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New England Arson Fires Tied to Suspect 8:31 am Episcopal Head Responds to Diocese Vote 8:01 am First President Bush Praises Florida Gov 8:01 am Attack in Baghdad Kills 13 Shiites 7:46 am Iran: Sanctions Would Be Act of Hostility 7:46 am Bush Accepts Bolton's U.N. Resignation 7:31 am Changes in Iraq Policy Seem Inevitable 7:31 am Barack Obama Comes Praises Sen. Clinton 7:31 am Leader of Oaxaca Protests Arrested 7:16 am 3 Members of Missing Family Found Alive 7:16 am
From the Associated Press |  | Oaxaca Returns to Normal After Protests Monday December 4, 2006 7:01 PM By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Associated Press Writer OAXACA, Mexico (AP) - Families stroll along cobblestone streets. City employees plant poinsettias in the tree-covered main square. Children dodge in and out of the crowd in a rowdy game of tag. The southern Mexican city of Oaxaca is visibly returning to normal after six months of protests and clashes that killed at least nine people. Yet even as teachers whose strike began the unrest return to classrooms and clashes between police and leftist protesters have died down, many residents say the conflict is far from resolved. Leaders of the Oaxaca People's Assembly, or APPO, the group heading the protests, have vowed to keep pressing for Gov. Ulises Ruiz's resignation and are calling for a ``mega-march'' Saturday. And some residents warn that simmering discontent about poverty, injustice and oppression again could erupt into violence at any time. ``We're still in a state of siege, just look around,'' said Ramon Ruiz, a 72-year-old retiree sitting on a bench in the central plaza surrounded by police officers. ``The governor needs to leave but they also need to arrest the APPO leaders. Otherwise, this will continue.'' The conflict began in May as a strike by teachers seeking higher pay, but exploded into a broader movement including Indian groups, students, farmers and myriad left-leaning activists, all organized under the Oaxaca People's Assembly. The teachers later accepted pay raises and returned to work, but other APPO activists continued to occupy the central plaza, or Zocalo, and barricaded streets citywide to demand Ruiz's ouster. Thousands of federal police armed with tear gas and tanks equipped with water cannons drove protesters from the Zocalo in October, but the protesters regrouped in the nearby Santo Domingo plaza and set up a base at a university where they rallied followers with messages broadcast over the school's radio station. The conflict kept residents away from the city's historic center and forced nearly all the shops and restaurants to close. Located about 325 miles southeast of Mexico City, Oaxaca is one of the country's premier tourist destinations with its colonial architecture and Indian crafts. But tourism plummeted amid the violence, which prompted the U.S. and several other foreign governments to warn citizens against traveling to the city. Among those killed in the protests was freelance video journalist Bradley Roland Will, 36, of New York, who was filming a clash between protesters and a group of armed men. The violence seemed to come to a head last week when protesters set colonial-era buildings on fire, prompting police to arrest more than 170 demonstrators. The detainees were transferred to a prison hundreds of miles away, and many APPO leaders went into hiding after authorities issued warrants for their arrest. On Wednesday, protesters did not resist when police dismantled the last of hundreds of barricades, and they voluntarily gave up control of the university radio station. APPO spokesman Florentino Lopez said one of the movement's most visible leaders, Flavio Sosa, is in Mexico City to negotiate a peaceful solution with Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna, who took office Friday along with President Felipe Calderon. City workers have begun painting over graffiti slamming Ruiz, who is accused of rigging the 2004 election and using thugs to attack dissidents. Hundreds of federal officers remain in the Zocalo, but only a few agents now guard roadblocks that were manned in days past by rows of police in riot gear. ``For five months, I didn't come anywhere near here because I was afraid,'' said Guadalupe Esteva, a 63-year-old retired secretary who planned to attend a concert by a band that was renewing its weekly performances outside the main cathedral. ``Now that it is quiet, we want to enjoy our city.'' All of Oaxaca state's 70,000 teachers have returned to work, although a small splinter group went back on strike Monday to press for the release of activists and to protest the lack of security in schools. Although there are hopes that protest leaders and government officials will reach an accord to bring the conflict to an end, past efforts have failed. ``Oaxaca's political class would have to disappear for the situation in the state to change,'' Mexican painter Francisco Toledo was quoted as saying in the Jornada newspaper.

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