In the early morning hours of March 19, some 75 members of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO), who had been maintaining a vigil encampment in front of the Senate building in Mexico City since early October, were dispersed by a force of over 200 Federal District riot police. Federal District authorities said it was part of a general crackdown on street merchants, but APPO called it an act of political repression and held a protest later that day in Oaxaca City. APPO is demanding that federal authorities formally revoke the powers of Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, who they charge with corruption and brutality.

Said APPO spokesman Florentino Lopez: "We charge that this was the work of the government of Marcelo [Ebrard, Mexico City mayor], in complicity with URO [Ulises Ruiz] and Fecal [a scatological reference to President Felipe Calderon]." This statement indicts figures from all three of Mexico's top political parties: Marcelo Ebrard of the leftist PRD, Ulises Ruiz of the centrist PRI and Felipe Calderon of the right-wing PAN. (APRO, EFE, March 19)

Source archived at Chiapas95.

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