Mexico violence flares as police battle protesters
By Noel Randewich
Reuters
OAXACA, Mexico - Mexican riot police used tear gas and water cannon on Thursday to force back Molotov-cocktail hurling protesters as violence flared again in the city of Oaxaca.
At least eight people were injured in the clash, including a Mexican newspaper photographer, who was hit by a firework launched from within the university grounds.
Federal police who took over the city center at the weekend in a bid to end a conflict that has killed more than a dozen people and become a major headache for the national government, were initially pushed back by hundreds of protesters guarding the entrance to the state university, a protest nerve center.
The protesters, who accuse state Gov. Ulises Ruiz of corruption and brutality and have blockaded the city for five months demanding he step down, threw petrol bombs at riot police who had been pushing forward through barricades of burned out vehicles, Reuters witnesses said.
But the gray-clad riot police regained the upper hand as reinforcements arrived in armored trucks and helicopters, spraying protesters with water cannon and firing tear gas canisters.
The protesters forced local and state police out of the city in June, took over offices, sentenced people accused of theft and charged street corner tolls. The crisis started with a teachers' strike, but leftist and Indian groups have joined the protests calling for Ruiz to step down.
The conflict in the picturesque state capital is a major headache for outgoing President Vicente Fox, who has promised to resolve it before President-elect Felipe Calderon takes office on December 1 but does not want his legacy to be tainted by violence.
Fox sent federal police to the colonial city after gunmen apparently linked to local officials shot dead three people on Friday, including a U.S. activist and journalist.
PROTESTERS BEATEN
After the armored vehicles burst through the barricades, police charged after protesters on foot, fanning out into side streets where small groups of protesters continued to resist the police by throwing rocks and lighting fires.
Dozens of police trapped a group of men and women outside a car dealership, knocking them to the ground with batons and only backing away when a superior called them off, a Reuters witness said.
Blood covered the face and shirt of an 80-year-old man who said police had confused him with protesters.
"I feel impotent, I feel angry, I feel like crying," said a women wearing a surgical mask, who declined to be named. "We are the people."
Police chased another two protesters into a parking lot, threw them to the ground and kicked them while other officers pushed journalists away.
Protest leader Flavio Sosa said in a radio interview that the demonstrators would not back down until the federal police left the city and until arrested colleagues were released.
"Nobody knows what is coming next with this fascist government," he said. "This is an occupying army."
Mexico's government earlier said in a statement that police would not enter the university. Strict rules prevent government security forces from entering autonomous state universities.
Oaxaca's state government said in a statement that it had arrested two people thought to be involved in the killing. Local media said on Thursday the two belonged to Ruiz's opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party.
(Additional reporting by Daniel Aguilar in Oaxaca)