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Teacher's Strike Update February 12, 2007
Those of you who are making plans to come to Oaxaca are naturally concerned about the present status of the political situation. Recent reports in US newspapers have covered the political protests taking place in Oaxaca city. A State Department bulletin warns US citizens against involvement in the protests or even travel to our city.
From May, 2006 until November, a peaceful protest occupied the center of Oaxaca city. The protest began as the annual Oaxaca teacher's strike, now in its 26th year, demanding better funding for schools and salary hikes. The relatively new PRI governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz, tired of the occupation of the center of the city sent in several hundred state police on June 14th to try and remove the protesters by force. After an early morning skirmish the police were forced out of the area and by nightfall the teachers were in possession of the city center again. At this point they changed their focus and found themselves reinforced by a growing myriad of social, student and peasant organizations who joined forces with them in outrage over the hard hand tactics used by the governor. The striking teachers also found growing support among the citizens of Oaxaca city who, although frustrated at the occupation the by the strikers, were outraged by the use of force and violence as a means to deal with the strikers.
On the 25th of November the protest movement was pretty well squelched by the government. Since that date the Federal Police have been an active presence in the center of town as well as the outlying highways.
This is not to say that the social unrest is resolved in a satisfactory manner, only that it has changed into a more peaceful and less obvious movement. The violence, although never directed against the tourists, is at a less than normal level. The graffiti which marked the APPO movement has all but disappeared from the city thanks to a vigorous cleaning and restoration action by the city.
As a prospective visitor you would want to know if Oaxaca is safe. The clear facts are that you would hardly know anything is going on (except that there are scant few tourists around- if you ever wanted to have the monumental ruins of Monte Alban to yourself, now is the time!).
The advantage for those willing to come now, is that there are fewer tourists, and the businesses are hungry for customers. The outlying villages are just as interesting as always and are most anxious to receive visitors. In all respects you are "bienvenidos". -Oaxaca Ollin
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