Riot police seize Mexican tourist town

[StoneMtn]

Riot police seize Mexican tourist town

October 30, 2006 - 12:29PM

Thousands of riot police backed by helicopters and armoured trucks have broken up burning barricades to seize Mexico's popular tourist city of Oaxaca, firing water cannons to disperse leftist protesters.

In the city's main square, hundreds of activists carrying metal poles and sticks braced for a showdown with the police, who gathered at the four corners of the plaza holding riot shields and wearing gas masks.

Hundreds more demonstrators surrounded six busloads of unarmed police in another part of the city, forcing them to flee and setting fire to the buses.

Mexico sent federal forces to seize the picturesque colonial city, which striking teachers and activists have occupied since May to demand the state governor's resignation, after gunmen thought to be local police shot dead a US journalist and two other people on Friday.

Protesters fled as armoured trucks, with V-shaped ploughs and flanked by riot police, moved on the city centre, destroying barricades of burning tyres, rocks and old furniture.

They fired water cannon at anyone in their way and SWAT teams with assault rifles followed behind them.

A group of protesters threw rocks at the trucks as helicopters buzzed overhead, and another burning bus blocked a downtown intersection.

Several blocks from the city centre, dozens of demonstrators, many using goggles to protect their eyes from tear gas, waited behind a barricade of burning tyres, which sent plumes of thick smoke into the evening sky.

"It makes me annoyed that I can't do anything," said Maylet Pacheco, a 26-year-old teacher.

"We asked for a solution and this is what they offer us," she said, pointing down the street at advancing riot police.

Mexican Interior Minister Carlos Abascal said the operation was ordered to restore order "after the worsening climate of violence."

Oaxaca is famous for its architecture, cuisine, indigenous crafts and archeological ruins, but many tourists have been scared away as the protests turned violent.

The protesters accuse state Governor Ulises Ruiz of corruption and repressive tactics, and vowed not give up their occupation until he is removed.

Although the crisis is over local issues, it has raised fears it could spark unrest elsewhere in the country, which was shaken by weeks of street protests after a fiercely contested presidential election in July.

As riot police swarmed into Oaxaca, chanting protesters waved banners in their faces. Some raised their white-painted hands to show they were unarmed.

One woman offered a policeman flowers and dropped them at his feet when he declined to take them in his hand.

It is unusual for federal forces to be sent to conflicts in Mexican states, which are the jurisdiction of local police. A police spokesman said 4,000 police took part in the operation.

The protesters have said Ruiz was behind recent shootings and accused him of corruption and repressing dissenters.

Other Oaxaca residents, exhausted from months of anarchic protests, welcomed the arrival of the federal police, cheering and waving white flags.

"I'm sick to death of these damn barricades," said Oaxaca resident Noemi Gutierrez.

About a dozen people, mostly protesters, have been killed since activists took to the streets in a bid to topple Ruiz, who blames the protesters for the violence.

US cameraman Bradley Will of the Indymedia news organisation was one of the three people killed on Friday, hit by a bullet to the torso.

Indymedia posted Will's last minutes of footage on its website. It appeared to include the moment he was shot.

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[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Brutal. I'd only heard of this situation a week and a bit ago; it was still up in the air whether they'd be able to throw in the federal "resources".

Bit different than shuffling around a picket line and tying up traffic, that's for sure.

[Blane]

so disturbing. I just spent several days in Mexico with some women from Oaxaca who are heavily involved in this. I hope they're ok.