Oaxaca's beseiged Gov. Ulises Ruiz continues to resist calls for his resignation from all three of Mexico's major political parties. He insisted Nov. 4 that the conflict in his state affects only "one avenue in one of 570 municipalities." (La Jornada [1], Nov. 4) "No conditions exist in which I would resign," he told another reporter from the governor's mansion in Santa Maria Coyotepec, just outside Oaxaca City, where he returned from an exile of several weeks in the naitonal capital after federal police were sent in last weekend. (El Universal [2], Nov. 4)
WW4 REPORT notes that while peasant and campesino groups allied with the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) had taken power nearly throughout the state over the summer, not even the Mexican press has reported on the situation in rural Oaxaca since federal police were sent in to the state capital.
Meanwhile, Mexico's Supreme Court has rejected a case brought by Ulises Ruiz, challenging the congressional resolutions calling for his resignation as unconstitutional. (APRO [3], Nov. 3)
The 21 APPO hunger strikers who are maintaining a permanent vigil at Mexico City's Hemiciclo a Juarez plaza have issued a communique appealing to the striking Oaxaca teachers not to return to classes until the crisis is resolved. (Communique of Hemiciclo a Juarez hunger strikers [4], Nov. 2)
APPO leaders met with local church officials in an effort to begin reconciliation talks that Archbishop Jose Luis Chavez offered to mediate. APPO leaders also met Nov. 3 with the Citizens Committee for Dialogue, a local group comprised of civic leaders. (El Universal [5], Nov. 4)
All sources archived at Chiapas95 [6]
See our last posts on Mexico and the Oaxaca crisis [7].
