Situation Heats Up in Oaxaca Prior to Teachers' Union Decisions

This spirited display follows the decision by Section 22 of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE, in its Spanish initials) to not accept the last government offer ― as it was deemed “minimal and insufficient” ― and also follows a forum discussing the state’s political prisoners held on Saturday at Carmen Alto Plazuela, north of the zocalo.

The forum included the families of the disappeared as well as Miguel Angel Granados Chapa, who writes a nationally syndicated column called Plaza Publico and is host to a radio program of the same name. Granados said what many are already thinking: this situation can’t go on. The government isn’t working. We are on the verge of a massive upheaval. He pointed out that authoritarianism, criminalization of social protest, the dirty war against citizens who oppose the government and/or citizens who try to claim their human rights and the rise in the number of forced disappearances are bad indications. Protest has been non-violent. Government crackdowns have not and are not.

Oaxaca stands at a double anniversary: three years since the annual teachers encampment (plantón) in 2006 – which ended with government repression on November 25 – and two years since the most famous disappearances of two men from the People’s Revolutionary Army (EPR), Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz Sanchez. In all, six Oaxacans have disappeared, two of whom are Triqui women Daniela Ortiz Ramirez and Virginia Ortiz Ramirez. Lauro Juarez is (was) also a Triqui man. The sixth is Francisoco Paredes Ruiz.

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