Home > Flyovers put APPO on alert
Demos-Actions Movement South/Latin America
OAXACA CITY - Protesters in Oaxaca City were on full alert Saturday after two Navy helicopters conducted several flyovers over the besieged state capital.
When the helicopters were spotted, members of the Oaxaca People’s Assembly (APPO) set off signal rockets from the Zócalo to alert supporters who were manning barricades throughout the city.
APPO quickly began broadcasting on Radio La Ley - one of the radio transmitters in the city that they have taken over - preaching calm, but at the same time warning protesters to remain alert.
Protesters were instructed to reinforce their barricades and maintain vigilance. Radio La Ley also warned that the use of public force could begin shortly after nightfall.
Rumors that the federal government might send in troops to restore public order have been swirling around here and in Mexico City for most of the week, so the situation was quite tense as the helicopters passed overhead.
APPO leaders convened in the Zócalo and protest leader Flavio Sosa called an Interior Secretariat representative.
"Is this the Interior Secretariat’s response," Sosa was overheard saying to Francisco Yáñez.
Yáñez reportedly insisted that the flyovers were strictly routine, but Sosa rejected this response.
"I doubt it ... but the blood will be on (President) Fox’s hands if he sends in the troops," he said.
Sosa later insisted that APPO and the striking teachers remain open to talks with the federal government, and the groups hope the federal government doesn’t betray their willingness to negotiate.
APPO and the striking teachers maintain their stance that Gov. Ulises Ruiz must be removed from office before they end their blockade of the bucolic tourist city. The teachers walked out of their classrooms in May over a contract dispute, but now say Gov. Ruiz must leave before they’ll return to the negotiating table.
Earlier Saturday, an APPO spokesperson said unidentified assailants shot at a camp set up by striking teachers in downtown Oaxaca City without causing any casualties.
"We went through a night (on Friday) of gunshots from unknown persons," said Gustavo Adolfo López, head of order and vigilance for APPO.
The attack took place hours after Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal called local citizens to a forum to find a solution for the political crisis in Oaxaca, one of the nation’s poorest states and with a large indigenous population.
Secretary Abascal said Friday night in a radio message to Oaxaca citizens that the discussion forum is one of the federal government’s lines of action, adding that the situation in Oaxaca is reaching its limit.
The APPO spokesperson said Friday night that "individuals in SUVs and cars without license plates and with dark tinted windows fired at those manning the barricades. Fortunately no one was wounded."
He told the strikers not to respond to provocations and to follow their instructions to retreat when faced with aggression.
López said "the shots were in six strategic points around the city, where the greatest number of people were manning the barricades to make sure police could not enter."
He said that the attack was a strategy of Gov. Ruiz, who seeks a flare-up of violence to justify an intervention by federal police.
López also said APPO militants stopped a person who was inciting locals to burn buses.