Free Republic

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...

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...