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Federal riot police seize turbulent Mexican city

30 Oct 2006 07:08:33 GMT
Source: Reuters

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Members of the Popular Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) attempt to stop a police truck armed with water cannons in Oaxaca October 29, 2006. Federal riot police backed by helicopters and armored trucks seized control of Mexico's popular tourist city of Oaxaca on Sunday after months of street protests, and one man was killed in the violence.
REUTERS/HENRY ROMERO

(Updates with police taking over main square, one man dead)

By Noel Randewich

OAXACA, Mexico, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Federal riot police backed by helicopters and armored trucks seized control of Mexico's popular tourist city of Oaxaca on Sunday after months of street protests, and one man was killed in the violence.

Police carrying shields and wearing gas masks took over the colonial city's picturesque main square after hundreds of activists with metal poles and sticks surprisingly abandoned the plaza, their bastion for five months, without a fight.

After a full day of breaking down burning barricades and clashing with protesters, police then quickly dismantled the shabby tent city the activists had set up in the square.

A nurse was killed in another part of the city, and protesters said he was hit by a tear gas canister. A white sheet and a Mexican flag covered his body.

Mexican President Vicente Fox ordered federal forces to seize the 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 U.S. journalist and two other people on Friday.

The invasion began on Sunday morning as armored trucks, with V-shaped plows and flanked by riot police, destroyed barricades of burning tires, rocks and old furniture.

They fired water cannon at anyone in their way into the city center, protected by SWAT teams with assault rifles.

Demonstrators fled in some areas but stood up for a fight in others. Hundreds surrounded six busloads of unarmed police, forced them to flee and then set fire to the buses.

Several blocks from the city center, dozens of demonstrators, many using goggles to protect their eyes from tear gas, waited behind a barricade of burning tires, 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.

SCARED AWAY

Oaxaca is famous for its architecture, cuisine, indigenous crafts and archeological ruins, but many tourists have been scared away in recent months as the protests, which began as a teachers strike in May, turned violent.

The protesters accuse state Gov. Ulises Ruiz of corruption and repressive tactics, and had 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.

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.

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

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.

U.S. cameraman Bradley Will of the Indymedia news organization 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 Web site. It appeared to include the moment he was shot.

Fox has vowed to end the crisis before handing over power to President-elect Felipe Calderon of the conservative ruling party on Dec. 1.

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Last updated:Mon Oct 30 07:10:50 2006