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A ping for all of you here.

By way of general comment may I say that what we really are dealing with in the Oaxacan situation is an instance in which the Mexican Left has advanced their cause by seizing upon popular indignation over a recognizably-corrupt state government headed by Ulises Ruiz, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). And not only is Ruiz corrupt, he's also stupid, which has caused things to spin out of control.

The beginnings of this conflict back in May actually started with a teacher's union strike which Ruiz aggravated by sending in riot police, who beat up on the strikers pretty bad, seized their radio station, and jailed many of the strike leaders. But the strikers only moved into the center of the city, seized another radio station, and barricaded the area off from any further attempts by the Governor to oust them. And when that happened, the truly radical leftists were able to move in and take over the protests. And when I say "truly radical," I mean out-and-out Marxists, who fly the hammer and sickle. They are demanding the release of the jailed strikers, and some of them have been let go, but more importantly, they are insisting that Ruiz step down. Ruiz's response was to organize some paramilitary groups who killed a few strikers in hopes that they would simply give up and go home, but it only propelled the protest forward.

The Fox administration has refused to intervene in the Oaxaca situation, and my take on their attitude is that they have pretty much told Ruiz that this affair is of his making and he is going to have to fix it. But they have made clear that they are not going to stomach his use of force as a means of solving the problem. It's a situation in which Fox and the PAN party have nothing to gain -- they get very few votes in Oaxaca anyway -- and everything to lose, because they could very well face popular indignation elsewhere if they back Ruiz, who is pretty much hated throughout Mexico right now.

I believe the only way out of the Oaxaca crisis is for Ruiz to step down and for elections to be held. That will take the steam out of the truly radical protest leaders of APPO, who really have no place in a campaign anyway. It will mean that the Oaxacan state government will pass into the hands of the PRD, which is not something I find particularly palatable, but it is certainly better than mass violence running amuck in the streets. And I would love to see what will happen when the PRD tries to give these leftists what they are demanding, which is impossible of achievement anyway.