The demonstrators chanting "Fight, fight, fight! Don´t stop fighting!" contrasted with other Oaxaca residents who greeted the federal police presence as a chance to get back to life as usual after five months of unrest and sporadic violence in the normally tranquil colonial tourist town.

Pushing their demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz resign, the marchers arrived at the central plaza, the Zócalo, carrying anti-government banners and faced off with columns of police who blocked their access to the square.

"Murderers! Murderers!" they screamed, but did not attempt to break through and there were no clashes.

The federal government indicated that it had no intention of letting the protesters take back the city. Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal said the federal forces would stay until order had been established.

Earlier, residents and business owners held marches to thank federal police for clearing away the demonstrators, who had kept Oaxaca city under siege since May, shutting down businesses and driving away the thousands of tourists who traditionally are drawn to the picturesque colonial city of 275,000.

"Let them stay," Edith Mendoza, a 40-year-old housewife, said of the police. "We were held hostage for five months".

On Sunday, federal police tore down protest blockades and pushed demonstrators out of the main square that had served as their base for five months.

The city resembled a battleground Monday, its streets littered with charred cars and lines of federal police blocking entrances to the Zócalo.

Inside the central plaza, police waited in trucks and behind riot shields and water cannons while workers labored feverishly to paint over graffiti, rip down banners and clean up tons of accumulated trash. The kiosk located in the heart of the plaza, covered with protest banners and graffiti during the demonstrations, had already been restored to its original state.

The protests began as a teacher´s strike but quickly spiraled into larger movement as anarchists, students and Indian groups seized the central plaza and barricaded streets throughout the city to demand Ruiz´s ouster, saying he rigged his 2004 election and violently repressed his opponents.

Police and state forces — often in plainclothes — have shot at protesters, setting off clashes in which at least eight people have died.

President Vicente Fox, speaking at a public event, announced that "today in Oaxaca social order and peace has been restored".

Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, had resisted repeated calls to send federal forces to Oaxaca until Saturday, a day after gunfire killed a U.S. activist-journalist and two residents.

The demonstrators said Monday they were not giving up and hoped to attract other sectors of society, mainly the state´s majority Indian population, to join their fight.

Teachers earlier had agreed to return to work by Monday, ending a strike that kept 1.3 million children out of classes across the southern state.

But teachers union leader Enrique Rueda told The Associated Press that no students had returned to class in the capital on Monday, although some had in cities and towns outside of Oaxaca city.

During the strike, some dissident teachers tried to open schools, and parents armed with sticks and pipes fought off protesters who tried to keep children from entering.

A scattering of businesses, including the city´s famous marketplace, reopened Monday. As shoppers browsed through the market´s stalls, stocked with supplies of fresh marigolds to celebrate the upcoming Day of the Dead, others lined up at several automatic teller machines that had reopened. But most of the city remained shuttered.

Ruiz refused to resign, saying: "This is not up for discussion. This is not the solution. The solution is the construction of agreements".