This is from Craig’s List for Mexico City:

Iri.org is, if you’re interested, highlights their work with  “civil society organizations” — although the two mentioned on their site — “Movimiento por Oaxaca” and “Inculca Valore” — either don’t have websites of their own, or are misidentified.  There is a “Moviemiento Ciudadano Por Oaxaca”that does voter registration, and seems to be the group IRI is supporting.  Any number of Mexican organizations work to “Inculca Valore” one way or another.  Most are religious groups or — in one instance — a motivational speaker, but perhaps they are referring to the workshops sponsored by Nelson Vargas — who runs a chain of fitness centers and who came to prominence after his son was kidnapped and murdered.  Vargas — with State of Mexico Governor Enrique Peña Nieto — was involved in a ‘ “Talla Politica Incaulcar Valores” in Huixquilucan, State of Mexico.  Huixquilucan is prominently mentioned in IRI literature as a “model community” and it appears the local administration receives considerable attention from IRI.

None of this is sinister, and information exchanges on ways of registering voters or “instilling values” are — on the face of it — benign activities.  HOWEVER… the IRI — “International Republican Institute” — is a one-hand off agent of the United States government.  It is part of the “National Endowment for Democracy” set up by the Reagan Administration as a political and propaganda arm of the Agency for International Development.  According to the Institute for Policy Study’s “Right Web” (Tracking militarists’ efforts to influence U.S.foreign policy):

The private, congressionally funded NED has been a controversial tool in U.S. foreign policy because of its support for groups that push an agenda closely in line with U.S. objectives and because of its association with efforts to overthrow foreign governments. As the writers Jonah Gindin and Kirsten Weld remarked in the January/February 2007 NACLA Report on the Americas: “Since [1983], the NED and other democracy-promoting governmental and nongovernmental institutions have intervened successfully on behalf of ‘democracy’—actually a very particular form of low-intensity democracy chained to pro-market economics—in countries from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Ukraine to Haiti, overturning unfriendly ‘authoritarian’ governments (many of which the United States had previously supported) and replacing them with handpicked pro-market allies.”

…

NED works through four core institutes: the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDIIA), the International Republican Institute (IRI), the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), and the Center for International Private Enterprise—representing, respectively, the country’s two major political parties, organized labor, and the business community.

IRI, in other words, is run by the Republican Party as a subcontractor to the United States government to “Inculca neo-liberal valores”.  It is a major supporter of the “Global Center for Democracy and Development” — a “club” for neo-liberal and right-wing ex-presidents (Vicente Fox, Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Jose Maria Aznar of  Spain, Carlos Mesa of Bolivia and others) and is widely suspected of clandestine political activity on behalf of similarly minded candidates within Latin America and elsewhere.  IRI is to the State Department as Blackwater is to the military.

The IRI’s board, chaired by John McCain, is composed of old Republican Party leaders, mostly from the first Bush era, or left-overs from the occupation government of Iraq, and a few, like Liz Cheney (daughter of Dick Cheney) from the extreme right of that party.

NED is said to have played a behind the scenes role in Felipe Calderón’s election, and there is no secret that Republican Party operatives were active in both the Fox and Calderón presidential campaigns — whether funded through the IRI or not, I don’t know.

Although IRI claims to have worked with the three major Mexican parties (PAN, PRI and PRD), I find no evidence on the IRI website of any connection to PRD, and to PAN only in the State of Mexico… where, coincidentally, the Governor — from the neo-liberal wing of PRI — is being pushed as the most likely successor to the presidency in 2012 — with the assistance of Nelson Vargas, whose anti-crime citizen’s organization has been cynically used by the present administration in an attempt to delegitimize the PRD and left-wing alternative solutions to political and economic problems.

There’s probably nothing very derring-do, or overtly illegal about IRI’s program director job.  There may be a labor law problem with hiring an “intern”: in this country workers are workers, even if they are students and also receiving academic credit from some institution.  “Interns” are usually unpaid, or paid only a stipend and are outside the normal labor market.

Then again, maybe an “intren” is something entirely different, or — being in the business of subverting foreign governments — the IRI don’t need no stinkin’ labor regulations.

Still, the book is worthwhile not just for the biographical information, but as a look at how practical politics is done in Mexico. Or anywhere, for that matter, especially when a politico is looking to challenge the entrenched status quo. That requires building coalitions, even fractious ones. I thought of that when I read last week about the upcoming Oaxaca elections.  The [Mexico City] News (30 December 2009):

State leaders of the PAN, PRD, Convergence Party and PT confirmed their alliance for the 2010 local elections.

Meeting at a restaurant in the north of the city, they presented the candidates who will contend for the state government led by Convergence Party Senator Gabino Cue Monteagudo.

Also present were the remaining candidates: Federal Deputy for the New Alliance Party, Irma Piñeyro Arias; former Treasury Under-Secretary during President Ernesto Zedillo’s term, Carlos Altamirano Toledo; and local PAN Deputy Gerardo Garcia Henestroza.

Carlos Moreno Alcantara, local leader of PAN, stated that the presentation of these candidates is confirmation of the progress of this great opposition alliance for next year’s elections. In which “we will have to face the whole state apparatus that wants to maintain control of the power in Oaxaca.”

At first glance this looks nutty — PAN and the PT, Papists and Maoists (er, Carlos Salinasists that claim to be Maoists), together in perfect harmony? Of course not, but that’s the way Mexican politics has always worked.  Independence back in 1824 was achieved when Iturbide and Guerrero put together the “Three Guarantees” somehow yoking together the Church, the propertied classes and the masses; Obregón’s “barrage of gold pesos” — uniting anarchists, proto-fascists, Communists and agrarians into an unbeatable force effectively ended the Revolution and kick-started the modern Mexican state.  López Obrador built an effective political machine in Mexico City by not just appealing to the “pure” left as his predecessor, Cuautémoc Cardenás did, but by roping in every unclaimed organized group around (everything from prostitute’s union to semi-criminal pirate taxi owners clubs to neighborhood merchant’s associations)  and effectively creating group identities for people like “third age citizens” (what we call “senior citizens”) and indigenous workers.

Others — notably Patricia Mercado — have tried to sell their own ideology to several “unclaimed” potential voter blocs, but the successful politicians — like Obregón and López Obrador — have been those who let the ideology grow out of balancing the goals of those blocs.

In Oaxaca, Gabino Cué has been a candidate for an anti-PRI coalition ticket before.  That effort failed partially because of dubious electorial processes to be sure, but also because it seemed to follow the unsuccessful Mercado model rather than the Obregón-AMLO one.  Cué was a united opposition candidate for PAN, PRD and his own Convergencia party in 1994.  Dissident PRD members complained that Cué (then Presidente Municipal of Oaxaca city) was too closely tied to some of the smellier PRI officials, and backed the Social Democratic (then “Social Democratic Alternative and Campesinos Party) candidate.  That party was, of course, the successor party to Mercado’s failed “Women, Protestant, Gay and Lesbian, Indigenous” Mexico Posible Party and suffered from the same “purity” problem that has kept the opposition out of power in Oaxaca.

While there is no sense that Cué is “pure”, and radical social change in Oaxaca is still a goal with significant numbers of people (many of whom have given up on electoral politics),  there is a better chance in the 2010 gubernatorial election of finally breaking PRI control over the state IF that is the only goal.

Bringing the small PT into the coalition is something of a coup.  The PRI can count on the usual subservience of the Greens, but Esther Elba’s Nueva Alianza party (PANAL) which is basically  SNTE — the main teacher’s union — at the ballot box could become vitally important.  Oaxaca’s social uprising in 2006 began with a strike by dissident teachers and a fight within the unions, and it was thanks to PANAL draining support from the united dissident Presidential candidate (AMLO) and giving Oaxaca’s always questionable voter count to Felipe Calderón, of PAN.

Calderón has been bending over backwards ever since to keep Esther happy.  But, with the state PAN itching to gain at least some power, as the national party loses ground, and with PANAL and PT both seen as the right and left wings of Carlos Salinas’ personal machine, which means the Salinas clients have some cover to defect to the opposition by voting PT.  And, the Oaxaca PRI is something of an embarrassment to the national party, which may be willing to sacrifice the governorship in that state with the goal of electing another Salinas protegé (Mexico governor, Enrique Peña Nieto) to the Presidency in 2012.  PANAL, sensing that PAN is losing clout, simply sit this one out and try for a better deal with the national PRI.

Oaxaca being Oaxaca, dubious voter counts are expected, but those dubious counts may just count out the PRI this time around.  No one will be completely satisfied with the results, and no one will be able to claim a complete victory, but in Mexican politics victory, is seldom pure and never simple.

What mass killings did I miss? It took me a while to figure it out. A “music promoter” named Iván López Toledo disappeared from a disco early Saturday morning, reportedly kidnapped along with another guy.  Iván’s street moniker was “Jeringas” (“Syringes”).

Then body parts started showing up, making for stories all across Mexico about a mass murder.  It took a while for anybody to put it together… so to speak… with each new discovery being reported as another body,  but until Jeringas’ head showed up, it had everyone in Mexico thinking there had been several killings.

It turned out the initial reports about the other guy were false.  He wasn’t with Syringes and…  OK, so may be she was hot, and maybe he is an adult…  but this is Mexico.  You need to call your mom.

The late Mr. López claimed to be a “music promoter” — which was undoubtedly a euphemism for another field of entertainment activity facilitation.  On the other hand, there might have been some musical works he was qualified to promote:

The building itself had an interesting history, being considered the finest example of ecclesiastical neo-classical design by the late colonial artist and architect, Manuel Tolsá. It was not a meant as a church, nor a monastery, but as a shelter for destitute children. With the backing of Bishop Juan Cruz Ruiz de Cabañas y Crespo, though, Tolsá was free to over-design. He didn’t live to see the building to completion: 23 courtyards (plenty of room for playground equipment) lined with rooms of various sizes, and a chapel/refractory topped with both doric and ionic columned domes.

Bad timing. The Casa de Caridad y Misericordia opened in 1810, the same year the war for Independence broke out. It was a military barracks for the next seventeen years, finally opening its doors as a shelter in 1829 — on and off. The clean lines and open design made it an ideal military barracks during the troubled early years of the Republic, the kids being tossed into the streets again and again as various generals and caudillos fought for control. After the Reform Wars, it FINALLY was turned over to the Sisters of Charity, although, of course, by then ecclesiastical properties became state properties. The nuns were replaced by state workers in 1912. In 1937, Jalisco native son, Jose Clemente Orozco was hired to paint the chapel interior.

Orozco had overcome his own traumatic childhood (he never knew his father, and lost a hand in an accident) and had served as a foot soldier in the Revolution. The religious and charitable impulse that went into building that chapel, coupled with its history of use by military forces, matched the perfect artist with the perfect medium.

As Octavio Paz wrote (Los Privilegios de la vista):

History is not, for Orozco, an epic of heroes, villains and peoples, a temporal progression endowed with purpose and sense.  History is a mystery, in the religious sense of the word.  It is the mystery of transfiguration of men into heroes; of willing victims whose blood sacrifice transforms them into living emblems of the human condition.  Orozco neither shows, nor tells.  Much less does he interpret.  He only looks at the facts to seek a revelation.

Orozco, unlike Rivera and the other muralists, knew first hand the dehumanizing effects of war. A skeptic, he never mythologized the past … recognizing both the glories of the pre-hispanic world, while at the same time the militaristic, hierarchal, ecclesiastical structure that made it possible. The same oppressive over-lay of the Conquest, New Spain, the Republic… and even — under a different guise — of the Revolution in which he fought. All with notable exceptions… the humane impulse, “progress” for lack of a better word, was always there… but always subject to subversion and only knowable as myth.

Consider that invaluable friend of man, beloved by Mexicans, the horse. And how the horse came to Mexico. On the roof of the chapel, Orozco’s vision of the conquest is that friend of man — and the crown of Spain — transfigured into a weapon of destruction.

As is said of the Conquest (and of Mexican history) the horse was “neither a triumph nor a tragedy, but the birth-pangs of a people”. It’s odd, to see people laying on their backs (and doing so myself — the chapel has benches and you are encouraged to lie down and contemplate the ceiling) engrossed in their own painful birth as a people.

…a towering personality, esteemed as “El Maestro” not only for his art but for his leadership in the protection of Oaxaca’s political autonomy, cultural heritage and environment. In Mexico, he’s sort of Al Gore, Sitting Bull, and the Yale art department, all rolled into one.

We don’t think of Toledo as a Zapotec, though he’s probably the best known member of that Oxacacan indigeneous group since Benito Juárez. When I was writing my Mexican history for foreigners (good news … it looks like pre-publication review copies will be available as early as January), I always had to mention the “race” of prominent Mexicans who were from minorities. Juárez’ “Zapotec-itude” is of less concern to Mexican historians than the fact that he overcame a non-Spanish speaking, dirt-poor backcountry childhood. Or that Juan Alvardo or Vicente Guerrero were Afro-Mexicans.

At first, I thought Biskoff might be using the Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotaka) reference simply because it was the first “Indian” that came to mind. But it makes sense. The wise Hunkpapa leader

… was not impressed by white society and their version of civilization… He counseled his people to be wary of what they accept from white culture. He saw some things which might benefit his people; but cautioned Indian people to accept only those things that were useful to us, and to leave everything else alone. Tatanka Iyotaka was a man of clear vision and pure motivation.

Maybe it fits. Francisco Toledo — as a world-renowned artist — has traded on his name-recognition to fight cultural hegonomy. Sitting Bull, during his tours with the Buffalo Bill Wild-West Show used to give food and money to poor whites. Toledo, protesting the imposition of a McDonalds’ on Oaxaca City’s main Zocalo, also fed the “whites” — though in Oaxaca, foreign tourists weren’t so much in need of immediate assistance as consciousness-raising.

Since the 2002 “Food Fight” Toledo has been connected with numerous actions to protect his state (and his people — or people in general) from those that would impose foreign values (or plain old fashioned home-grown repression. Sitting Bull isn’t such a bad comparison.

Rabbit Beheading Bean

 2002, oil on canvas (Arts Central)

2007-11-14 update

It’s been awhile since I wrote an update – I am not among the discouraged. But the environment is not happy, regardless of all the tourist events thrown out, to mainly Oaxacan audiences.

First of all, the state is in economic straits. My dentist said to me (perfectly seriously) that with narco money pulled out of circulation, there’s much less cash going around to buy things. Tourism remains low, waiting for Days of the Dead which may be its last gasp. Frankly, Oaxaca has undergone so many shitty renovations I don’t find the zocalo all that attractive any more, except for the lovely out-door climate. Other places which were once a pleasant rendezvous spot, like Pochote organic market, have gained a bad name because of the presence of two dominant women who abuse the indigenous vendors while claiming Toledo said this or that. I don’t go there any more.

The established commercial store keepers are planning to complain to UNESCO regarding destruction of the cultural patrimony. Further street renovations are underway. The commercial people complain about the police presence guarding the digging, and I suppose waiting for the next march.As the commercial people reported, “it’s intimidating”. No shit.

It’s interesting that Ruiz’ supporters, the commercial sector and Section 59 of the teachers (created by him to break Section 22), have now turned against him.

The election “success” depends on who you ask. What kind of turnout would have indicated a PRI win, as opposed to a PRI default?

Today Oct 14 is another march in anniversary commemoration of another murdered APPO person. The woman standing next to the sand tapete being created on the Alameda in front of the cathedral said, “It’s better to die fighting than on your knees”. That unsolicited remark kind of threw me –I asked her what she meant and she said fighting in a revolution was better than accepting repression. She didn’t say past or future, just that she admired the dead man, and thought he died honorably.

Today we also read in Las Noticias that there has been another attack on news providers: Jornada, Noticias and Proceso, by about forty pipe and machete armed members of the group Union General Obrera Campesina y Popular (UGOCP). The attack was in the Cuenca de Papaloapan. I have been told the group is a PRI controlled entity, which makes sense in the light of who they attacked. Attacks on reporters this week also included government-friendly Imparcial, that was an attack by narco-traffickers. The narco-traffickers are killing federal and state police in Oaxaca. While we are not fond of cops, this is a bad sign, as my dentist says.

I myself feel the state is less governable than before the APPO went into low profile. Somehow the usual social norms seem to have slipped –crime is worse, traffic accidents are worse, shootings reflect battles between local political factions in several towns, and also between the federal gov and the mafia. People are poorer, and many are desperate and leaving the city.

Lest you think all is bad, I was very encouraged by the vigor of indigenous peoples struggling on the Isthmus, and of course this week is the international indigenous conference in Sonora.

The APPO lives, we just don’t know exactly where…

Those merry pranksters of the “Right-wing, fascist, co-opted, capitalist, reactionary trolls” variety at Surreal Oaxaca have a very good parody posted.

MEXICO CITY — A Mexican employee at an organization that fought for the rights of Mexican migrant guest workers in North Carolina and other states in the U.S. was found beaten to death in the northern city of Monterrey, officials said Tuesday.

The body of Santiago Rafael Cruz was found early Monday at the Monterrey, Mexico, office of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Leticia Zavala, international vice president for the organization, said in a telephone interview from North Carolina.

The Ohio-based arm of the AFL-CIO represents the rights of migrant farm workers, she said.

Officials believe Cruz was killed late Sunday or early Monday. He had been hired recently as the Monterrey office manager and was staying at the office while he looked for a place to live.

Police had made no arrests in the case, Zavala said. On its Web site, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee said it believed the killing was related to the group’s work defending the rights of migrant workers.

“We have put up with constant attacks in both the U.S. and Mexico, including having our staff harassed, our office burglarized and broken into several times, and a number of other attempted break-ins,” it said. “Now the attacks have come to this.”

Zavala said the killing did not appear to be a burglary because nothing was missing.

Jornada and the Monterrey daily, Porvenir, both of which had early stories when Cruz was thought to have been a night watchman, reported that he’d been bound hand and foot.  The Toledo (OH) Blade (Cruz was a Toledo resident, and the AFL-CIO affiliate he worked for is headquarted there) added that Cruz’ work specficially involved obtaining temporary worker visas for Mexican workers in a North Carolina pickle factory.  And that FLOC organizers have been harassed in both the United States and Mexico.  FLOC’s website adds the interesting detail that the recruiting office where Cruz’ body was found is right next door to the United States Embassy in Monterrey. 

My first thought was that this might have something to do with “illegal immigration”, but that makes no sense.   Admittedly, in the long run, a program like FLOC’s — which gives Mexican workers legal protection and a way to protect their rights in the United States — might put some polleros out of business, but other legal hiring halls haven’t been targets for criminals. The pollero style is more highway banditry, robbing migrants, than going after union organizers (especially those next door to the United States Embassy).

Forgive my suspicous mind, but FLOC makes powerful enemies in corporate agribusiness .  Unionized farm labor is not a popular idea with that bunch, and FLOC has an “agenda” beyond just guaranteeing that legal workers receive a living wage. 

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, (FLOC) is both a social movement and a labor union. Our immediate constituency is migrant workers in the agricultural industry, but we are also involved with immigrant workers, Latinos, our local communities, and national and international coalitions concerned with justice. The FLOC vision emphasizes human rights as the standard and self-determination as the process for achieving these rights. We struggle for full justice for those who have been marginalized and exploited for the benefit of others, and we have sought to change the structures of society to enable these people a direct voice in their own conditions.

It is involved in international groups like the Grassroots Global Justice Forum and is active in the “Social Justice movement”:

We believe that as a US based organizations, we must be committed to building a strong enough movement to prevent the US government and US corporations from suppressing popular movements and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

We believe in creating opportunities for convergence that facilitate resource sharing, popular and political education, skill sharing and dialogue between organizations.

We believe in joint action, that acting together in the U.S. and globally we have more power to create social change.

Both Mt. Olive Pickles and Smithfield Packing (the two North Carolina food companies FLOC is involved with) have an unsavory history of labor abuses, and this wouldn’t be the first time a U.S. company was using hitmen to take care of pesky union organizers and globalists.

I don’t think I’m completely nuts on this — I’d expect U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza to be making his usual “U.S. residents are in danger” speech, but so far nothing. Why gangsters or gun-runners would merit the Ambassador’s attention, but not labor organizers (and people working FOR legal immigration) is a question I’ll leave for the Ambassador.

Muerte en canasto by Franciso Toledo, Interior by José Luis Cuevas (both limited run lithographs), a pencil drawing by Rafael Coronel and Guillermo Scully’s Sax ”mysteriously disappeared” from the Heroico Cuerpo de Donadores’ storeroom. 

 We “heroic donors” put up the money for a new firehouse in Colonia Cuauhtémoc… on the site of the Lobohomo nightclub, that burned down in 2000, killing 24 teenagers.  It wasn’t the fire department’s fault… there just wasn’t a firehouse that could get to the Zona Rosa in time.  Having spent more time in more ZR clubs than I’d like to admit, I don’t feel particularly “heroic” in donating a few pesos for something so worthwhile, but hey, how can you not support the Heroico Cuerpo de Bomberos? 

We donadores put up the money originally just for a modest neighborhood firehouse.  So much for the idea that Mexicans don’t support charities… we ended up (heroically) donating 79,362,000 pesos.  The money went towards an ”environmentally-smart” 1300 square meter firehouse, training center and communications center.  AND… and upgrades to 14 local firehouses) and whatever else the fire department needs.    By the way, donations to the Heroico Cuerpo de Donadores, A.C. can be made to HBSC account # 4037889151, Sucursal 3070 (monumento a la Madre). 

There was some slight grumbling, when the firemen’s union wanted a raise a few years ago, but even then, it was only a questin of “how much?” not “do they deserve one?”  Chilangos despise los Esmurfs (the cops) and like their Pependores (garbagemen), but respect los Bomberos.  You’ll never hear of a scandal or shakedown by a fireman… even when he’s not pulling you out of an exploding building, dealing with earthquakes, floods and the occasional fire we have in a mostly concrete city. 

Next to robbing a church, this is about as low as you can go.  Whoever did this probably deserves to burn… horribly… for several millenia. 

Vibrant as the Paint on the Walls

John Ross

The walls of this city of painters have been freshly whitewashed on orders from a much-lampooned governor, the whiteout financed by transnational tourist moguls to promote the illusion that peace has returned to Oaxaca.  …there were seven months of dramatic confrontations between striking teachers and their allies in the Oaxaca Peoples Popular Assembly (APPO) and security forces backing the despotic governor Ulisis Ruiz whose removal from office the insurgents demand. Over 200 prisoners were taken during the skirmishing and another 60 are listed as disappeared. 19 dissidents have been gunned down by Ruiz’s death squads.

But despite the savage repression, if one keeps an ear to the ground and an eye to the whitewashed walls once plastered with revolutionary slogans, tags, full-length murals, throw-ups, and ingenious stencils, it doesn’t much sound or look like the Oaxaca Intifada is done with yet.

…The bitterness of those who have suffered seven months of depravities at the governor’s hands finds distinct outlets…

Oaxaca is a city of painters, the cradle of the late master colorist Rufino Tamayo and the very much-alive Francisco Toledo who stands with the resistance movement, and during the long struggle the walls of the city were transformed into a dizzying open-air gallery of popular art.  Despite the thousands of gallons that have been expended to blot out the rebellion in a doomed campaign to assure tourists that “no pasa nada aqui”, that nothing is happening here and it is safe to return, the images, like the anger, endure just beneath the surface.  “The white paint cannot erase the blood of our comrades” defiantly advertises a spray-painted wall scrawl.  A remarkable archive of over a thousand images of the struggle for the walls of Oaxaca offers poignant witness to the ongoing resistance.

Some of the works were spray painted freehand, others stenciled onto every available space, still others printed out on paper and fastened to the walls with a wheat glue tough as steel so that to remove the offending art requires dismantling the buildings to which they were affixed brick by brick.  Although Ulisis’s obliteration teams stalk the streets, new art goes up every day right under the noses of the police.

Indeed, Ulisis is everywhere on these walls – as a burro, as a rat, a raccoon, a chimpanzee, a skull and crossbones, with shit on his head. A mammoth Mayan head was painted to scale by an apparently well-coordinated team of throw-up artists, a Playboy nude appeared curled up on the wall of the Cathedral rectory and tagged as “The Pope’s Girlfriend” – the Church played an equivocal role in the Oaxaca uprising.

…

Zapata in a gas mask is still up there just under the whitewash, Benito Juarez with a Mohawk. Mug shots of Gandhi, the old anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon, the martyred guerrillero Lucio Cabanas, the Zapatistas’ Comandanta Ramona.

This ebullient outpouring of graphic resistance to the caprices of a governor whose sanity is openly questioned, and the connivance of a government under the “hard hand” of a president much of the electoral considers a usurper, is firmly rooted in the popular traditions of Oaxaca, the most indigenous entity in the Mexican union …

I’m of two minds about what to tell people.  I know too many foreigners of limited means who live in Oaxaca — they can’t pack up and leave, having become Oaxaños themselves, and are (for the most part) sympathetic to the people’s demands.  But, as foreigners, they can do nothing overt. 

These foreigners have been the best witnesses (and, in “Mark-in-Mexico’s case … the worst).  And, yes… Oaxaca is a very safe place for a foreigner to travel.  If nothing else, a tourist on the spot will likely keep the goons from acting out (I admit once having invited a Mayan ambulanta to share a coffee at my outside table on the Mexico City Zocalo during a Granadero raid.  No copper was going to seize her beads and trinkets that were shoved under the table … and not a damn thing the cop could do but stare daggers at me.  We had a leisurely cafe til the coppers moved on with their three or four human sacrifices to the Gods of international commercial patents). 

I don’t begrudge tourists going to other places with much more repressive governments — Guatemala or Haiti.

 Do go… but buy from street vendors and tip the waiters.  Shop til you drop… but get away from the tourist quarter and buy where the locals buy.  You have a better time in Mexico that way anyway.  

The Oaxacaños are wonderful people.  Talk to them… they’re friendly.   You’re not a missionary bringing “light and democracy” to those sitting in darkness.  The Oaxacaños are trying to build a democracy, under difficult conditions.  If anything, we should be humbled, and are the students, not the teachers. 

Hey, but since when can’t students have fun?  Eat, drink and merrily subvert the mal-administration… and please… do everyone a favor and send us back your adventures, even if it’s only a post on a tourism message board or a comment in some obscure blog…Sunlight is the best disinfectant. 
 

TODAY:

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) — In the conflict-torn Mexican city of Oaxaca , police say four youths wearing masks tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald’s restaurant, damaging the windows, seats and play area.Security personnel at the shopping center where the McDonald’s is located put out the blaze. The restaurant was closed during the pre-dawn attack, and nobody was hurt.

The shopping mall is near a university where leftist protesters set up their headquarters last month after police drove them out of the city’s main plaza. Those activists attacked a Burger King restaurant in the same mall with gasoline bombs last week.

However, leaders of the movement deny their members were responsible for today’s attack…

This is round two of the Great Oaxaca Burger Wars…

Back to round one… published in the NY Times, the last time a Oaxacan uprising made the news… and incidentally, the people won. The store bombed last night is the one mentioned as being “near a Mercedes dealership.”

Mexicans resisting McDonalds Fast Food InvasionMcTaco vs. Fried Crickets: a Duel in the Oaxaca Sun

August 24, 2002
By TIM WEINER
NY Times

OAXACA, Mexico, Aug. 22 – The town square in this old city is a kind of sacred space. Beside a cathedral, under ancient shade trees, people sit for hours on cast-iron benches, passing time slowly, framed by stone arches glowing golden in the afternoon light.Two new golden arches may be rising soon.

A certain corporation known throughout the world for its hamburgers – and as a symbol of American culture – plans to open an outlet on the southeastern corner of the square. The proposal has set off a lively debate about food, money and
power in Oaxaca (wa-HA-ka), where the favorite snack is fried crickets, not french fries.

“This is the center of our city, a place where people meet, talk politics, shop and spend time,” said Francisco Toledo, 61, a native Oaxacan and perhaps Mexico’s best-known living artist. “It’s a big influence on art and creativity. And we are drawing the line here against what the arches symbolize.”

McDonald’s, which sold $40 billion of food last year, has faced down opposition all over the world, including American communities from Ft. Bragg, Calif., to the Bronx.
The protests have sometimes turned to political theater, most famously in 1999, when a French farmer, José Bové, dismantled a new McDonald’s in Millau, a citadel of cheese in southwestern France. But McDonald’s marches on: more than half its 30,000 branches are outside the United States.

Since 1985, it has opened 235 outlets in Mexico, including one on the outskirts of Oaxaca, across the highway from a Mercedes-Benz dealership. Though Mexicans ometimes have a hard time pronouncing the name – it usually comes out as “Madonna’s” – many have no trouble downing McBurritos and jalapeño-topped McMuffins.

The fast-food giant says it will respect the cultural identity and architectural traditions of Oaxaca’s old square. But Oaxaca is a world capital of slow food, based
on recipes that go far, far back in time.

It is famous for its seven varieties of mole, a painstaking sauce that can take three days to make; tamales baked slowly in a banana leaf, and those crickets, which take a long time to catch but have far more protein, fewer calories and less fat than ground beef. (They taste like grass-fed shrimp – an acquired taste, perhaps, but a very popular one.)

Public opinion in Oaxaca’s zócalo, the town square, favors those old tastes. “The zócalo’s a place with colonial arches and a colonial rhythm – not the place for
McDonald’s,” said Sara Carre~o, 39, who runs the ancient wooden telephone switchboard at the Hotel Señorial. “The difference between fast food and Oaxacan food is too great.”

Mr. Toledo led hundreds of marchers to the zócalo, where they feasted on tamales, but the protests have not struck a universal chord. The State of Oaxaca may be the poorest in Mexico, and some people wonder whether they can afford to reject any form of foreign investment.

“Oaxaca was so isolated from the world for so long that any change feels like an onslaught,” said Iliana de la Vega, 42, who runs El Naranjo, an acclaimed restaurant off the zócalo. “Now, I’m not in favor of McDonald’s. But there are people who want their business. And if they follow the rules, pay taxes, give people jobs – you can’t outlaw that, can you?”

The argument now lies in the hands of the city government. But this may be less an issue of politics and power than of taste and time. Can a company that prides itself on speed and uniformity fit in a place where people value taking their time and making food by hand?

“Real food is not frozen meat,” said Jacqueline García, 24, who runs Toñita’s, a food stand in Oaxaca’s old market. “It’s fresh cheese and crickets. Fast food’s unnatural. The people who make it are incompetent. And McDonald’s belongs
in the United States, not our zócalo.”

Eaters of the world unite… we have nothing to lose but our mole!

No… not that he’s covering up sex crimes (that’d be Enrique Peña, the PRI-governor of the State of Mexico)but that he’s trying to blame his own incompetence on others — or, rather on others who expose his incompetence. Another key ally, PAN congressional leader, Jorge Zermeño, is now calling for Ruiz’ resignation.

The Fox administration has been claiming that destitution (that is the legal term for removing an incompetent elected official) would be undemocratic, but… given that it’s the people who want Ruiz out… nothing undemocratic about it at all (assuming he was even democratically elected to begin with — which is, itself, a dubious proposition, as reported yesterday in ¡Para justicia y liberdad!). What foreign reports fail to note (though the ¡Para justicia…! report does note) is that much of the opposition comes from PRI organziations within Oaxaca.

It’s the party’s own fault — trying to be everything to everybody for too many years, it’s natural that there are huge blocs in opposition. Just like Denny Hastert cannot on the one hand claim he’s representing a “moral majority” while simultanously presiding over immoral and unethical blocs within that same party.

Along with party-leader Zermada of PAN, the PRD congressional delegation is now also calling for destitution, which the Senate has every right to do. Maybe President Fox forgot how democratic it was back when he tried to have AMLO destituted by the Senate about two years ago.

As Kelly Arthur Garrett reports in today’s Mexico City Herald:

“Not only is (Ruiz) unable to govern, he is responsible for the breakdown of political and social coexistence in Oaxaca,” said Carlos Navarrete, the PRD Senate coordinator. “The state legislature has difficulty holding sessions … the state capital is socially and economically paralyzed … tens of thousands of children have been out of school for months, (and) the productive sector is suffering enormous losses.”

The Senate´s Interior Committee would hear debate on the removal procedure, known as “desaparición de poderes públicos,” or disappearance of state control. The membership of that committee was just decided on Tuesday. Presiding over it will be Jesús Murillo Karam, a PRI senator opposed to the removal of Ruiz.

But Javier González Garza, the PRD floor leader in the Chamber of Deputies, said he was confident that all sides will soon realize that a Ruiz exit is the only way forward toward a solution to the Oaxaca crisis. “His resignation alone won´t solve all the problems, but the problems won´t be resolved without his resignation,” he said. “Ulises has to step aside to clear the way for all the parties involved to discuss (solutions).”

González Garza said he supported an effort in the Senate to have Ruiz removed, but said he thinks the governor will step down before the process is complete.

“He´s already fallen,” the deputy said. “But nobody has told him yet.”

Meanwhile, the APPO and citizen’s representatives (led by Francisco Toledo) have walked out of negotiations within Mexico City, claiming Ruiz has to go before talks can continue. Ruiz was present at the meeting.

“He’s already fallen…” sounds like Hastert to me.

Xicanopwr and The Unapologetic Mexican present an excellent backgrounder on Oaxaca. Kelly Arthur Garrett (the “Mexico’s best damn political reporter in English”) with help Justino Miranda in Cuautla, Morelos and Jorge Octavio Ochoa in Oaxaca presents an overview in today’s Mexico City Herald:

Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal told Congress Tuesday that the federal government has no intention of using force to end the four-month-old civil strife that has closed the state´s schools, paralyzed Oaxaca City´s Historic Center and rendered the state government virtually impotent.
Abascal, the Fox administration official in charge of the ever-intensifying Oaxaca crisis, was interrupted and jeered by placard-carrying Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) legislators, but managed to make his point in no uncertain terms. “In the name of God, we will carry out absolutely no repression,” he said.

But in the kind of hedged language that has convinced many striking teachers and allied social groups that a federal crackdown is imminent, Abascal also said the Fox administration would be within its rights in sending in federal police or military troops.

“The Constitution establishes the obligation of authorities to re-establish law and order,” he told a full session of the Chamber of Deputies. “But I am not anticipating an intervention.”

Abascal´s invocation of the deity in his remarks to Congress later prompted a wry response from a teachers´ spokesperson 100 kilometers away.

“He (Abascal) preaches from the pulpit with a crucifix in his right hand and a club in his left,” said Omar Olivera Espinosa, spokesperson for a contingent of several thousand teachers and their supporters who are marching from the city of Oaxaca to Mexico City.

Olivera made his comment in the town of Amilcingo in the state of Morelos, where the marchers rested Tuesday night.

Abascal criticized the Oaxaca teachers and the Oaxaca People´s Assembly (APPO) for spurning recent invitations to dialogue. “The efforts that this secretariat have made have not always been responded to,” he said. “We will continue to do everything within our reach.”

Abascal urged strike leaders to participate in a “forum” scheduled for Wednesday, at which bankers, business leaders, clergy members, party leaders and elected legislators plan to discuss a proposed reform package called the Pact for Governability, Peace and Development for Oaxaca.

But the union leaders announced Tuesday night that they would skip the forum, saying the list of participants was stacked in favor of “interest groups.”

Instead, Oaxaca teachers union leader Enrique Rueda Pacheco said a formal request had been sent to the Interior Secretariat for an “alternate table” at the forum, separate from the clergy, the business leaders and the governor.

If that request is honored, he said, the teachers will consider making the trip to Mexico City.

APPO leaders were still meeting Tuesday night to decide if they would follow suit with the teachers.

The teachers broke off talks with the federal government on Sept. 20 after becoming convinced that their demand for the ouster of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz would not be honored.

Fox and Abascal´s National Action Party (PAN) has sided with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in protecting Ruiz, though so far the PRI is the only political force openly calling for the use of federal troops to protect Ruiz´s state government.

APPO joined the teachers´ protest in June, after Ruiz decided to physically challenge the strikers instead of negotiating with them.

But the dozens of labor and social organizations that eventually united in APPO had opposed Ruiz long before his failed attempt to remove the striking teachers from their encampments in downtown Oaxaca City.

“There are robust antecedents in the authoritarian style of the previous governor, José Murat, who left behind (in 2004) a social polarization,” said political scientist Alberto Aziz Nassif in his weekly EL UNIVERSAL column Tuesday.

The PRI has had such a longtime lock on Oaxaca politics that Ruiz´s 2004 victory over a coalition candidate representing all the other parties was seen not as an indication of his popularity but a confirmation of the PRI´s ability to manipulate the electoral process in that state.

“Ulises came in with a credibility deficit and started right in with repressive actions against social leaders and an attack on independent media outlets, such as the daily Noticias,” said Aziz.

Only the PRD has backed the teachers and APPO in calling for Ruiz to step down, and in ruling out federal force under any circumstances.

PRD leaders said Tuesday they have called off a planned Oaxaca City meeting of their national committee that had been announced for Wednesday.

PRD secretary-general Guadalupe Acosta, who originally promoted the presence of the PRD leadership in the heart of the conflict as a deterrent to violence, said Tuesday he feared the meeting would be used as a pretext for trouble.

With talks stalled, the marchers steadily approaching Mexico City and Oaxaca kids still out of school, the crisis has turned into a kind of slow-motion waiting game.

Military helicopters circling over Oaxaca on Sunday and Monday added to the tension, as did several explosives set off in front of Oaxaca buildings Monday.

Federal Attorney General Office spokespersons on Tuesday said the bombs (which hurt nobody and did little damage) may have been the work of known guerrilla groups such as the Revolutionary People´s Army (EPR) using a new alias [see below]

APPO and the teachers suspect the explosions were deliberate provocations by authorities to justify a federal crackdown.

“If a political solution is achieved and Ruiz leaves … that would be a triumph of the political process,” said Aziz. “But if force is resorted to, that will only aggravate the conflict. We´ll see.”

The teachers’ march has reached Mexico City, and talks bbetween APPO, the Federal and State Government, the Catholic Church and a citizens group led by Francisco Toledo are still scheduled to start Wednesday (tomorrow).

Oaxaca Tense at start of Talks

(I know it’s the Cuban News Agency… but for “just the facts” news, they generally have better Latin American coverage than the U.S. and Canadian press)

Mexico, Oct 3 (Prensa Latina) Tension still prevails in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, though the Secretariat of Government has guaranteed security will be maintained to resume talks with its social movement.

Oaxaca residents are on the alert, after military planes flew over the city last weekend, three firecrackers exploded in the banking area, and one student is missing.

Also, the tense situation persists amid the risk of an intervention by the federal forces to solve the socio-political conflict in Oaxaca, whose residents are demanding the dismissal of governor Ulises Ruiz.

The resumption of negotiations with the leadership of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) is scheduled for Wednesday, when the so called pact for the governability, peace, and development of the state is expected to be signed.

Regarding this, President Vicente Fox assured his government will spare no effort in solving the Oaxaca conflict, but warned that if things do not work out, those who violate the law will be punished.

Fox also indicated his administration favors talks and is working hard to reach all the agreements necessary to solve the crisis democratically.

Jornada

Enrique Méndez with Octavio Vélez in Oaxaca (Jornada)my translation

The People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) has responded to Interior Minister Carlos Abascal Carranza, saying that if the Army enters the State Capital, “you can be sure, it’s lot us who will be running.”

APPO leader Flavio Sosa said Abascal is talking out of both sides of his mouth, warning us we need to bargain in good faith, while issuing an ultimatum we aren’t going to accept.

Also this morning, Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz appeared in Llano Park to “inaugurate” a stone image of the Virgin of Guadalupe produced in a local quarry, protected by about 500 municipal and ministerial police. Ruiz took advantage of the occasion to demand the Federal government “takes the side of the citizens who want their rights restored,” because “federal crimes were committed by the civil movement that is demanding he stepped down, contrary to law.”

“We are going to meet the needs of a society that is fed up”, he added.

APPO considered Ruiz’ appearance, in an armored SUV surrounded by armed guards as a provocation.

In other news, a tense situation has developed in the community of San Antonino Castillo where the head of the local Padres de Familia (an organization something like the PTA, crossed with the Christian Coalition — trans. note) shot the APPO selected police chief, and was taken into custody by the community.

Read that last paragraph again… where is the violence coming from? And, it looks to me like the APPO is not just an anarchist group, but has been taking the necessary steps to form functioning municipal governments.

Fishy to me…

A few bombs went off the other morning outside banks in downtown Oaxaca, supposedly set by some group calling itself the “Revolutionary Armed Organization of the People of Oaxaca” according to the professional anti-terroritsts (it’s a security consulting firm) “Strafor” . When I first read about it, I remembered the similar incident about two years ago in Morelos, where another crooked governor was fighting for his political life (though in Morelos, it was only one non-conforming municipality). Then, the alleged “bank bombing terrorists” turned out to be the State Police… part of the plan to force the feds to intervene. Apparently, that’s what’s going on here, though the new “Revolutionary Armed Organization” could be any number of groups … pro or anti- Ulises.

Organized Crime Special Prosecutor José Luis Santiago Vasconcelos said the story didn’t pass the smell test. There is still common sense on the Federal level.