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Soldiers seized assault rifles, grenades, marijuana and bulletproof vests bearing police insignia after a brief shootout in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. No one was wounded in the overnight exchange of fire with three suspects hunkered down in a house in La Mesa district, army Gen. Sergio Aponte Polito told reporters Friday. Troops seized 91 assault rifles — some with butts of gold and ivory — along with 18 grenades, the bulletproof vests and more than 880 pounds of marijuana, Aponte Polito said. The three suspects, aged 25 to 33, were arrested. The bust followed weeks of bloody confrontations...

OAXACA, Mexico - Gunmen shot dead a local police chief and three other people on Wednesday in Oaxaca, a politically tense southern Mexican city where leftists held a months-long siege in 2006. Oaxaca state Gov. Ulises Ruiz said the murders were linked to drug smuggling cartels whose violent turf wars killed more than 2,500 people across Mexico last year. Local police chief Alejandro Barrita was in charge of police units guarding banks and businesses on Oaxaca, a pretty colonial city still scarred by the protests of 2006. Barrita was killed while he was exercising in a city park. The gunmen...

OAXACA, Mexico — A small, homemade bomb exploded outside a Sears store in the troubled southern city of Oaxaca early Wednesday, damaging the entrance but causing no injuries, authorities reported. A similar bomb was found and deactivated outside the entrance of a nearby bank, state Attorney General Evencio Martinez told national radio station W Radio. "I believe it could be (the work of) local groups, given the type and style of device," Martinez said. He denied the bombs were related to the People's Revolutionary Army, a small leftist group that bombed gas pipelines in July. Sears in Mexico is operated...

OAXACA, Mexico — Police fired tear gas Monday to prevent hundreds of leftist protesters from reaching the venue of an international folk festival in Oaxaca, in the worst outbreak of violence in the troubled Mexican city since November. Protesters hurled rocks and burned vehicles as they sought to march to a stadium where the renowned Guelaguetza festival is scheduled to start July 23. Police responded with tear gas and rocks. Some protesters said they only wanted access to the stadium to hold an "alternative," non-commercialized version of the festival, while others vowed to block the event entirely. The picturesque colonial...

OAXACA, Mexico — The son of the U.S. consul in southern Oaxaca state was stabbed during an apparent mugging, U.S. Consul Mark Leyes said Monday. Leyes said three assailants beat and stabbed his son, Marcos Leyes Perez, and then took his money after he left a disco in Oaxaca City at about 1 a.m. Sunday. Leyes said his son, whose liver was punctured, was the victim of a mugging and his assailants probably did not know he was the son of the U.S. consul. He was listed in stable condition at a local hospital, the government news agency Notimex reported....

"MEXICO - A B.C. construction worker jailed for more than two years in Mexico over a building contract that went sour says he's been wrongly imprisoned by a corrupt system. "Get me out of here," a frustrated Peter Kimber said yesterday from his prison cell in Huatulco, where he suffers from kidney problems and other ill health. He said he has endured dozens of beatings and atrocious conditions because he can't pay bribes to get out. "I want somebody to actually help save what's left of my life," he said. "I've tried it on my own for two years and...

OAXACA, Mexico — Gunmen shot dead a local leader of Mexico's largest leftist party in the southern state of Oaxaca where at least nine people were killed in political violence last year, police said today. Democratic Revolution Party official Fructuoso Pedro Garcia was shot with nine bullets in the main square of Santo Domingo Morelos, a seaside town about 150 miles south of Oaxaca's colonial state capital, said state police commander Alberto Guzman. The killing occurred last Wednesday, three days after Garcia announced he would run for mayor of Santo Domingo Morelos. Guzman said the killing appeared to be for...

MEXICO CITY - Authorities on Wednesday announced the capture of a purported drug cartel leader, the first major drug arrest under the administration of President Felipe Calderon, who has pledged a nationwide war against the drug trade. Pedro Diaz Parada was arrested in the country's southern state of Oaxaca on Tuesday and taken to Mexico City. He faces charges of organized crime and drug trafficking, the attorney general's office said in a news release. Prosecutors say Diaz Parada founded the cartel named after him in Mexico's southeastern region. Federal police and soldiers stopped the sport utility vehicle in which Diaz...

MEXICO CITY -- Assailants shot dead an Indian activist in Mexico's conflict-ridden state of Oaxaca, police said Saturday. It was not clear if the killing was related to months of political violence in which at least nine other people have died. The bullet-ridden corpse of Raul Marcial Perez was found Friday on a road near the Mixtec Indian community of Agua Fria about 120 miles north of Oaxaca City, state police said in a news release. He had been shot earlier in the day, it said. Marcial Perez had been involved in disputes involving two rival Triqui Indian rights groups,...

OAXACA, Mexico — Police arrested the symbolic leader of a six-month protest movement that took over the southern city of Oaxaca and left at least nine dead, hours after he said at a news conference in Mexico City that he'd gone to the capital to negotiate a peaceful solution. Flavio Sosa, whose heavyset, bearded presence became an emblem of the leftist Oaxaca People's Assembly, was arrested late Monday on charges related to the barricades, vandalism and irregular detentions carried out by some protesters. "Sosa ... is known for his use of violence, damaging private property and public byways, and also...

The Oaxaca People´s Assembly´s planned 48-hour siege of federal police forces stationed in the main plaza of this state capital turned ugly Saturday afternoon and clashes continued into the night. APPO protesters fired bottle rockets through plastic tubes and lobbed countless rocks at the police lines closing off the Zócalo. The police responded by firing heavy amounts of tear gas. Several buildings were set ablaze, including the historic Camino Real hotel, although details about damage were sketchy. A massive APPO demonstration converged on the Zócalo in mid-afternoon and began dispersing at key intersections to encircle the Federal Preventative Police (PFP)...

APPO will beseige PFP in Oaxaca's Zocalo Capital Plaza The State Council of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca agrees not to permit either entry or exit to one single element of federal forces Jorge Octavio Ochoa & Alejandro Torres/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Wednesday 15 November 2006 2:28 p.m.  The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) will beseige, starting the 25th of November, the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) who are located in the historic center of the capital and for two days APPO will not permit either entry or exit to...

APPO will reactivate blockades in Oaxaca They also agree to extend their protests against the government over which Felipe Calderon Hinojosa will preside if when he begins his mandate Ulises Ruiz Ortiz still remains in his position [as Governor of Oaxaca]. Alejandro Torres & Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Monday 13 November 2006 1:17 p.m.   Reinstalling barricades, taking state public offices and town councils, and the closure of major highways are some of the conclusions which the constituent congress of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) approved upon concluding its work early...

OAXACA, Mexico - Four youths wearing masks tossed gasoline bombs at a McDonald's restaurant in the conflict-torn city of Oaxaca on Sunday, damaging the windows, seats and play area, police said. Security personnel at the shopping center where the McDonald's is located extinguished the blaze, police said. The restaurant was closed during the pre-dawn attack, and nobody was hurt. The shopping mall is near a university where leftist protesters set up their headquarters last month after police drove them out of city's main plaza, which they had occupied for five months in a bid to force the resignation of the...

OAXACA, Mexico - The Roman Catholic bishop of Oaxaca said Saturday the church cannot grant sanctuary to four leftists who led a five-month takeover of the city to demand the resignation of the state governor. The four had publicly asked for protection in one of the city's churches earlier this week, fearing they might be arrested on charges stemming from their role in demonstrations which at times turned violent. But Bishop Jose Luis Chavez Botello told reporters on Saturday that the church has neither the resources nor the facilities to provide sanctuary, an ancient tradition in which temples shielded people...

<p>Three simultaneous explosions occurred late Sunday night in Mexico City, destroying an entrance at the headquarters of a leading political party and apparently affecting the Federal Electoral Tribunal and a bank branch.</p> <p>The government news agency Notimex said there were no immediate reports of injuries.</p>

OAXACA, Mexico — Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched through this tense colonial city on Sunday, demanding the security forces abandon camps they set up last week to end a five-month protest. Masked police officers clutching automatic weapons watched the protesters from rooftops as they marched to a plaza about a block away from the encampments, yelling "Get out federal police!" The leaders then formed a human chain to keep the crowd of 20,000 from confronting police, but about 400 people broke through and attacked the officers with stones and bottles. Some of the police lobbed rocks back, while officers on...

Reporting confrontation between PFP and students in Oaxaca The cordon of federal agents fell back about 200 meters and they returned to the starting point, the terminus of University Avenue Jorge Octavio Ochoa, Alejandro Torres & David Aponte/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Thursday 2 November 2006 11:20 a.m.   A confrontation between students of the Benito Juarez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO) and elements of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) is being reported. The uniformed officers are being practically bombarded by a rain of stones, sticks, molotov cocktails, and fireworks, from the interior [of the University] to...

PRI members ask Segob to investigate financing of APPO The National College of Adherent Organizations of the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party] calls for the clarification of those who have supported the more than 160 days of protests which were carried out in Oaxaca Jorge Teherán El Universal (Mexico City) Tuesday 31 October 2006 6:31 p.m.   Organizations of the PRI demanded today of the Governmental Secretary, Carlos Abascal Carranza, to make publicly known who they find behind the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), since it is known that "these movements cost." In a press conference, organizations adhering...

They are marching in Oaxaca in support of Ruiz They are demonstrating in favor of the intervention of the Federal Preventive Police; they thank President Fox; they repudiate APPO Alejandro Torres, David Aponte & Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Tuesday 31 October 2006 12:18 p.m. Sympathizers of Governor Ulises Ruiz are carrying out a march in the streets of the city of Oaxaca, in which they are shouting slogans against the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The demonstration left around 10:30 a.m. from the Seven Regions bridge on Porfirio Diaz, and...

OAXACA, Mexico, Oct. 30 -- The men who weave wool into boldly patterned rugs don't bother coming here anymore... Oaxaca, Mexico's colonial-era jewel, was almost unrecognizable Monday, a barely functioning city befouled by smoldering trash and the charred hulks of burned-out buses. Five months after teachers launched a strike for better pay, and two days after the arrival of federal police, Oaxaca is a place under siege by equally determined opposing forces. Police outfitted with gas masks control the city square. Masked protesters armed with rocks control the rest. No one seems to know what will happen next. The police...

...Talking about his research on Oaxaca and the South American Connection. Cool!

OAXACA, Mexico - Federal police armed with assault rifles and riot shields stormed this normally picturesque tourist destination Sunday, bypassing barricades and touching off fierce street battles as they tried to end five months of protests and violence. Officers in black helmets entered the city from several sides, reinforced by armored vehicles, trucks mounted with high-pressure water cannons and bulldozers. Helicopters roared overhead. Police marched up to a metal barrier blocking the historic city center — which has served as home base for the protests since late May — but pulled back as protesters armed with poles and sticks attacked...

PFP utilizes armored cars to advance to the capital plaza of Oaxaca The armored cars have begun throwing streams of water against members of APPO Alejandro Torres, Jorge Octavio Ochoa & David Aponte/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Sunday 29 October 2006 2:05 p.m.  At 1:52 p.m. the movement of the armored cars of the Federal Preventive Police began on the international highway. The armored cars have begun throwing out streams of water against the protestors. This is the first occasion in which the Federal Police are using these vehicles. Without stopping to sound their horns, the PFP...

OAXACA, Mexico - Federal police in riot gear and armored cars took up positions on the outskirts of this southern Mexican city on Sunday, as leftist protesters who have taken charge of the streets stood firm at their barricades of tree trunks and hijacked trucks. The teachers whose strike over pay raises in May began the uprising in Oaxaca agreed to go back to work on Monday, and the federal presence appeared designed to bolster law and order ahead of their return. But some strikers and their leftist supporters were outlining plans for street-by-street resistance. Officials said police had begun...

OAXACA, Mexico — The streets were eerily quiet late Saturday after demonstrators who've held a grip on this city for months unexpectedly abandoned their encampments and blockades rather than risk a clash with hundreds — or perhaps thousands — of federal police. Burned-out buses, sandbags and an array of debris — from old tires to tarpaulins — are all that were left of what for months had been fortified positions where demonstrators vowed they'd fight to the death to further their cause. In the city's central plaza — the symbolic headquarters of a movement that involved thousands of striking teachers...

OAXACA, Mexico (AFP) - Mexico demanded that protesters in the southern city of Oaxaca immediately lift barricades and evacuate occupied buildings, as federal forces massed for possible action. Some 70,000 Oaxaca teachers and supporters have been on strike in the city for five months demanding higher pay and the resignation of the state governor. A statement from the Mexican interior ministry demanded "the immediate handover of the streets, plazas, public buildings and private property" taken over by protesters. President Vicente Fox ordered federal police to Oaxaca on Saturday after a US cameraman for the Indymedia independent media website and two...

PFP arrives in Oaxaca; commerical air traffic closed Six Boeing aircraft have landed at the Benito Juarez International Airport with federal components; Bell type helicopters are also observed Jorge Octavio Ochoa and Alejandro Torres/Correspondents El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Saturday 28 October 2006 12:15  An intense mobilization of aircraft of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) can be observed at this time at the Benito Juarez International Airport of this city. At 11:53 in the morning a Boeing airplane landed registered as XCMPF of the Federal Preventive Police, in the disembarkation quarter which it carried out this morning. On...

OAXACA, Mexico - President Vicente Fox announced Saturday he was sending federal police into the violence-wracked southern state capital of Oaxaca after a U.S. journalist and two Mexican men were shot to death. The clashes occurred Friday as leftist protesters barricaded streets as part of a five-month-old campaign to oust the governor. Fox's office issued a declaration saying that the federal forces would concentrate in Oaxaca on Saturday. His office later clarified that he was referring to federal police, not troops, but did not specify how many were being sent. The president earlier had refused to send such forces to...

NEW YORK — Undeterred by violence, journalist Bradley Roland Will felt compelled to document what he called human rights abuses around the globe, so he headed to the volatile city of Oaxaca in Mexico. As the situation turned increasingly dangerous, Will decided to stay. Despite his fears, he wanted people to know what was happening in Oaxaca. "I am entering a new territory here and don't know if I am ready," Will wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to an ex-girlfriend. "Life is crazy." The 36-year-old videographer from New York was killed Friday in the Mexican city where protesters have barricaded...

These are all from the homepage of the Mexico City newspaper El Universal's web site, I am including translations of the captions provided: Unknown subjects burn a van of the PRI [Institutional Revolutionary Party], where a shootout supposedly began in the municipality of Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca Unknown men shoot at APPO members and reporters in Santa Lucia del Camino, Oaxaca; a foreign cameraman dies Unknown men shoot at journalists and members of APPO in the municipality of Santa Lucia; up to now they report 12 injured and the death of a foreign cameraman A cameraman, who looks foreign,...

Mexico: an American cameraman and a teacher killed by ball with Oaxaca OAXACA (Mexico) - an American cameraman, Brad Will, independent chain Indymedia, and a teacher were killed by ball Friday at the time of exchanges of shots in the town of Oaxaca (southern), according to leaders of the movement of protest against the local governor who has lasted for more than 4 months. Brad Will "received a ball in the chest", declared with AFP Florentino Lopez, spokesman of the Parliament Popular of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) which requires the resignation of the governor of the State Ulises...

Blockades Suffocate Oaxaca They are provoking chaos and bottlenecks all over the city, by the closure of streets and main highways which APPO began this morning Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Friday 27 October 2006 12:55 p.m.  Absolute chaos and bottlenecks throughout the city were occasioned by the blockade of streets and main highways which the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) began this morning. The main international highway 190 has been closed since the earliest hours today as well as the Las Riveras de Atoyac highways, which were the only alternatives for...

Return to classes approved in Oaxaca During the consultation of Section 22 of the SNTE, 31,078 teachers voted "yes" and 20,387 made theirs "no." The tentative date for the return to the classrooms will be next Monday Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Thursday 26 October 2006 4:04 p.m.  After eight hours of waiting and in absence of union leader Enrique Rueda Pacheco, today the wishes of the assembly of Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) made known the official result of its consultation on the return to classes. From the outskirts...

APPO gives ultimatum to Ulises Ruiz to resign within 72 hours They announce that as of Friday they will put into effect throughout the day a blockade of major highways in all the state and they will maintain the barricades throughout the city Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Tuesday 24 October 2006 1:49 p.m.  As of Friday a blockade of major highways will be put into effect throughout the day in all the state [of Oaxaca], barricades will be maintained throughout the city and for the first time since they began this movement, all the population will...

They voted to resume classes in Oaxaca, teachers reveal The consultation within the teacher's union showed a result of 26 thousand teachers in favor of a return to classes and 15 thousand against the proposal, according to sources within Section 22 of the SNTE1 Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Saturday 21 October 2006 8:40 p.m.  According to sources in Section 22 of the SNTE who were within the assembly, the consultation among the teacher's union showed a result of 26 thousand teachers in favor of a return to classes and 15 thousand against the...

APPO whips Rueda The leader of Section 22 of the SNTE1 receives a series of criticisms on behalf of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca, who described him as a "traitor and sellout." Jorge Octavio Ochoa / Correspondent El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Friday 20 October 2006 1:20 p.m. The leader of Section 22 of the SNTE, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, this morning received an official series of criticisms on behalf of the sympathizers of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO), who catalogued him as a traitor and sellout. Meanwhile, the tension within...

Teacher's Union Accepts Resumption of Classes in Oaxaca The Secretary General of Section 22 of the SNTE,1 Enrique Rueda Pacheco, makes known that next Saturday they will set the date for the return to the classrooms. Liliana Alcantara El Universal Mexico City Thursday 19 October 2006 7:02 p.m.The Secretary General of Section 22 of the SNTE, Enrique Rueda Pacheco, informed everyone of the decision of the teacher's union of resuming classes in Oaxaca after five months of conflict. He made known that next Saturday they will set the date for the resumption of classes, which could be Monday, October...

APPO begins evacuating government offices Brigades of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca are carrying out tours of [government] premises to remove personnel. Reporting marches in support of Governor Ulises Ruiz. Jorge Octavio Ochoa / Correspondent El Universal (Mexico City) Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Wednesday 18 October 2006 1:30 p.m. -- Brigades of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) began tours of government offices around 1:00 p.m. to evacuate all personnel who work there. The first point which they visited was the Secretary General of Government, on República road, and afterwards they moved to the...

<p>OAXACA, Mexico -- A teacher was hacked to death in this historic Mexican city that has been paralyzed for months by protests and violence, police said late Thursday. A colleague claimed the man was killed for opposing a teachers' strike. Thousands of trade unionists and leftists have been camped out in Oaxaca since May, building barricades, taking over buildings and burning buses. The protesters are demanding the resignation of Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz, accusing him of rigging the 2004 election to win office and sending armed thugs against dissenters. Victor Alonso Altamirano of the Oaxaca state police said teacher Jaime Rene Calva Aragon was on his way to a meeting Thursday evening when he was killed by two assailants wielding hefty ice picks. Fellow teacher Alma Rosa Fernandez accused militant leftists of killing Calva for opposing a statewide teachers' strike that was a catalyst for the wider protests.</p>

OAXACA, Mexico — Should federal troops attempt to wrest control of this southern capital from strikers, they'll face scores of avenues like Calle Almendros, now a gantlet of obstacles designed to slow an advance. Strikers have prepared a 200-yard-long segment by stretching wires across it at neck, ankle and waist height, placing large rocks side-by-side and parking a commandeered school bus sideways to block traffic in both directions. Like many other streets, it has been fortified with small bunkers made of sandbags and stocked with dozens of bottles for Molotov cocktails. Hundreds of smaller rocks were piled up to be...

Federal authorities are denying a report in today's El Universal newspaper that thousands of federal police are on alert to sweep into Oaxaca on a moment's notice. A federal police official noted the story by reporter Jorge Alejandro Medellin had no official source and said that no such alert has been issued. (Of course, the federal official also said his name could not be published.) The paper reported that under an operation known as "Cyclone 5" the federal government has told 3,000 Federal Preventative Police officers they can sleep in their homes in Mexico City, but that they must be...

Translated by Mark: Daniel Nieto Ovando, 24 and father of 3 children ages 5, 2 and 1, literaly lost his head when he hit a wire strung across a street in the Volcanes colonia which is just to the north of Colonia Reforma. According to neighbors, this blockade had been erected only the night before so that Nieto Ovando would not have known about its danger. The young dairy worker was on his way home from work at about 3:00 this morning on his motorcycle when he hit the wire, decapitating him and killing him instantly. The "guardians" of the...

Movement of Naval Troops Reported in Salina Cruz [Oaxaca] Alberto Lopez El Universal (Mexico City) Sunday 1 October 2006 Juchitan, Oaxaca -- Neighbors of the port city of Salina Cruz and Huatulco [Oaxaca] reported "an unusual movement" of naval troops from the end of last week. "We have seen the arrival of planes, armored cars, and helicopters," said a source who asked to remain anonymous. Military sources confirmed the versions of witnesses, even though they clarified that the movement of troops corresponds with a program of combat practice which is regularly carried out in a joint form between Marines...

Helicopters Flying Over Oaxacan Encampments Due to the presence of Navy forces in the airspace of the zone where protestors of the teacher's union and APPO are located, a maximum alert is decreed; warning that a dislocating operation may be carried out tonight Jorge Octavio Ochoa/Correspondent El Universal Oaxaca City, Oaxaca Saturday 30 September 2006 5:00 p.m. At 4:30 p.m., two Navy helicopters flew through the airspace over the center of Oaxaca City; at 4:50 and 5:00 p.m. new overflights appeared, apparently in reconnaisance. From La Ley radio, the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) called for...

MEXICO CITY — More than 7,000 businesses reportedly closed in Oaxaca on Thursday to pressure the federal government to end a teachers strike that has grown violent and paralyzed the state capital for four months. The striking teachers and their sometimes more radical supporters are bracing for a government crackdown, declaring a "code red" for their encampments, according to a Web site. They have fortified street barricades with commandeered buses and are preparing bulk quantities of Molotov cocktails, homemade incendiary grenades made from bottles and flammable liquid. Strikers have occupied radio stations to broadcast their message, vowing to hold their...

The Oaxacanization of the Country: From the Myth of Fraud to that of Ingovernability It was left clear this week, the connection between the insurrectional strategy of Oaxaca and that of AMLO, which already seems to be weakening between desertions and the universal loss of prestige. The difference is one of perspective: For AMLO and his landscaped spaces it was considered vital to exhibit as a survival certificate the oxygen tank which he offered to the Popular Assembly of the People (sic) of Oaxaca (APPO) to identify its goal with that of the defeated presidential candidate: that of preventing...

OAXACA, Mexico — The men quick-stepped through early morning darkness, some with bandannas pulled over mouths to hide their identities. Others clutched sticks or beer bottles converted to Molotov cocktails. The men were herding two drunken prisoners, one was shirtless; the other had urinated in his pants. They were being marched to the town square to be judged for throwing bottles at a neighborhood-watch patrol. The captors aren't police officers or trained soldiers. They're part of a movement of striking public schoolteachers and supporters that months ago declared their own government, including their own law enforcement. Sentencing options for the...

Title and link only due to copyright complaints: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0912oaxacaunrest.html

WASHINGTON — U.S. citizens were warned Thursday that increasing political violence in Oaxaca City, Mexico, might make the mountain resort too risky to visit. The State Department said the unrest, which began in May as a strike by a local teachers' union, has grown and spread. It said the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City has reports of robberies and assaults in normally peaceful areas of the city. Two people have died in the turmoil. Oaxaca is a historic city in southern Mexico, west of the Yucatan Peninsula, that is popular with tourists. Protesters in the city said Thursday they were...