Mexican Authorities Still Trying To Calm Oaxaca
The Mexican forces dispatched to Oaxaca are still trying to gain control and are slowly asserting themselves in more areas of the city. But the artisans who rely on tourists to buy their goods are in serious trouble. The leftists have succeeded in only one thing: seriously damaging or completely destroying the local economy.
The conflict has quieted three days after federal police retook the center, but the dispute seemed far from resolved. Police wielding riot shields remained posted in Oaxaca City's arch-ringed main square, the Zocalo, while protesters maintained barricades in other parts of the city.
Federal police officers cleared away protesters' buses that had blocked the main highway connecting the colonial city to Mexico City over the past three months, local media reported.
On Wednesday, the Day of the Dead, many protesters blocked some streets with huge tapestries of skulls and skeletons instead of the previously used sticks, rocks and burning vehicles.
At least eight people have died in the conflict since leftist protesters took over the city five months ago. Among them was activist-journalist Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, who died in a gunbattle Friday.
The state prosecutor's office said Wednesday that two people were in custody and authorities were expected sometime this week to present the suspects to a judge who would decide whether to charge them in connection with Will's death.
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Carpet weavers, woodcarvers and craftspeople who have made Oaxaca famous with tourists worldwide said they fear for their livelihoods after several foreign embassies warned their citizens against visiting the protest-scarred colonial city.
"The towns where we artisans work are at peace, there are no problems here. The problems are in the capital," said Pepe Santiago, who carves colorfully painted figures known as "alebrijes" in Arrazola, eight miles (five kilometers) southwest of Oaxaca.
"This is going to take a while to recover, until tourists regain their confidence," he said.
In Teotitlan del Valle, 15 miles southeast of Oaxaca, Luis Lazo Mendoza said his family normally sells three or four hand-woven carpets a week. But since the crisis started in late May, the inventory has piled up and money for food and daily expenses is running out.
"We haven't sold a single thing in about five months," Mendoza said. "We don't have a Web page to sell over the Internet. Besides, people like to feel the texture and quality of the carpet."
These people do not matter to the leftists. There are merely pawns in their power games.
World news | Gaius Thursday, 2 November , 2006
By TourPro, Thursday, 2 November , 2006 @ 2:15 pm
Things sound like they are really heating up around the university.
Mark in Mexico has some pretty good reportage going on as usual.