Report on Mexico and Oaxaca by Gustavo Esteva (Oct 13)

by Gustavo Esteva

* Recent political events in Mexico
* Recent political events in Oaxaca

REPORT OCTOBER 13, 2006

Recent political events in Mexico

For two years, the whole establishment conspired to prevent the victory of
the leftist candidate in presidential elections, Andre's Manuel Lo'pez
Obrador (AMLO), which took place last July 2nd. The President, the
government, the political parties, the media, private corporations, the
Catholic Church.all of them used illegal tricks in a very dirty campaign
against AMLO, who any way had for 18 months, in most polls, an advantage
of 10 points over Calderón, the candidate of the right.

The electoral journey went without special incidents. At the end of the
day both candidates declared victory. A few days later the official
electoral body announced that Calderon won for 0.5% votes. There were very
strange manipulations in the processing of the votes. Apparently a very
sophisticated fraud was implemented. AMLO immediately organized two
marches in Mexico City (one of one million people, the other with two
million people) to claim for the cleaning of the election. He asked for a
recounting of every vote. He also organized the longest sit-in in history:
seven kilometers in one of the main avenues of Mexico City and the main
plaza. He settled in one of the encampments of the sit-in in the main
plaza for more than a month. And he convened a National Democratic
Convention for September 16th (Independence Day in Mexico), in order to
create a kind of alternative government or government in resistance, with
the purpose of reorganizing all Mexican institutions from the bottom up.
He appealed to one article of our Constitution, recognizing the right of
the people to change at any moment their political regime. AMLO also
proposed a Manifesto to be discussed and approved in the Convencion,
challenging all institutions, announcing a kind of peaceful uprising and
describing some basic political goals for a profound social
transformation.

On September 1st President Fox came to the Federal Congress for the
traditional ritual of reading the annual report to the nation - in this
case his last. A few days before, anticipating the marches and blockades
announced for that day, the buildings of the Congress were surrounded by
tanks and thousands of policemen and troops. Fox, however, could not read
his report. Senators and representatives of the PRD occupied the podium in
the Congress, claiming that they would remain there until the army and the
police, illegally establishing a siege to the Congress, abandon its
facilities. Fox remained in the lobby of the Congress and gave the written
report to its Secretariat. A little later the army and the police
abandoned the place.

The Electoral Court rejected all the claims submitted by the political
parties. On September 6 it confirmed the victory of Calderon. The document
recognizes that all the irregularities denounced by AMLO were true: it
admonishes President Fox, the Electoral Body, the businessmen, the church,
Calderon's party.but still certified the validity of the elections. Legal
experts had already exposed the contradictions of the document. The law
does not allow for an appeal (the tribunal is the last instance) but the
judges can be accused of violating the law. Anyway, the decision provoked
profound frustration and rage in millions of people, particularly the
poor, who nourished many hopes about AMLO. AMLO took thus the lead of a
kind of uprising, trying to moderate and control a movement of those
millions in the whole country.

The word fascism has been circulating in these months in order to describe
attitudes, ideologies and behavior of the group that may take office next
December. It is not the word to use, as yet, but it gives an idea of the
humor in the country.

The Convencion Nacional Democratica (National Democratic Convention)
elected AMLO as Legitimate President and defined a program of activities.
More than a million registered participants attended the meeting on
September 16. The parties of the coalition supporting AMLO (PRD, PT and
Convergencia) assumed the risks of participating in the Convención....but
are playing the "institutional" way in the Congress and the States and
municipalities where it holds power. AMLO will "take office" on November
20. And the congressmen of the coalition affirmed that they will not allow
Calderon to take office on December 1st.

In early October there was a very dirty negotiation in the Congress - for
PRI and PAN to get all the important committees and exclude PRD.

Whenever Calderon appears in public gets a solid rejection by different
groups of people and must be surrounded by his body guards - more and
more every day.

Another issue is the position of the Zapatistas. Since January,
Subcomandante Marcos started a tour around the country for The Other
Campaign, organized by the Zapatistas with the conviction that the
political classes (including the left) were clearly unable to listen to
people's claims and will use and abuse the law to remain in power. It was
conceived as a campaign for the people themselves to listen to each other
and to organize their struggle without the political parties and the
government, in a national, coordinated program. They stopped the campaign
in solidarity with the people of Atenco, severely repressed in June. In
late September they announced that several comandantes will come to Mexico
City, to continue the expression of such solidarity, and Marcos will
continue the Other Campaign in the northern states on October 7. On
September 28 a long communique explained the Zapatistas position about the
elections. They consider that AMLO won the election, that there was a
fraud, but they will not join AMLO's mobilization, because they don't
share that path and that orientation. On October 8 Delegado Zero
(Subcomandante Marcos) traveled to the North of the country to continue
the Other Campaign.


Recent political events in Oaxaca

The people of Oaxaca have been in turmoil for a long time, in view of the
barbaric administration of the psychopathic, corrupt and authoritarian
governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, who took office on December 2004 after a
fraudulent election.

On May 22nd the teachers union (70,000 teachers in the whole state)
started a sit-in at the main plaza of Oaxaca, as part of their struggle
for economic claims. In the city, the people reacted with indifference or
anger to the sit-in and the blockade of some streets; they were used to
these annual demonstrations, which always end in a negotiation producing
some additional perks for the leaders of the union and for the teachers,
at the price of disrupting the life in the city for weeks or months. The
people were also angry because the teachers abandoned the schools - and
many families did not know what to do with their children.

On June 14th the governor ordered a violent repression of the sit-in,
including bombs of tear gas thrown on the teachers from a helicopter -many
of which fell in private houses or offices in down town. The episode
changed the nature of the movement. ¡Fuera Ulises! (something like Ulises
out of Oaxaca) became the unifying slogan for all the people discontented
with his administration. The teachers union, observing such impact,
attempted to articulate such social forces as support for their movement
and convened a Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO, for its
name in Spanish). Hundreds of social and grassroots organizations joined
immediately the Assembly. Radical groups in the teachers union changed
soon the relationship between the union and APPO. They imposed to the
leadership of the union a kind of subordination to the Assembly, which is
a very complex and heterogeneous body which has been leading the uprising
since June 20th. Many marches have been organized. One of them gathered a
million people, almost a third of the population of the state.

It is a very long and complex story, with very impressive episodes. Two of
them may illustrate the nature of the struggle:

1) Given the usual use of the media against the movement, a group of
women of APPO peacefully invaded the public network, which operates radio
and TV for the whole state. It was continually used by the governor for
propaganda against the movement. The group started to disseminate the
ideas, proposals and initiatives of APPO and opened the network to the
people 24 hours a day. Thousands of them started to call the station,
which of course had every kind of technical problems (the women occupying
the network had no previous training for this). One night, a group of
undercover police agents and mercenaries came to the facilities with
weapons and started shooting. They destroyed the equipment and injured
some people. A few hours later, as a reaction, APPO occupied ALL private
radio stations and TV networks in the city. Instead of one, they suddenly
got 12 options to disseminate information about the movement-and to give
voice to the people. A few days later they gave back the stations to their
owners, but kept one, powerful enough to cover the whole state. They have
been disseminating information about the movement 24 hours a day-but it
does not represent all of APPO: the station is controlled by some radical
groups inside it.

2) After several skirmishes, the governor kept the police in its
barracks (apparently the policemen refused to follow instructions to
repress the people, who were very well organized for self-defense and some
of them resigned). For more than two months now, no police, not even
traffic police, has been seen in the city. Night and day members of APPO
stay in sit-ins before every public agency in the city and all the private
radio stations and networks in its hands. (The governor and all its
officers meet secretly in hotels or private houses; no bureaucrat can come
to work). One night, a convoy of 35 pick-up vans, with undercover agents
and mercenaries, came to the sit-ins and started to shoot. They were not
shooting at the people, but trying to intimidate them. APPO reported
immediately the situation, through the occupied radio stations. In a few
minutes the people started to organize barricades, to prevent the arrival
of the convoy. In one place, they were able to close the street with a
truck and thus "trapped" a pick-up van. Its occupants escaped. The
vehicle, with the official signs of the police in the doors, is now
exhibited in the main plaza. In another street one guy died; apparently he
was not involved in the sit-in and was only passing by when the attackers
started to shoot. Since then, every night, at 11:00pm, more than a
thousand barricades close all the streets around the sit-ins or in
critical crossroads. At 6:00am the barricades are partially dismantled, to
facilitate the circulation.

Two stories may illustrate the mood in the city.

1) Two days ago, in a street of a lower middle class neighborhood of
the city of Oaxaca, there was a big fight in a private party. A couple
came out of the house, very drunk. .Perhaps we must call the police., said
him. "Don't be stupid", said her; "there is no police." "You are right",
said him, confused; "let's call APPO".

2) "Don.t be stupid", said the petty, corrupt leader to a young baker
in a street in downtown Oaxaca, in the sidewalk before his shop; "if you
do that I will burn your place. These spaces are mine. You are in command
in your own home, but I am the boss here". And he took his gun,
threatening the baker, while his bodyguards surrounded him. But Diego
Hernandez was not intimidated. "I am not afraid of you", he said; "behind
that gun a coward is hidden". They were going to beat him, when Diego
exploded three fireworks, as APPO does in the barricades whenever
something suspicious or threatening is perceived: it is the alert signal.
That was enough. For now.

There is an increasing tension. Organized business had organized several
"strikes" without much success. The Ministry of the Interior finally
intervened and convened conversations in Mexico City with the teachers
union and the APPO. They have been taking decisions to reduce the tensions
in the city and the state. Neither the union or APPO accept to negotiate
ousting the governor, but they are ready to negotiate specific agreements
to avoid violence or advance on specific issues.

In order to legally oust the governor, the Senate should declare
"desaparicion de poderes" (meaning that the constituted powers are no
longer governing). The Senators leaving office on September 1st rejected
the formal petition for such decision. The new Senators are fully involved
in the national turmoil. Both PRI and PAN have expressed their full
support to the governor and refuse to oust him. They transformed Oaxaca
into one of the pieces to negotiate in the very complex negotiation in
which they are currently involved. Among the difficulties of such
negotiation is that the PRI is currently in full disarray, after the
humiliating defeat of July 2: there is no person or group with whom
organize a serious negotiation.

In spite of the guerrilla attacks of the police, a human rights
organization reported that in the last months there was less violence in
Oaxaca (dead, injured) than in any other month of the last 10 years.The
people are taking care of themselves better than the government or the
police.

A severe repression, both selective and massive, with the federal police
or the army, can start at any moment. There are rumors that the
psychopathic governor hired 7 000 men (former policemen, etc.) to organize
such repression, since his own police does no longer obeys him.
Businessmen, particularly at the national level, are mounting their
pressure on the Federal Government and President Fox to "solve" the
problem - and the only possible "solution" that they can implement is
massive repression. Such repression may mean a very serious blood bath.but
not the end of the movement. The people of Oaxaca said already Basta!
They are aware that their movement is currently trapped in national
politics, but they are ready to persist, as long as necessary, while
reorganizing their society from the bottom-up to create a new political
regime.

In the last week of September the Teachers Union organized a massive
consultation with the teachers. There was universal consensus about the
continuation of the movement until ousting Ulises, and a solid majority
(not consensus) about not returning to classes. (Many teachers think that
it will be good to continue the strike but open the schools again, because
the parents and communities support the movement but don't know what to do
with the children).

The negotiations with the Federal Government are tense and difficult.

At the beginning of October 5 000 people started a long march to Mexico
City. They got great support on the way and arrived on October 8. They
established a sit-in near the Senate and announced a hunger strike for
October 15. Thousands of people and many organizations are now supporting
them.

On October 4 the Minister of the Interior convened a meeting in Mexico
City of a hundred prominent people of Oaxaca - basically from the
political classes but also including some well-known characters, like the
famous painter Francisco Toledo- to sign a Social Pact. Three great
Indigenous leaders, two famous intellectuals and Toledo abandoned the
meeting, as soon as it started, denouncing that in it there was no real
representation of the people of Oaxaca. Many of those remaining in the
meeting, very close to Ulises Ruiz, asked explicitly for the repression of
the movement. The meeting could not fulfill its function, no pact was
signed and a second meeting convened for October 11 was cancelled.

Back in Oaxaca, the group that abandoned the meeting and perhaps provoked
its collapse convened, with many other organizations, a Dialogue for
Oaxaca, which started with great success on October 12. An open,
democratic space was thus created to articulate the efforts of the civil
society and organize the political transition.

The threat of repression continues. Some areas of Oaxaca have been already
militarized. The people seem ready to resist - even with weapons.

On October 17 the Senate will take its decision about Oaxaca.

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