Jennifer Rogers

As I walked around Santo Domingo and the Zócalo this morning, I had hoped to survey some of the damage from yesterday’s battle. To my surprise, the damaged streets were being swept, sprayed and painted by a crew of workers. I have never seen anything like it around here. All of the vendor stands and APPO tables were removed. There are no signs that the APPO supporters had occupied Santo Domingo for nearly a month.

And suddenly, a crowd of reporters and people came rushing towards me. I heard shouts of “Ulises, el pueblo esta con tigo” (“Ulises, the people are with you”). Confused, I pushed my way in and was confronted with Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the governor of Oaxaca. He is the reason the streets were crowded with fighting and protesting. His violent repression of the teachers´ strike in June prompted the formation of APPO. And yet, here he stood, at the steps of Santo Domingo, and the APPO was no where to be seen. He spoke about the violence of APPO and how he has controlled the situation. A woman walked passed the crowd and shouted to Ulises to get out of Oaxaca. She was pushed by a small group of women and she fell to the ground. As she managed to squeeze past the crowd of about 100 Ulises supporters, some followed her and shouted.

Ulises promises to clean out the barricade at Cinco Senores (the large one by the University) and he has the Municipal police patrolling the city. But I doubt that this is the end of the struggle for APPO. Despite what Ulises wants us to believe, this battle is far from over.

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