By Noel Randewich
Reuters
Wednesday, November 1, 2006; 6:02 PM
OAXACA, Mexico (Reuters) - An annual festival of graveyard vigils, dancing ghouls and candy skulls to mark dead ancestors in Mexico's Oaxaca city has a new slant as activists trying to oust a governor mourn friends killed in unrest.
Artists built red paint-splattered figures topped with papier-mache skulls on Wednesday to represent more than a dozen people, mostly protesters, killed in a five-month fight to topple state Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
Traditional sand and marigolds street sculptures depicting skulls and bones were built this year in front of lines of riot police, who took over the center of the city at the weekend to try to end the spiraling violence.
Oaxaca, a tourist hot spot, is one of the fiercest adherents to Mexico's Day of the Dead traditions, marking the festival with fireworks, processions and candlelit vigils in cemeteries.
Outgoing President Vicente Fox sent federal police to the colonial city just days before the celebration, after gunmen apparently linked to local officials shot dead three people on Friday, including a U.S. activist and journalist.
Fox is trying to resolve the crisis to ease the way for his successor Felipe Calderon, already threatened by separate protests from leftists who say he stole a July election.
"DIE A LITTLE"
At altars set up in a church square, mourners wept for fallen friends, at least one killed as recently as Sunday when activists slung Molotov-cocktails at police firing water cannons.
Isabel Garcia, 25, waiting to testify to a human rights official, shed tears for her husband, who she says was killed when police fired a tear gas canister at his chest.
"I want something for my children, and I want a full investigation," said the mother of two toddlers.
Speaking from a safe house, protest leader Flavio Sosa said the celebrations helped people accept the deaths.
"In Oaxaca we die a little every time a companion is killed," the bearded leader told Reuters. "On the Day of the Dead we share time with them and we are at peace."
Accusing Ruiz and his government of corruption and of using thugs to crush dissent, 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.
Ruiz refuses to back down, but his position looks increasingly untenable, with lawmakers, some from his own party, saying he should resign.
Fox's government has said the riot police will stay in Oaxaca until order is fully restored. Protesters still control dozens of streets with barricades, infuriating Ruiz's supporters who blame them for the crisis.
At a demonstration held to show support for the governor, accountant Cristina Garzon, 42, said the protesters put themselves in the line of fire.
"We always lament every death, but we are not going to put up with these people," she said.
