Despite the overwhelming presence of the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) in Oaxaca City's historic center, prominent attorney and retired army lieutenant Marcos Contreras Mendoza was assassinated in a drive-by shooting just two blocks from the Santo Domingo Cathedral on the morning of Nov. 17. Meanwhile, at a meeting of Christian seminarians in Juchitan de Zaragoza, Gov. Ulises Ruiz, in an unsubtle slap at the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO), said "The only one who can dismiss and impose governors is God." (La Jornada, Nov. 18)

APPO, for its part, announced that it was joining with national organizations to form a Popular Assembly of the Mexican People (APPM). The statement, signed by the Independent Workers Syndicate of the Autonomous Metropolitan Univeristy (SITUAM), the Committee in Defense of the Rights of the People (Comite de Defensa de los Derechos del Pueblo), the Popular Revolutionary Front (Frente Popular Revolucionario), the "Here We Are" Movement (Movimiento Aqui Estamos) and 50 other organizations, announced the launching of "an open front against the ultra-right which is ruling the country, and for the creation of a space of unity to reanimate...social and political mobilization." (La Jornada, Nov. 19)

Sources archived at Chiapas95

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