literally, "the tap", or the method by which a Mexican PRI president historically has tapped, or chosen, his successor.

PRD national officials lost no time in declaring that the Tabasco results would not affect AMLO's national standing. Right. This would be akin to Teddy Kennedy investing 3 weeeks of his precious time campaigning tirelessly throughout Massachusetts for his hand picked Democratic candidate and then seeing the Rev. Jerry Falwell get elected governor by a result of 55 to 45. Or, better, President George Bush moving to Texas and campaigning all over the state for his Republican gubernatorial choice and then watching in horror as the Rev. Al Sharpton got elected Texas governor, 57 to 43. It just couldn't happen.

But it has.

Perhaps the Tabasco state PRI director has said it best:

AMLO is just like an elephant. He came home to his own land to die.

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TAGS: Mexico election, AMLO, PRD, Tabasco

Oaxaca, Mexico: National SNTE threatens to dump local teachers

In many posts about this ongoing circus down here, I have referred to the striking teachers as the SNTE, which is the national teachers union led by Elba Esther Gordillo. That is technically correct. However, it would perhaps have been more precise to have referred to them as Section 22 of the SNTE, as the Oaxacan section is known. The SNTE national has never openly supported Oaxaca's Section 22. Nor, until yesterday, had the national union ever openly opposed Section 22.

Now comes the president of the SNTE, Elba Esther Gordillo, who says the national has formed an executive committee to study the disenfranchisement of Section 22 here in Oaxaca. She listed several reasons, first and foremost being the violent coercion exercised by Section 22 against teachers who wish to return to their classrooms. She detailed threats, vandalism, beatings and murder committed by Section 22 against its own. She says she has asked the federal government to provide protection for those teachers who wish to return to work. She claims to have in her hands a petition signed by 15,000 Oaxacan teachers, all members of Section 22, asking the national to help them return to work in spite of the official position of the Section 22 leadership.

She also took great pains to point out that those who go on national TV and appear in other media outlets claiming that the actions of Section 22 in Oaxaca are representative of the SNTE national are lying. According to the SNTE president herself, the national union does not support its Section 22 in Oaxaca. She says the national union is studying the possibility of sending teacher brigades down here to help reopen the schools. Now that would result in bloodshed, for sure.

She also blamed the actions which the SNTE national may take against its Section 22 on the local teachers union's consistent rejections of every proposal made by the Secretary of Interior as well as by the national union itself. She claimed that the total package of financial inducements by the federal and state governments and the SNTE national itself, including the SNTE national's offer to pay all the Section 22 membership's union dues, state and federal salary hikes and "re-zonification" (I'll explain later) total more than 12 billion pesos annually. That works out to roughly 50,000 dollars US per Oaxacan teacher. Fifty grand per teacher would be a piece of change even in the USA. But Section 22 has rejected all the offers while insisting that the state's governor must leave office or be kicked out by the federal government.

Gordillo says that it is not the proper position for herself, the SNTE national nor Section 22 to say whether or not the governor stays or goes. She says that the problems between Section 22 and the government are no longer labor related but have become political. As such, the national union cannot support the local, Section 22.

Now, let's try to keep in mind that Elba Esther Gordillo is a rank political player. She is a long-time member of the former ruling party, the PRI. She was "elected" head of the SNTE after being put forward for the job by former President Carlos Salinas, who headed what was possibly the most corrupt Mexican government in a long, long line of corrupt Mexican governments. She was put forward for the job when the former SNTE president became, er, unmanageable.

She also became the leader of the PRI contingent in the Mexican Congress. When it seemed she had grown too cozy with the PAN's President Vicente Fox, the old-time PRI leadership, called the "dinosaurs" here, stripped her of her position. Her opposition was led by Roberto Madrazo, the losing (badly) PRI candidate for president in the recently concluded 2006 election. In a snit, she formed a new political party so that she could put forward a fringe presidential candidate and take her union's 1.5 million votes with her. In this manner, she could deny the votes to Madrazo while not seeming to support the PAN (Calderon, the winner) or the PRD (AMLO, the winner wannabee). Madrazo and the PRI were badly embarrassed by their disastrous showing in the election and Gordillo's hatred of Madrazo was a key reason.

I might also add that she survived a serious bout with cancer that came very close to killing her and may yet.

Re-zonification? In Mexico there is a national minimum wage just as in the USA. However, the minimum wage here is not a coast-to-coast deal. It's also not a "pesos per hour" deal but rather a "pesos per day" one. The country is divided up into 3 economic zones, called A, B and C with Zone A being the ultimate. Zone A includes Mexico City, Acapulco, the Bajas and border cities Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros, among others. The minimum wage for Zone A is about 7% higher than for Zone C which includes Oaxaca and Chiapas. The SNTE negotiates its own zones, I think, somewhat comparable to the national zones, I think, but called I, II, III etc., I think -- getting definitive information on this is like pulling teeth. The minimum wage in Zone III (again, Mexico City and other places) is the highest while Oaxaca and Chiapas occupy the lowest paid zone . . . I think.

Most salaries, be they public or private, are based upon a particular zone's minimum wage and are so quoted; 3 times minimum wage, 2 times minimum wage etc. Even traffic fines and fines handed out by judges are quoted in minimum wage terms. "He was fined 120 days of minimum wage" is a common way to state a big fat fine handed out by a judge. A salary of, say, 3 times minimum wage in Oaxaca would be about 7% lower than a comparable salary in Mexico City because the minimum wage here is 7% lower, roughly. The cost of living here in Oaxaca, however, is probably 10% higher overall than in Mexico City. You see the problem(s).

One of the demands of the striking teachers from Section 22 has been that they be paid the same as the teachers in Zone III, wherever that is, hence, "re-zonification". That's probably fair. In fact, the entire national tiered minimum wage scheme should probably be scrapped. There are a lot of other economic schemes prescribed by law in Mexico that should also probably be scrapped because none of them work . . . but they won't be. If they were scrapped then the richer would get less rich, or richer at a slightly slower rate while the poor would become less poor, or become poorer at a slower rate. That could not be tolerated by those who have the gold and make the rules (see Google Search: rule, golden, how it really works).

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, SNTE, Section 22, Elba Esther Gordillo

Oaxaca, Mexico: Weekend casualties so far -- 1 dead and 2 hospitalized

Four guys left a strip joint at 2:30 AM yesterday. They arrived at street barricade. An ambulance came blaring through and the barricade was lifted for the ambulance. When the 4 men tried to take advantage of this by also passing through the barricade, the APPO aficionados tried to stop them. Shots were fired from the men's car. Alejandro García Hernández, one of the APPO followers, was left dead in the street with a gunshot to the head. Another protester was wounded in the shoulder.

In another incident the same morning, a drunk motorist ran over a person manning another street barricade leaving the squashed one hospitalized in fair condition.

Funeral on the Zócalo, Governor blamed, normal weekend, nothing to see here, move along.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, violence

The future of Air America

Sheldon Drobny, whoever that is, has some thoughts about the future of the bankrupt liberal radio network, Air America, over at Puffington's Host.

Mark in Mexico has some thoughts of his own concerning this matter. However, they are too much for words. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, consider this a 12,000 word treatise on the possible futures of Air America.

























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TAGS: Air America, liberal radio, bankrupt, good riddance

Oaxaca, Mexico: Finally someone tells it like is

It fell to a Senator from the PAN to finally lay out the truth for all to hear about the problems in Oaxaca. One can, with very little effort, replace the word "governors" with "presidents" and the word "Oaxaca" with "every other Mexican state and Mexico City" and one may begin to understand what's wrong with Mexico.

Senator Alejandro González Alcocer, PAN:

Q: ¿Usted, que fue gobernador, que revisa la situación, qué errores ve que cometió Ulises Ruiz?

You, if you were the governor, in reviewing the situation, what mistakes do you see that were made by Ulises?

A: Bueno, primero que nada, es desde antes de Ulises. ya viene desde los gobernadores que han sido muy caciques. Murat, que no me digan, era muy cacique. y los otros también. Esto viene del arraigo de la pobreza, de las carencias en Oaxaca, de gobernantes que no hacen lo que tienen que hacer por la población y ahí están los resultados.

Well, first of all. this goes back way before Ulises. It derives from previous despotic and authoritarian governors. From them arose the poverty and the deficiencies in Oaxaca. Governors who didn't do what they were supposed to do for the people and here are the results.

"Trató de movilizar políticamente ciertas cosas, para darle en la torre a algunos que consideraba más radicales y le salió mal el tiro".

He tried to mobilize politically and do certain things like throwing those he considered to be the most radical in jail. That has worked out quite badly.

Se volvió autoritario. Dijo: ´No a las manifestaciones´, y se volvió represor ¡Claro que va a reventar!. eso no se puede hacer".

Authoritarianism had returned. He said "No demonstrations," and the repression had returned. Sure, it was bound to blow up because this cannot be.

I would predict that PAN Senator Alejandro González Alcocer has very little political future left. Nobody in Mexico City is going to like those statements.

And, speaking of previous governors, Jose Murat, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz's predecessor, is now being accused of finacially supporting the APPO's leader, Flavio Sosa. The two leaders of the Alternativa party, allied with AMLO and the PRD, accuse Murat of supporting Sosa financially when the APPO activist got out of prison during Murat's rule in Oaxaca.

They say that Murat and Ruiz Ortiz are enemies and that Murat is using Sosa and APPO to "balance accounts" with Ulises. They also say that Murat and APPO supported a minor presidential candidate, Víctor González Torres, in order to suck votes away from AMLO in the July election. The term "Byzantine" would seem appropriate here.

And here's another note of interest. Flavio Sosa's children, unlike 1,300,000 other Oaxaca kids who have lost 4 months of their education and are still not in school, are enrolled in a prestigious private school here. The two Sosa children are enrolled in the Colegio Federico Froebel, here in Oaxaca, where classes are conducted in Spanish, English and French. When questioned about this during an interview, Flavio Sosa responded, "That is not the theme of this interview. They are not in school at this minute." That's not what the Sosa children's friends and their parents are telling reporters.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE

A word on banned commenters

Folks, I really appreciate the visits and especially the comments. What I don't appreciate are those who visit and start name-calling, especially when that involves foul language.

For an excellent example of a pithy comment, actually many examples, look at the way Sacha writes comments. Sacha and I have some very basic disagreements on, well, most everything. As a matter of fact, she got right into my face once about a post I had written. I felt obliged to respond to her in a separate post rather than in the comments. I did not apologize but I did try to better explain my position. She understood it better, I think, but opted to continue to agree to disagree. That's fine.

What's not so fine is when a commenter not only writes false information, but concludes his comment with a nasty insult. Whether that insult was directed to me or to another commenter is irrelevant. Such behavior is not tolerated.

To refresh everyone's memory about what a "blog" is and what it is not, I'll lay it out again. Most blogs are created so that the blogger, in this case yours truly, can say something that the blogger wishes to say. The blogger may choose to use foul language and insults against, uh, whomever. That's pretty common and you know this if you skate around to many blogs. The blogger may choose to post photos of naked dancing girls . . . or boys, whatever. The blogger may choose to provide porn links and pornographic images. The blogger may choose to propagate and promote harebrained theories about everything from grassy knoll shooters to imploding twin towers to Honest Abe's sexual proclivities. That's the bloggers choice. It's his or her blog.

The blogger may choose to enable comments or not. That's optional. If, as in the case of Mark in Mexico, comments are enabled, the blogger will usually establish some type of ground rules. In the case of this blog, the only rule is "Keep it clean". When that rule is violated, it's "Adios amigo": The commenter is banned. Some banned commenters complain bitterly that this is unfair and accuse the blog owner of being everything from close-minded to gutless. The key words to remember here are "blog owner". A grocery store owner can decide to sell loaves of Wonder bread for $0.05 per loaf all day next Saturday. His competition may not like it, but the competing grocery store owners must recognize that selling bread all day at a loss is his prerogative because he is the "owner". The same is true of blogs owners.

The blog owner may ban any commenter that he wishes, at any time and for any reason. Being fair or unfair has nothing to do with it. Or, as William Munney said to the dying Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett in "Unforgiven", "Deservin's got nuthin to do wiith it." If the most well written and thoughtful comments imaginable were consitently signed by someone calling themselves "Eat sh*t and die, motherf***er", sans asterisks, that commenter would be banned by Mark in Mexico.

Now, bans are not too terribly difficult to get around, at least for awhile. The blog owner may have to ban many IP addresses as the banned commenter searches for and finds other routes to get back into the comment section. Some bloggers get so disgusted with repeat visits by banned commenters that they will ban entire IP address areas, like Oaxaca. If Mark in Mexico were to do that, it would mean that no none from Oaxaca could leave a comment. I don't want to do that. I noticed that the previously banned commenter Slave Revolt had returned. So I banned his latest IP address and will continue to ban any additional IP addresses that he tries to use. I also deleted his latest attempt at humor.

This post is mostly directed at one commenter, specifically. You, sir, know who you are. And you, sir, are gone. If you desperately wish to return, which I doubt, then you may send me a private Email with an apology, which I will post publicly, and I will consider lifting the ban.

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TAGS: bloggers, blog comments

Oaxaca, Mexico: Lines being drawn in the sand . . . again

An undersecretary for the Secretary of Interior warned the striking teachers that they must be in their classrooms on Monday or the "offers" made by Interior will be withdrawn.

Yawn.

This must be about the 10th time, at least, that one government funtionary or another has issued a warning to the APPO/SNTE bloque. So far, no none seems to be overly impressed by government threats. The SNTE responded that they would not schedule meetings . . . again . . . with the rank and file until Tuesday.

Since the APPO/SNTE had already rejected the offers, after initially accepting them, I don't see any sharp teeth in Interior's warning. APPO spokesmen Flavio Sosa and Alfredo Chiu did respond by "demanding that Interior 'watch its language' and that these types of statements don't help the environment of dialogue and solution."

Environment of "dialogue and solution", eh? What environment of dialogue and solution? The "dialogue and solution" environment here consists of 1.)Demand 2.) Negotiate 3.)Agree 4.)Reject the agreement after 24 hours 5.)Build more barricades, burn more buses, paint more cars, fire more gunshots 6.) Demand more and lament the environment of confrontation 8.) Rinse and repeat.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, hollow threats

Oaxaca, Mexico: Senators attacked -- no end in sight -- and no school for the kids

And so on we go. The "agreement" hammered out on Monday between Carlos Abascal, Secretary of the Interior, and the APPO/SNTE bloque has now officially crashed and burned. Abascal isn't saying much because this is a real black eye for him. His supposed agreement with the APPO/SNTE lasted less than 48 hours before the groups holding Oaxaca hostage announced their intent to refuse to honor it.

The APPO/SNTE had initially agreed to meet with its rank and file on Tuesday to determine a date for their return to classes while the national Senate debated the removal of Governor Ruiz Ortiz. Now, the SNTE and APPO have canceled those meetings and say that they will not discuss returning to classes until the Senate gives Ruiz Ortiz the boot.

Yesterday a tripartite group of Senators arrived from Mexico City to review the situation. For their efforts, they were surrounded by APPO thugs who shouted threats at them to beat them, puncture their tires and then proceeded to spray paint their SUV with, "Ulises Die" and Ulises Out". The PRD Senator, Tomás Torres was the most frightened of all. He tried to order the driver to leave the PRI and PAN Senators behind. "Vámonos, de prisa, ciérrale, rápido (Come on, hurry, close it (the door)".

Then this exchange between the driver and the PRD representative; "'Faltan los demás senadores', le dijo el chofer a Torres. 'Pues que se apuren, vámonos', decía desesperado el legislador federal." ("We don't have the other two senators, said the driver." "Well, they'd better hurry. Let's go!" said the federal legislator, desperately.)

When the PAN Senator, Alejandro González, finally got into the SUV, he said, "I wasn't going to wait around any longer to see what time the beating would start."

At last, the Senator from the PRI, Ramiro Hernández, got into the vehicle and the driver was able to force his way through the crowd.

The PRDista, Torres, still scared, asked the PANista González, "Didn't you see them? The ones with the clubs?" González answered, "Yes, but you cannot show fear. You have to confront them, show them your face and listen to them." Viva González!


Now comes a constitutional scholar at UNAM (Mexico's big university) to declare that the national Senate would be violating the Constitution if it were to try to remove Governor Ruiz Ortiz from office. Professor Raúl Carrancá y Rivas says that the Constitution clearly states that all three branches of a state's government must be non-functioning before the Senate can appoint a provisional government. He says that, while it may be arguable that Oaxaca's executive branch no longer functions, it is clear that both the judicial and legislative branches are working as prescribed by the law.

So, if the APPO/SNTE bloque refuses to give an inch unless the Senate kicks Ruiz Ortiz out of office and the Senate cannot legally do this, we're at an impasse. I think that's where we've been for 4 months or so. Many of the the nation's newpapers carried headlines on Wednesday like, "Peace comes to Oaxaca" and "Children to return to school". They were just a bit premature with those declarations, it would appear.

The spoksman for the PRI in the national Senate is charging that the PRD (read: AMLO) is behind the trouble in Oaxaca. He says that Gabino Cue, the PRD candidate who lost the guburnatorial election to Ruiz Ortiz, "has never accepted his defeat and now takes every opportunity to attack the governor." The PRI spokeman also charged that the PRD has a "perverse" relationship with APPO and the SNTE as well as "urban guerillas".

This report which says that the APPO leadership met yesterday afternoon with the executive committee of the PRD would seem to lend some credence to those accusations.

If you will recall previous posts concerning the shootings two days ago in Colonia Reforma when an APPO mob trapped 57 people inside a government office building, it seems that the Mayor of Mexico City has been able to identify the shooters. They were not policemen. The mayor (of the PRD) says that photos were taken of the shooters and that 3 different people sent him information about the shooters via Email. He says that one of the shooters was Marcos Mateos Esteva Cruz, a student at Juarez university and a known university thug. Esteva Cruz is also known as "El Krusty" and I know he was identified here a couple of months ago as an APPO thug who burned one bus at the 7 Regions Fountain and tried, unsuccessfully, to burn another. One of the brave bus burners was caught at the time and said that "El Krusty" was the leader of that group. This "El Krusty" is an 8th semester Accounting student (a senior) who is also known to have spent a year and a half in jail for assaulting and robbing a local bar.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE, thugs

Oaxaca, Mexico: Marching backwards -- doubletime

UPDATED

"Una marcha atrás" is what they call it here. Since the "negotiated agreement" between the Secretary of the Interior, Carlos Abascal, and the forces of APPO/SNTE -- unconditional surrender is what we call it there -- things have gone steadily downhill. Abascal's definition of "negotiated agreement" must have been drawn from a Vichy French dictionary published cerca 1940.

First, Governor Ruiz announced that he would not take part in a big meeting scheduled for today where a group of 125 politicians, businesspersons, social and community activists were to present their proposals for the return of peace and tranquility to Oaxaca. Governor Ruiz was angry at Secretary Abascal for "superceding" his authority in negotiating the surrender to APPO/SNTE.

Then, Abascal announced that he and the governor do, in fact, see eye-to-eye and are coordinating their efforts and communicating regularly. I think that is diplomatic-speak for "We have agreed to disagree on virtually everything and we call one another frequently to exchange epithets and curses."

Next, a tripartite Senate committee was to visit here yesterday to review the situation and report back to the Senate. APPO immediately took to the streets, or rather, took more streets in an effort to impress upon the Senators the "ungovernability" of the state. I might interject here that "ungovernability" is one of the conditions under which the national Senate could remove a state governor from office.

APPO has now extended their street blockades around the city's center to 4 blocks out on every side. They now have more territory under their control than at any other point during this 4 month-long nightmare. Abascal's "peace treaty" has already blown up in his face --or better -- in our faces. He's still in Mexico City.

57 government employees went to work yesterday in the offices of the Secretaría de Protección Ciudadana (Civil Defense, more or less). They were soon followed by an APPO mob. After being trapped inside the building for 4 hours, they began to be escorted out in small groups by armed policemen. The first group out cleared the way with gunfire. There were 2 or 3 members of the APPO mob wounded. One of the wounded, an Iván Rojas, reported, hilariously, "We knocked on the door and they opened it and shot us." No sh*t, Sherlock. If someone "knocked" on my door and I knew that that someone had a several hundred-strong mob behind him armed with clubs, pipes, machetes, knives and possibly guns, I might be disposed to come out a'shootin', too, podner.

The APPO mob was part of a much larger mob that invaded Colonia Reforma and shut down some 17 government buildings. At the state Health Services Infrstructure building, a very brave female secretary who works in the building challenged the mob right to their faces. "We only want to go to work and by working we'll accomplish things and move this state forward. That should be what you want, also." A slightly more timid coworker standing behind her whispered, "Shut up, already." The infuriated girl replied, "Why should I shut up? It's the truth."

APPO claims that the governor ordered the people to go to work to try to demonstrate the "governability" of the state. APPO says its mob responded to demonstrate the ungovernability of the state. The Senators decided to stay home demonstrating untravelability. It is being reported that the 3 Senators have now arrived this morning, during the wee hours, one if by land and 2 if by air, demonstrating sneak-in-under-cover-of-darknessability.

The big meeting that Governor Ruiz refused to attend was also canceled for at least two weeks.

All day yesterday, directly in front of the Mexican Army post here (you drive right past it on your way to Tule, Mitla and the isthmus), APPO thugs were stopping cars on Calzada de Los Niños Heroes de Chapultepec (the Tule highway) and painting them with white shoe polish. "Ulises Out!", Ulises Is A Rat" and "Die Ulises, You Rat" were the watchwords of the day. One would do well not to object too strenuously when subjected to such treatment. That is, unless one has a lot of seriously missplaced confidence in a Mexican insurance company's willingness to pay for the damage about to be inflicted on one's car.

There was another set of traffic signals out of order this morning at yet another busy intersection near Niños Heroes. The ones that were out of service yesterday are still not working today. There were no traffic cops at any of the intersections at and around Reforma and Niños Heroes. I got through OK at 7:30 but I imagine that by 8:30 it was a real nightmare.

The gates of Juarez University were closed again this morning with a couple of thousand students stranded in front in the boulevard. If this goes like it did the last time, just two weeks ago, University Boulevard will soon be blockaded with hijacked buses. I would suppose that the university professors' union failed to show up today in solidarity with their APPO/SNTE brothers and sisters.

UPDATE: El Universal reports that 30 students entered the university early this morning, took over the administration building, and declared the university closed for the day. This was done to demonstrate the ungovernability of the state. I think it points more to the incompetancy of university officials who will apparently cede control of the university and its 30,000 students to whomever arrives earliest in the morning.

A contingent of APPO spokespersons met with a select Senate committee yesterday in Mexico City to demand the ouster of Governnor Ruiz Ortiz. The PRI and PAN representatives both said they would need to study the documentation presented by APPO. The PRD representative (an AMLO follower) took the documents and immediately declared that the PRD was in favor of removing the governor from office. The PRD Senator apparently was able to review and pronounce judgement on the evidence through a very rapid osmosis process.
Ohmmmmmmmmm.
Ohmmmmmmmmm.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, oaxaca teachers´strike, APPO, SNTE, mob rule

Oaxaca, Mexico: It's worse than I thought

NOTE: Telmex lost internet late yesterday afternoon and we just got it back in this part of the city. I wrote this post last night but I had to save it to Word until I could post it at this time. One brief update: APPO is setting up yet more street blockades at some points around the city. I'll have to do some checking to see what their beef might be now. There are some traffic signals at strategic points around that city that have become inoperable. They have been inoperable all day and no city work crews have been sent to fix them. I haven't seen any evidence of vandalism so I don't know if these traffic signals have been sabotaged or if the city government is simply demonstrating its usual incompetancy.

The agreement between the federal government and the APPO/SNTE gangsters described in the preceding post is less than I originally reported. As new details come out it seems that the federal government has received, well, nothing.

• Some but not all blockades will be abandoned by APPO on a schedule to be determined by a "citizens committee"
• The tent city in the center of Oaxaca city (2 blocks out on all sides from the Zócalo) will be maintained until the national Senate agrees to remove Governor Ruiz Ortiz from office. In other words, Oaxaca is still under the control and will remain under the control of the APPO anarchists for the foreseeable future.
• The newly installed tent city in Mexico City in front of the national Senate will also remain in place until Governor Ruiz is removed.
• In addition to the removal of the governor and the 6 city and state officials already removed, APPO and the SNTE now demand that the state Secretary of Interior and the state Secretary of Education also be removed from office.
• In the next 6 years, the incoming government of Felipe Calderon agrees to spend an additional 41.2 billion pesos (about 3.75 billion dollars US) to increase salaries of the entire country's teachers to the same level as is paid to teachers in Mexico City.
• The federal government agreed to not send any federal police forces into the city. Security is to be maintained by state and city police under the command of a federal undersecretary who will report to a local civilian citizens committee.
• The Secretary of the Interior, Carlos Abascal, announced that, after consultations with the state governmet which took place during the 8 hour negotiating session, the federal government agreed to all the proposals and was ready to put the agreement into effect immediately.

Abascal emphasized that the teachers' union and APPO must hurry to meet with their respective memberships to get their approval of the agreement. He also emphasized that the teachers' union must hurry to work out a plan to return to work in order to "salvage" the current school year.

Here is a video of APPO in action while simultaneously "negotiating" with the federal government (in another location, of course). The narration is in Spanish and is preceded by an irritating 30 sec. commercial for Chevy SUV's, but you'll soon get the idea. The APPO followers had arrived outside the national Senate building in Mexico City and tried to get inside. What follows is, er, messy. The point being that this is how APPO "negotiates" and how APPO forced the federal government to capitulate. Keep in mind that the violence you are seeing in the video was occurring at the very same time that APPO and the SNTE were negotiating to end the violence. Well, I guess you keep shooting until the surrender documents are signed, sealed and delivered, eh?

Here is the justice that we can all look forward to in the Oaxaca of the future.

An unarmed traffic cop snatched from an intersection he was directing.

An unarmed security guard kidnapped from a government building when he attempted to stop
an APPO thug who had climbed a wall and entered the building through a second story window. That's green paint you see splashed all over the unfortunate fellow. This guy was grabbed
in Colonia Reforma and dragged all the way to the Zócalo for display, about a mile away.

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TAGS: oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE, surrender

Oaxaca, Mexico: Federal government agrees to peace at any price -- Another sad day in a long, sad history

It is small wonder that 10% of the native born Mexican population now lives in the United States.

After 144 days of agony brought on first by a teachers' strike and then by anarchists running amok in the streets of this, the capitol city, as well as many other cities and towns throughout the state, the federal government has thrown in the towel.

In an 8 hour session yesterday, the federal government has agreed to the following:

• Drop all charges against all members of the SNTE and APPO for all crimes committed
• All prisoners already jailed are to be freed.
• All outstanding arrest warrants will be quashed
• Four more state and city government officials will be fired; Lino Celaya, State Secretary for Public Security; State Attorney General Lizbeth Caña; Manuel Moreno, Director of the State Ministerial Police; and the Municipal Police Chief, Aristeo López -- none of whom have been charged with any crime whatsoever and all of whom are well enough connected to do quite nicely, thank you.
• The teachers will "eventually" return to their classrooms
• APPO will walk away from their barricades leaving all the shit in the streets
• Police will return to the city's streets under the command of the federal Undersecretary of Public Security
• The ouster of Governor Ruiz Ortiz will now be pursued through "institutional channels"
• All of the above hinges upon the teachers and APPO membership accepting this agreement in meetings which begin today.

So, the anarchists have won. There is no justice in Mexico and it would appear that living outside the rule of law is now condoned and is, in fact, the official position of the Mexican federal government.

There was no mention of investment in infrastructure.

There was no mention of reparations for the hundreds of millions of dollars in economic losses suffered by the citizens of Oaxaca.

There was no mention of any effort or offer by the SNTE nor the APPO to repair the physical damages suffered to buildings and property, be they government owned, privately owned or owned by the church.

There was no mention of any plan for job creation.

There was no mention of any steps to avoid a repeat of this entire fiasco again next year when the teachers strike and again occupy the city's center -- as they have done every year since 1984.

There was no mention of any plan to help 1,300,000 school children recoup 144 days of lost classroom time.

If, in fact, Governor Ruiz Ortiz was committed any crimes, he walks away Scot free.

If, in fact, any other city or state officials committed any crimes, they have also drawn a free pass.

Incredibly, there was no mention of any concrete steps to be taken by anyone, anytime, anywhere to prevent this from all blowing up again tomorrow, next week or next year.

There was no mention of any actions whatsoever to aid the economy of this dirt poor state.

So, in Oaxaca as in the rest of Mexico as well as 19 other countries to the south, the rich will keep getting richer and the poor will keep getting poorer and continue to survive on charity.

Congratulations!! You've just won . . . more misery!

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, capitulation

Mexico to haul The United States before the U.N. over border fence

Reaction in the USA (outside of Massachusetts).

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TAGS: Mexico, United Nations, border fence

Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion

Google, Inc. just bought YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars. Google also announced an offer for the internationally renowned blog, "Mark in Mexico", for $1.65.

Mark in Mexico responds, "No se vende."

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TAGS: Google, YouTube, No se vende

North Korea: Per Jeffrey Lewis at Arms Control Wonk / Defensetech.org, NORK NUKE is a DUD

Jeffrey Lewis gives us more tech data than my feeble mind can fully absorb, but he says that data from the US Geological Survey indicates that the North Korean nuclear test was a complete dud. Lewis believes the data indicate that the yield was only somewhere between 200 and 1 kiloton. By comparison, the 1945 Nagasaki bomb was about 20 kilotons. In other words, somewhere between 1/100th and 1/20th the size of the 1945 bomb. In some other words, the test was a dud.

Lewis says this is the first time in history that a country failed its first nuclear test and that Kim should be crapping his pants right about now.

How bad was it? So bad that Chester wonders if it was, in fact, a hoax. What, a bundle of Chinese-made M-80's in a big hole in the ground?

Please don't let it be the North Koreans' last failure.

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TAGS: North Korea, nuclear test, dud

Oaxaca, Mexico: Noted TV political commentator rips APPO, SNTE, state and federal governments

Sergio Sarmiento -- TV Azteca

Sergio Sarmiento, writing an opinion which was published, shockingly, by the virulently anti-government local newspaper Noticias, rips the APPO, the striking teachers, the state governement and the federal government over the murder of math teacher Jaime René Calva Aragón. In an opinion piece titled, "El Maestro", Sarmiento pens a bitter and scathing indictment of just about all parties involved in this 4 month-long fiasco.

The money quotes:

Jaime René Calva Aragón committed the worst sin imaginable by a Oaxacan teacher. He dared to teach classes to his students.

The scepticism of the murdered teacher's family, friends and fellows that any justice will be done is well founded. The governor long ago lost control of this state and especially the capitol city. The federal government is carrying on negotiations with the groups who have taken control of the capitol, asking their permission to apply the law. Logically, those groups have not given that permission.

The formal reason they have given us for establishing dialogue and negotiations is supposedly to try to avoid the violence inherent to the use of force in the city.

But the violence is already here.

It was with violence that the state's schools were closed while many teachers, perhaps the majority, neither supported nor participated in the movement. It has been with violence that they have taken the city's streets and halted the economic activity of tourism. It has been with violence that they have provoked the loss of jobs and the income of those who work there. It has been with violence that radio and TV stations have been taken. It has been with violence that teachers' union and APPO activists have meted out "justice" in the form of corporal punishment to those who don't approve of their movement. It has been with violence that Professor René Calvo was murdered.

But this violence only affects the common, everyday people so it doesn't worry Governor Ruiz nor does it matter to the federal Secretary of Governemnt Carlos Abascal, assigned by President Fox to find a solution to the problem of Oaxaca. The only violence of any import to them, the only violence they are seeking to avoid, is any violence that might affect members of APPO or the striking teachers. They are the only ones in Oaxaca who have the right to live free of violence.

The family and friends of Professor René Delgado know well that his murderers will never be punished. First, the Oaxacan police don't even dare to go out into the streets. But, if by some miracle they managed to find and apprehend those responsible for the murder, the murderers would immediately become "political prisoners" and there would be more demonstrations and more blockades until their release could be forced. That is "revolutionary justice".

And that is the justice that applies today in our country and in Oaxaca. Those who govern us hide out and refuse to do their duty, although they never refuse to accept their generous salaries (Editors comment: Sounds just like the US Congress, no?) The citizenry, meanwhile, lives in fear and is victim of the violence.

The great sin of René Calva was to do his duty as an educator. He challenged those who seek to impede education by daring to give mathmetics classes to students who so desperately needed that instruction. That cost him his life.

In our country, the best way to protect life and limb, salaries and positions is to not fulfill one's obligations. The teachers who don't attend their classes, the police who don't go out into the streets, the governors who don't govern and the federal cabinet secretaries who prolong the conflicts are those who receive rewards from the Mexican political system. The teachers who dare to give classes are those who put the priveleges of the others at risk.

So, in just a little while, no one will remember the name of Professor René Calva.

I've written commentary like this and some vistors to the site have invited me to leave. Now you read it from an influential Mexican who, I don't believe, has any intentions of moving anywhere.

I noted towards the beginning of the post that these were the money quotes. Actually, it's just about all the quotes. I think I am protected by standards of fair use and besides, I know a good jungle hideout in Costa Rica.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers´strike, APPO, SNTE, Sergio Sarmiento

Oaxaca, Mexico: Feds are ready, sources tell Reforma

According to the Mexico City daily Reforma, sources inside the federal government say they are ready to enter the city of Oaxaca and take control of the streets (subscription req'd) if negotiations break down between the feds and APPO/SNTE. These unnamed sources further assure the newspaper that arrest warrants will be served.

Who, exactly, the feds would try to arrest remains open to speculation. The tone of the article is that the feds would try to serve existing warrants issued by the city and state against many members of both APPO and the SNTE. I don't know of any federal arrest warrants outstanding. While there have been numerous violations of federal law here, for instance, blocking the airport and federal highways, I haven't heard of any federal arrest warrants being issued or made public.

In Mexico they have a legal resource called an Amparo. It is something like a Writ of Habeus Corpus in the US. Anyone who thinks they may be subject to an ongoing investigation by any prosecutor may have their lawyers ask a judge for an Amparo. The Amparo forces the prosecutors to reveal their investigation and any evidence they may have accumulated. In this instance, the Amparo serves as a kind of Motion for Discovery, but before any formal charges are filed. This supposedly gives a potential defendant a bit of a jump on prosecutors. A defendant can see what the prosecutors may have on him and has the opportunity to head for the jungles of Costa Rica before an arrest warrant can be issued and served. This happens frequently.

If the person believes that an arrest warrant has already been issued, the Amparo can serve to put a hold on the execution of that warrant. The judge who issued the Amparo would then have to review the prosecutor's accumulated evidence to ascertain whether or not that evidence does, indeed, support said arrest warrant. Keep in mind that a different judge, somewhere, issued the original warrant supposedly based upon his findings that the prosecutors had a good case.

This then becomes a contest to find the friendliest judge. The prosecutors get their friendly judge to issue an arrest warrant. The defendant gets his friendly judge to issue an Amparo to hold the arrest warrant. Then the prosecutors and the defendant's lawyers battle over which judge in which court will ultimately decide if there is or is not an arrest. Meanwhile, if the defendant gets cold feet, he heads for the hills -- or the jungles, wherever. This happens frequently.

Reforma reporters were told that, if the feds decide to enter the city, they will do so with 3 coordinated federal forces --the Army, the Navy and the Federal Preventive Police (PFP). They would simultaneously enter several other of Oaxaca state's cities and towns where the APPO and/or the SNTE have taken control of the streets. The federal forces would begin removing the barricades that block the streets. APPO admits to about 250 permanent blockades around the state. I have personally seen about 30 here in Oaxaca on the north, center and east sides of the city. I think that 250 might be a low estimate but that's just my guess. I found two more this morning that had been set up late last week or over the weekend. It looks like they're trying to isolate the big ADO bus station.

The federal forces would also remove protesters who have taken possession of or blocked and closed some 22 government buildings here in Oaxaca city as well as an undisclosed number in other cities and towns. The federal government had offered to send in unarmed PFP agents to peacefully occupy the city and restore some semblance of order. Both the SNTE, on Saturday, and APPO, yesterday, rejected this offer. They apparently want to see guns before they'll move.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE, anarchy

Oaxaca, Mexico: Fewer blockades = more violence

Some of the outlying street blockades are coming down. The remaining blockades, especially around the city's center, are being reinforced. As some blockades have come down, the level of violence has increased. An engineering professor, who had returned to work in a public school which had reopened, was stabbed to death with icepicks in broad daykight on a busy street in the colonia Cinco Señores. He was dragged from his car, had his hands tied, and was stabbed in the neck until dead.

Professor René Calva Aragón, 40, had just left the school on his way to a meeting of the Consejo Central de Lucha (CCL), a dissident group of teachers who, in defiance of the striking SNTE, had returned to work. According to another member of the CCL, Professor Alma Rosa Fernández, the murdered teacher had been receiving death threats, as have all the other teachers in the school. She also stated that the two killers had been easily identified witnesses that and the murder was the work of the SNTE and APPO. The APPO immediately charged the governor with the crime.

Armed and Ready at the Barricades
It looks like this guy is holding some type of homemade bazooka or mortar.

Molotov cocktails, torches and a supply of gasoline at the ready.

Street "Justice"
Five men in a car who approached a street blockade were accosted by masked anarchists who demanded their identification. According to the APPO, the men started shooting. When they ran out of bullets, they were dragged from their car, stripped, beaten, and taken to the Zócalo for "justice". No one was hit by the fusillade nor did the APPO present weapons or any spent cartridges to support their version.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE, violence

Oaxaca, Mexico: More good news; the striking teachers and APPO refuse to negotiate

The striking teachers´union, the SNTE, and the APPO have announced that they will refuse to sit down and negotiate their differences with the federal and state governments. The Secretary of Government had planned a negotiating forum for today, titled Pacto por la Gobernabilidad, la Paz y el Desarrollo del Estado de Oaxaca (Agreement for Peace and Development in the State of Oaxaca). The SNTE and APPO will not attend. Their reasoning is so astonishing that I will give you the original Spanish and then translate it to English for you.

Enrique Rueda, head of the teachers' union, said they would not attend because:

Quienes van (al foro) no representan al pueblo de Oaxaca, son ex gobernadores y grupos de poder, los empresarios al servicio del gobierno estatal y de la Federación, y porque nosotros decimos que son los culpables de la crisis en la que estamos viviendo en estos momentos.

English: Those who are attending (the forum) do not represent the people of Oaxaca. They are ex-governors, businessmen in the service of the state and federal governments and because we say that they are the ones guilty of causing this crisis that we live in at this moment.

Rueda and the APPO plan a "parallel forum" where, I must assume, only their supporters would be present. That's an interesting view of "negotiations", is it not?

Perhaps the UAW should try this when negotiations begin for the new contracts with the automotive companies in the USA. Refuse to negotiate with the auto companies and hold the negotiating session amongst themselves. I could predict the outcome as easily as you. They'd come out of the negotiations with an agreement -- among themselves -- to double hourly wages, reduce the workweek to 20 hours, lower the retirement age to 35 and double hiring so as to have two persons available for every job on the assembly lines.

This would be, of course, a game that two could play. The automotive companies could hold their own negotiating forum, barring the union, and agree -- also among themselves -- to halve hourly wages, increase the workweek to 60 hours with no OT, increase the retirement age to 90 and layoff half the workforce requiring every surviving worker to perform two jobs for the half-price of one.

Excuse me, but I think Rueda's statement is, at best, moronic. If you are going to sit down and negotiate opposing viewpoints, you may expect those with opposing viewpoints to be on the other side of the table. That is not, apparently, acceptable to Mr. Rueda and his followers.

This latest development can only be viewed in one light. The SNTE and APPO are begging the federal government to send in the troops and take over control of the city and state. Why might they be doing this? One reason might be that they have, in fact, lost control of their followers to the militant anarchists, communists and socialists as well as to the various guerrilla forces and Che-istas. The only way the current "leadership" can see its way clear to regain control of the various union and populist movements is to see those militants mopped up by federal forces. This way, the "leadership" can squall about "government repression" while breathing a secret sigh of relief that the worst of the troublemakers are lying bleeding in the streets courtesy of the feds.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, SNTE, APPO, martial law

Oaxaca, Mexico:Guerrillas raising their ugly heads

Three banks in Colonia Reforma were attacked yesterday morning between 7:00 and 8:30 AM. A group calling itself the Organización Revolucionaria Armada del Pueblo de Oaxaca (ORAPO) has claimed responsibility. The group blew open the front entrances of all 3 banks, carried off anything not nailed down, and left a "manifesto" behind to explain their civil activism.

In the manifesto, the group claimed, among other things:

"We are prepered to fight with weapons, down to our bare hands if necessary, to defend the Oaxacan populace from the constant aggression. This is the first manifesto and the biginning of a series of pending actions to defend Oaxaqueñans from whatever aggressions by police and paramilitary groups."

APPO, of course, immediately denied any responsibility and blamed the state government.

A photo slideshow of the heavily damaged banks.
It would not be beyond the realm of possibility to suspect state government involvement. If anything is going to push president Fox to send in federal troops, it would be the threat of a guerrilla uprising inside the capitol city. However . . .

At the same time, the virulently anti-government local daily "Noticias" was distributing in its morning edition a letter supposedly received from the EPR (Popular Revolutionary Army), a well known and well armed guerrilla group. The EPR threatens to: "initiate a new phase in the class struggle" and bring on a "bloodbath" to the PRI and the PAN political parties. The letter, supposedly from The EPR's "Zonal Military Command", blames the problems in Oaxaca on an unholy alliance of the Catholic Church, the PAN, the PRI, president-elect Felipe Calderón, the television networks Televisa and TV Azteca, "illustrious" analysts and commentators, paramilitary groups, provacateurs, informants, the military-police apparatus, state Congressmen and Senators and judges and magistrates. Whew! Glad they didn't mention Preident Bush.

Again, if anything is going to force Fox's hand, threats from armed guerrilla groups should do the trick.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, guerrillas, martial law

Oaxaca, Mexico: President Fox and his cabinet draw the line

In two speeches yesterday by Mexico's President Vicente Fox and by his Secretary of Government, Carlos Abascal, firm threats were made to end the anarchy gripping the state of Oaxaca. They have now openly threatened to impose a "peaceful occupation", what we would call martial law.

First, Fox:

"There still exists the possibility of some negotiated settlement and we are going to insist upon it, that some agreement is reached and that things are resolved in this manner.

If not, then lawbreaking must always be confronted and must be punished."

Then later, Abascal was even more to the point:

"If neither Ruiz (the governor) nor APPO (the anarchists) trust in the other's structures to guarantee security to the Oaxacan citizens, then, naturally, we (the federal government) could occupy the state capitol in a peaceful manner, putting a stop to the aggression by both parties and giving the citizens space to carry on with their daily lives with a sense of security."

Abascal responded to questions about the military presence outside the city and the frequent overflights by military aircraft. He said that it was only responsible to compare the members of APPO with criminals who had taken over someone's home by force.

"Suppose a group of attackers assaulted and took over my home. Then the occupiers heard sirens and helicopters outside. Then suppose they began to complain about being held hostage inside my home.

By God! We're going to put things here in their proper context

Those who are the criminals here are those who have taken over my home, those who have held hostage one million three hundred thousand schoolchildren as well as the citizens of Oaxaca. So it seems infantile to me to complain, 'Oh! We (APPO) are being held hostage.'"

News sources are claiming that the plans for the occupation of Oaxaca by federal forces have already been set and are awaiting orders by the president to move into the city.

See the next post for several reasons why I am sure that this is now going to happen.


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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE, anarchy, martial law

Mexico's UNAM: 500 executed by organized crime in 1st 9 months of 2006 -- 200 police officers

Researchers at Mexico's giant National Autonomous University have completed a study indicating that some 500 people have been executed by organized crime figures in the first nine months of 2006. Of these 500, some 200 were police officers or military of various ranks and from various local, state and federal police forces.

The study took a little time because university research teams had to compile their figures from news reports from all over the country. There is no mechanism by which the various police forces at any level, local, state or federal, can compile and track such statistics. No news isn't bad news, I guess.

However, the AFI, Mexico's version of our FBI -- sort of -- has admitted to losing an average of 8 officers per month so far this year. And the Mexican Attorney General's group called the Specialized Investigations into Organized Crime unit has admitted to losing an average of 58.3 officers per year since President Fox took office in 2000. This unit claims that all have died in the line of duty . . . official, sworn duty.

The researchers say that they cannot determine what percentage of the law enforcement deaths were due to dealings with organized crime entities and what percentage actually died in the line of duty. I know what the average guy on the streets would say; 99-1, respectively. The report addresses that in an interesting manner: "Santiago Vasconcelos (head of the research project) says that some police officers were eliminated for failing to obey orders from criminal groups to attack rivel criminal organizations, a significant number were executed for failing to perform as expected by criminal groups whom they were protecting, and some unknown number died in the line of duty during confrontations with criminal groups." KIA seems to be the trailing cause of death. I might add that the first group mentioned may also include some officers who refused to join in a criminal enterprise and were executed for their folly and as a demonstration to others to not be so picky about their choice of employers.

I must say that I was a little surprised at the 200 YTD figure. It seems like that many policemen have been murdered in Nuevo Laredo alone. I might note that this is just a body count of those who have been found. The number of missing who may of may not be discovered in the future is a matter of speculation.

And I might also note that not one of the murdered law enforcement officers was dispatched by an illegal immigrant from the United States who had swum across the Río Bravo and then walked south for days across the blistering Sonoran desert in search of a better life as a gardener or day laborer in, uh, Toluca.

By comparison, in the United States, with more than 3 times the population and where almost everyone can own and carry firearms (just about 100% illegal in Mexico), there have been about 54 police officers killed in violent confrontations with criminals -- 37 only by gunfire. I doubt if even one was "executed by organized crime". This figure is through October 1 and was developed from data on the Officer Down Memorial Page website. Noted on the page is that 14 officers were killed either during automobile pursuits or as victims of vehicular assault. That's 40% as many who died by gunfire.

Outlaw cars and only outlaws will have cars!
I thought I'd go ahead and get a jump on the ACLU's next target -- 4 wheeled self-propelled motor vehicles.

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TAGS: Mexico, Mexico crime, Mexico organized crime

Oaxaca, Mexico: Father of 3 decapitated at APPO roadblock

Daniel Nieto Ovando, 24 and father of 3 children ages 5, 2 and 1, literaly lost his head when he hit a wire strung across a street in the Volcanes colonia which is just to the north of Colonia Reforma. According to neighbors, this blockade had been erected only the night before so that Nieto Ovando would not have known about its danger. The young dairy worker was on his way home from work at about 3:00 this morning on his motorcycle when he hit the wire, decapitating him and killing him instantly.

The "guardians" of the blockade had fallen asleep and failed to try to warn him before his neck hit the wire. What kind of ignorant dumbasses would string a wire across a busy street, at neck height and after dark? Of course the "guardians" are all long gone and there will be no criminal nor civil penalties, no recourse whatsoever for the widow and her three fatherless babies.

The young man's father-in-law, Manuel Aguirre, said, "The irresponsibility of those who put up the roadblocks and blockades was the cause of my son-in-laws death because they didn't even try to make any type of signal to warn him." He added that he didn't know how the family would scrape up the money for his funeral.

The newly widowed Jasmín Aguirre declared through tears, "It's time for the government to pull on some pants and resolve this conflict which has brought nothing but tragedies like this that our family is enduring."

Collateral damage, I guess. Right, Oaxaca Charlie? Unfortunate but a necessary sacrifice to further demonstrate the evils of Governor Ruiz Ortiz, McDonalds and genetically modified sweet corn.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, APPO, Oaxaca teachers' strike, murdering thugs

United Nations: Moon over Turtle Bay? Maybe not.

Ban Ki-Moon, the foreign minister of South Korea, is the leading contender to fill the tiny shoes of Kofi Annan at the UN. However, "Moonie" received a secret "No" vote which nobody has yet owned up to. This "No" vote may or may not sink his chances to succeed the worst Secretary General in the short, unhappy life of the useless United Nations.

Maybe this guy?

Joe-Bob Magoon gets the call:
"Whut? Ah've bin 'lected Sekertary Gen'ral of the Yoo-En? Wahl, shee-yit."

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TAGS: United Nations, Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon