North Looking South
By John Barham, Aug 11, 2006

Oaxaca: The face of Mexico tomorrow?

With peaceful but massive demonstrations taking place in Mexico City, many are eagerly awaiting the September decision by the Electoral Tribunal as to what candidate will take the office of the presidency in December. If, as seems likely, the ruling will go to Felipe Calderón and the PAN, will the supporters of PRD candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador respond with widespread civil disobedience that will plunge Mexico into chaos and turmoil?

A preview of what the future could hold is now taking place in Oaxaca, the beautiful colonial city of the south, gateway to the ruins of Monte Albán and Mitla, and a major tourist destination for visitors from the United States and Europe.

A long-standing tradition in Oaxaca state has seen the 70,000-strong teachers' union demonstrate for higher wages each spring. With an average monthly wage of some 4,800 to 5,200 pesos per month, teachers in the state of Oaxaca are among the poorest paid educators in Mexico. Each year, after perfunctory demonstrations and rallies, the state government would come through with nominal pay raises that allowed both union leaders and state officials to save face. This year, however, something went terribly wrong.

Oaxaca, which has habitually been a PRI stronghold, as of late began to move toward the populism of López Obrador and the PRD. This was particularly true for the teachers' union, many of whose members took leadership positions in the state PRD organization. Consequently, the lines were hardened between the union and the state's PRI governor, Ulises Ruiz, who came to power two years ago after barely defeating a PRD candidate by a margin of less than 1 percent. Relations between the governor and the PRD members of the union were not improved after the hard-fought presidential race of 2006.

In late May, demonstrations for higher pay for teachers began. By June, negotiations had broken down, and demonstrating teachers had taken over several streets in the central city, while increasing the frequency of their protests. On June 14, hundreds of Oaxaca state police attacked the teachers in Oaxaca's main plaza but fell short in their efforts to remove them. As a result of the confrontation, hundreds of individuals were injured in the melee, and many were carted off to jail. Nevertheless, the teachers stood their ground, and the state police found themselves powerless to regain control of the city.

Resorting to paramilitary tactics, masked men who were likely police in disguise began to make nighttime attacks on the teacher-controlled radio station, Radio Universidad, and on the homes of movement leaders. To this point, teachers, students and sympathetic citizens have succeeded in thwarting the attacks and, for all practical purposes, have taken power in the city of Oaxaca.


In a move that was dramatic and was perhaps also a harbinger of things to come, the teachers announced that the PRI government of Oaxaca was no longer the legitimate government of the state, and it was replaced instead by a movement-backed body called the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). Subsequently, the APPO shut down the internationally famous Gueleguetza, a folk festival, which the APPO leadership denounced as an expensive, state-financed extravaganza for tourists. In its place, a new-style Guelaguetza of the people was inaugurated.

Today in Oaxaca, the state government has ceased to function. The movement has shut down the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Finance, and the offices of the Attorney General. At last check, the legislature had abandoned Oaxaca for a hotel in San Felipe, and Governor Ulises Ruiz had not been seen in public for several days.

Throughout Oaxaca, teachers have manned checkpoints and continue to demand passports and identification from what tourists remain. Movement members have pitched tents in the beautiful central plaza, and banners framing likenesses of Marx, Lenin and Stalin have appeared throughout the city. Hotel occupancy is reportedly at 20 percent, and the sizable tourist industry in Oaxaca has lost millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, municipalities throughout the state of Oaxaca have thrown in their lot with the APPO. At last count, 25 towns and villages had allied themselves with the movement.

On July 25, a procession of movement members traveled from Oaxaca to Mexico City to proclaim that the APPO was the legitimate government in power. And, lately, support for the teachers' movement and for the APPO has been arriving from teachers' unions throughout Mexico and also internationally from such organizations as the American Federation of Teachers in the United States.

Thus far, the Fox government has dismissed the APPO as a local problem of no great national import. However, Oaxaqueños who support the APPO contend-although they are quick to point out that they are not López Obrador puppets-that if the results of the July 2 election are not certified in such a manner as to be satisfactory to the broad mass of Mexicans, then Oaxaca could well serve as a role model for similar movements throughout the country. Given the current state of politics in Mexico, their point is well taken. Will Oaxaca serve as a portent of things to come? Perhaps that question will be answered early, during this coming fall.


John Barham has recently retired from the University of Missouri and has taken up full-time residency in San Miguel de Allende after a long career in higher education as a professor and administrator in colleges and universities in New York, Saudi Arabia, Texas, Alabama and Missouri. He frequently lectures on Mexican history for elderhostels in Mexico and may be reached at barhamjw@yahoo.com