MEXICO: Protesters in Oaxaca storm radio station
Development: The smouldering confrontation in Oaxaca flared up again on 22 November when protesters briefly took over the local radio station.
Significance: Despite deploying 4,500 federal policemen in the state, the government has failed to end the confrontations. Protesters, mostly in the Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO), have been pushing for the past six months for the resignation of the state governor Ulises Ruiz. The seizure of the radio station allowed the APPO to broadcast a message summoning supporters to a demonstration of 25 November.
The planned demonstration, according to the radio broadcast, appears to be aimed at besieging the federal police inside the centre of Oaxaca City, an area which had been controlled by the APPO. The APPO is now following a strategy aimed at making the state ungovernable. It has set up mobile columns that will close state government offices across the state.
Amnesty International, in a report published on 22 November, said that the human rights situation in Oaxaca was “grave." The AI investigator, Rupert Knox, who spent three days in the state, said that he was particularly concerned about people being held incommunicado after being arrested or having their defence lawyers picked for them.