Mexico City Actions in Solidarity with the Oaxaca Rebellion

Today, October 30th, 2006, masked rebels raised barricades in the street outside of the UNAM university in Mexico City as an act of solidarity with the rebellion in Oaxaca.

Yesterday, in Mexico City, two buses were seized and used as barricades during a solidarity march.

Here's a story from the corporate news about yesterday's actions in Mexico City:


Protesters, police clash in Mexico City

Sympathizers of the movement that controlled Oaxaca City for months faced off with police in the capital on Sunday

The Herald Mexico
El Universal
Lunes 30 de octubre de 2006

While police descended on Oaxaca City on Sunday, law enforcement and protesters also faced off in the capital.

Around 200 members and sympathizers of the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO) and the Oaxaca chapter of the teachers union seized two city trolley buses and slashed their tires, using the vehicles to block traffic in front of the capital’s emblematic Palacio de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Palace) in the city cen ter.

STANDOFF

For two hours, the demonstrators and capital police faced off, with the protesters threatening to burn the buses and throwing chunks of ice. Eventually, amid shoving and blows, the police forced the protesters off of Eje Central, a central north-south artery of the city.

The majority of demonstrators marched away, spray painting slogans onto the street as they left. They then directed protests in front of the Interior Secretariat and Televisa network, who they accuse of false reporting about the ongoing conflict.

The buses, covered with com munist and anarchist graffiti, were eventually towed away while the remaining protesters peered down at the ranks of police from the patio of the nearby Banco de México building. Families and Sunday strollers stopped to watch, curiously observing the spectacle, while street vendors continued to sell from their stalls just steps away from both sides.

Earlier in the day, close to 100 protesters demonstrated in front of the ritzy Hotel Nikko in the Polanco neighborhood, where embattled Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz was reported to be staying. They threatened to enter the ho tel and search for Ruiz “room by room, door by door.”

Also on Sunday, hunger strikers demanding Ruiz’s resignation entered their 14th day without eating. They listened to the broad cast of a Oaxaca radio station seized by teachers and APPO members. Tears were shed when the signal went off the air in the afternoon.