Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Tension in Mexico City

mertle | 30.11.2006 05:10 | Oaxaca Uprising | Analysis | Cambridge

Mexico City, 27th November 2006. The signs of discontent are visible all over the city. Graffiti on public buildings, banners from monuments, camps in the main plazas. And the police are hanging out in gangs everywhere.






















Last weekend Obrador, the leader of the leftist party PRN, who allegedly lost the Mexican presidential election this July by only 0.58% of the votes, had himself inaugurated as president in an unofficial ceremony. Meanwhile, Calderón, the candidate of the rightist party PAN, will be officially inaugurated this coming Sunday when the outgoing president from the same party, Vicente Fox, steps down.

While the debates over electoral politics have been intense, they have not managed to overshadow the other important event in Mexico this year – the Oaxaca uprising. Rather the two have come together. The protests in the state of Oaxaca are intensifying, and the APPO, the organisation driving the movement, are planning to march to the capital to stage a mass protest during this weekend's inauguration.

Given how tangible the tension in the capital is this week, it can be expected that the coming weekend will be explosive.

......

In the main public space of Mexico City, El Zócalo, the shadow of an enormous flag pole falls on a weather beaten camp of tents. Draped with banners that are beginning to fray after several months on display, the canvas and the plastic shelter tables covered in leaflets, dvds, books and collages of photographs. Obrador's face appears on posters everywhere, along with that word: Oaxaca. Although the two issues are separate, one a fraudulent presidential election, the other an indigenous uprising and an attempt to oust the state of Oaxaca's governor, they share common roots - anger and frustration with continual oppression and corruption.

In other parts of the city graffiti sprawled over walls, and posters and stickers left on lamp-posts, act as a permanent reminder of the very public support of the centre-left presidential candidate and the Oaxaca uprising. Not far from the grand Palacio de Bellas Artes the usual street stalls selling 'traditional' tourist souvenirs are now also covered in hand-written signs proclaiming their solidarity with the APPO. Alongside of them are more tents - a camp that seems to have been standing for some time. Here, as in El Zócalo, there are hand painted banners and posters, leaflets and up to date information about the marches and manifestation.

And there are certainly many of them - every other day it seems there is an action or a march happening somewhere in the capital, not to mention those occurring in Oaxaca itself. Those involved are not just young students or the middle classes, but a cross section of Mexico City. Those who voted for Obrador are vocal in their indignation and frustration at what it being called a stolen election. And the anger of the people who have been repressed and oppressed for nearly 500 years is not new. But as the issue of the election merges with that of the Oaxaca uprising, it draws together middle-class liberals from Mexico City and Indigenous Oaxacans, who are for once marching together.

Right now politics is all anyone can talk about. The tension in the air is palpable. The police presence throughout the city is immense, with gangs of them on every street corner, hanging around every public space. Today they seem relaxed and more than a little bored. But they are still carrying riot shields and guns.

Perhaps nothing will happen this weekend. Perhaps the liberal middle class who are concerned about the stolen election, but ultimately are looking for nothing major to change, will give up after the official hand-over of presidential power. Perhaps the world will continue to ignore what is happening in Oaxaca, like it has ignored the struggles of Indigenous Peoples and all those who fight back against exploitation, so many times before.

We will soon find out.

mertle

Additions

Typo correction

30.11.2006 15:29

Apologies... a fairly major typo: Calderón's inauguration is on Friday, not Sunday.

mertle


Comments

Display the following comment

  1. On the PRD — James Young
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech