“We’re so sorry…”

Yeah, I’ve been listening to los Beatles…

A sombrero tip to the mysterious poster on Mexican travel sites, “Pedro Parodia,” for this from the AP:

The government of the southern state of Oaxaca apologized for the first time Friday for a police raid on protesters last year that led to the country’s worst political unrest in years.

Oaxaca Interior Secretary Manuel Garcia Corpus said he lamented the results of the June 14, 2006 raid aimed at clearing striking teachers from a protest camp they had set up weeks earlier in Oaxaca City’s main square.

He said he was speaking on behalf of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose refusal to negotiate with protesters sparked a five-month takeover of the capital city by teachers and leftist activists angered by what they claimed was police brutality and corruption.

“The government of Ulises Ruiz gives the people of Oaxaca a public apology for the events that arose after the 14th (of June),” Garcia Corpus told the government news agency Notimex. Garcia Corpus’ office confirmed the remarks.

Something is definitely going on. Erik Sosa was released, suggesting that the judiciary is not accepting the official excuses for detaining (i.e. disappearing) dissidents and their families, and the teachers are back on the Zocalo in Oaxaca. Friday, there were major protest marches in the State’s capital city again. 

My guess is that two or three things are coming together.  The “powers that be” are realizing that it’s better to coopt the opposition and deal with the worst abuses; that the previous attempts (like the phony “new” teachers’ union) didn’t fool anyone; that the tourism industry doesn’t want any more protests in the city (an wants the State to settle with the dissidents); and the PRI is starting to realize that their Oaxaca party leadership is a drag on their own reconstruction, and are quietly trying to cut Ulises Ruiz loose.

It’s hard to find what’s going on in rural Oaxaca, so anyone in the area with information, please let me know.