In a "mega-march" extending more than 10 kilometers, thousands of teachers from the Section 22 union and their supporters in the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) marched through southern Mexico's Oaxaca City June 14 to mark the first anniversary of the clash between police and striking teachers that sparked months of political unrest.
The marchers chanted "June 14—not forgotten, not forgiven!" and carried posters with the faces of imprisoned APPO leaders Flavio Sosa y César Mateos, two of the nine Oaxaca activists who remain behind bars. The march finally assmebled in the city's central square, where the initial clash took place one year ago, and which subsequently became the nerve center of their movement. There a public meeting was held, presided over by Section 22 leader Ezequiel Rosales Carreño.
Smaller groups of protesters blockaded streets with rubble and commandeered buses—a tactic used during the 2006 protest, in which the plaza was seized and held for months. Most of the barricades erected at Thursday's commemoration protest were removed after a few hours, however.
The protesters continued to demand the ouster of Oaxaca's Gov. Ulises Ruiz, which became the central demand of the movement following the June 2006 violence. (El Universal [2]; AP [3], June 14)
See our last posts on Mexico and Oaxaca [4].
