May 1, 2007 – kilo writes: Today possibly a million people have gone into the streets to demand the exit of Ulises Ruiz as the governor of Oaxaca. It has been an hour and a half and people are still filling in the zocalo.
On October 29th, the Federal Preventative Police entered Oaxaca’s zocalo (central plaza) and removed the blockade that Section 22 of the teachers’ union and the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) had maintained for six months. Since that date, no march has entered the zocalo and all attempts have been prevented by the state forces…until today. Yesterday, students who were sympathetic to the APPO retook Radio Universidad for the first time since the radio was turned over by the APPO to the university at the beginning of December under death threats. They have said that they will maintain control of the radio for 2 days until the marches today and the national strike tomorrow (May 2) end. The state police of Ulises Ruiz (the corrupt governor of Oaxaca who the APPO has been trying to depose for the past year) are prepared for the possibility that the demonstrators will try to reestablish the blockade in the zocalo of Oaxaca today. Stay tuned…
see also: Ignore the TV: May Day in Oaxaca / Que ignora la tele: El primero de mayo en Oaxaca
https://www.indybay.org/americas
https://elenemigocomun.net
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source: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/01/18407662.php
English translation of updates from today’s march
cml
13:05 Radio Ke Huelga reports that the march of the social movements in Oaxaca for the exit of Ulises Ruiz from the government of Oaxaca now has been entering the zocalo for an tour and a half and many people still haven’t arrived. According to many journalists, the movement in Oaxaca was vanquished, in spite of the fact that today around a million people went into the streets to demand the exit of Ulises Ruiz, as well as educational improvements and for the workers. For months, the political-military barrier was maintained in the central plaza of Oaxaca – today this barrier is broken with a truly enormous demonstration.
2:10 Radio Universidad of Oaxaca reports that in the antennas of Brenamiel and El Rosario in Oaxaca there are police from the UPOE and harassment triggered by the student occupation of the studios of the Radio Universidad of Oaxaca. There have been no complaints on the part of the university, so it is not known under what grounds the police carried out their harassment in the early hours of the morning.
OaxacaLibre
The spokesperson for the student sector of the APPO, Pedro Garcia Garcia, assures that tomorrow between 6 and 8 pm the installations of Radio Universidad will be returned, that right now remain in the hands of the social organizations.
The first parts of the march enter the zocalo in a peaceful manner and without major incidents up till now.
Doctor Berta makes a call out for the mobilization and unity on Radio Universidad.
It is reported that there are hooded people who are trying to disturb the march, hooded people who are not paying attention to what other contingents have requested. They are trying to keep these people isolated at the top of calle Morelos. Also, we are informed that supposed police elements dressed as civilians have appeared. It is important to not give in to these obvious provocations.
The sea of people continues marching…It is calcuated that there is a presence of approximately 500,000 people coming from the 7 regions of the state.
Radio Universidad reports that the march now is entering the zocalo of the city and still has no finished leaving the IEEPO.
In the context of the new taking of Radio Universidad, and in the environment of apparent calmness, the contingents gather for the march of Section 22 and the APPO, together with other organizations, in what according to the electornic press like the Financiero, Milenio and El Universal will be a mrach without the presence of the state police. The police find themselves since last night in the building of the Public Security, which is where the barrack for the preventative police in Santa Maria Coyotepec is. In fact, at 10:30 pm on Monday, less than 10 police stayed in the area and the fences were removed during the night. Nevertheless, a trusted source said that the different police bodies are prepared to act if at the end of the action, the demonstrators decide to contruct a barricade.
For its part, Radio Universidad is making a call out to not vandalize or fall for any tipe of provacation, so that the march can proceed peacefully on its route to the zocalo of the city. The officers and leaders of Section 22 are at the front of what appears to be the ninth megamarch.
The march leaves from the installations of IEPPO towards the zocalo of the city, at the same time a march leaves from the fountain of the seven regions in front of the Department of Medicine of the UABJO.
La Jornada
Inside the zocalo, groups of hooded youth with spray paint are tagging the Government Palace and the museum of the city, property of the UNAM.
In the plaza, many youth have arrived with faces covered and have tagged the facades of public buildings and businesses of the first block in the capital city.
For their part, many tourists found themselves in the restaurants that are located around the zocalo even with the fear that there could be acts of violence, while others decided to leave.
Due to the mobilization, the services of urban transportation have been suspended in the city and only buses from other municipalities are moving.
As opposed to the last moblization of the APPO, on this occasion there are not members of the police bodies guarding the march or blocking its movement.