The government of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca apologized for the first time June 15 for a police raid on striking teachers in the central plaza of the state capital one year ago that led to Mexico’s worst political unrest in years. Oaxaca Government Secretary Manuel Garcia Corpus issued the statement on behalf of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whose refusal to negotiate with the strikers sparked the crisis. “The government of Ulises Ruiz gives the people of Oaxaca a public apology for the events that arose after the 14th,” Garcia Corpus told the government news agency Notimex, refering to the police raid of June 14, 2006. (AP, June 15)
See our last posts on Mexico and Oaxaca.
APPO rejects Ruiz apology
The Popular People’s Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) issued a statement officially rejecting Gov. Ruiz’s apology. The group pledged to hold a popular tribunal later this year in Mexico City, to try Ruiz, ex-president Vicente Fox, and all those responsible for “crimes against humanity” in the Oaxaca repression, the Acteal massacre in Chiapas, the San Salvador Atenco violence in Mexico state, the strike-breaking at Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacan, and the mining disaster at Pasta de Conchos in Coahuila. (La Jornada, June 17)