by Jessica Reed
We are on the eve of either a great uprising or a civil war. - Subcommandante Marcos, sept 24th 2006.
Community politics are looking grim in Oaxaca, Mexico. For the past 7 months a huge section of 40.000 teachers are on strike, demanding "classes, but only after the resignation of Oaxaca governor Ulíses Ruís Ortíz". Ruiz, from the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party, which governed Mexico from 1929 to 2000), has been repeatedly accused of corruption in a heated context of possible fraud related to the last elections' ballots. He is also known to use extremely repressive actions when confronting popular movements such as this one. Damages have already been done, with talks of intimidation on activists and the involvement of armed paramilitary groups in charge of "controlling" the dissidents. Yesterday protesters set fire to governmental buildings in the city as street battles between the police and citizens errupted, injuring many. Meanwhile, some talk about a wave of paramilitary terror hitting the population, turning peaceful protests into tricky and potentially dangerous tasks.
Picture via jarnocan's flickR account.
