Here is an email exchange with a dear friend in Oregon. My answers are strictly from the point of view of an outsider…one who has only lived here one year and with limited intimate knowledge and understanding of what it means to be a Oaxaqueno.

On Jul 22, 2007

Here’s your first question — one which has been discussed among us and we await your answer! You said you wanted to write about what traveling reveals about the human heart. Why Oaxaca in a time of political unrest?

I came here to live for a year not knowing anything about the political situation. I arrived in the middle of a teacher strike.

I read your blogs and thank God every time you have arrived back home without taking a bullet.

I was never anywhere where it would be possible to ‘take a bullet.”

I was on the edge of a riot once (Vietnam in Century City) and I saw how quickly people who just came to watch could be injured… some badly.

I have only watched the peaceful marches…nothing else.

So you must have a purpose?

I am here to experience the wonderful people and learn about their lives…I loved the Oaxaquenos that I worked with in the States. I wanted to see where they came from and what drove them up north. I have seen people with no jobs, education that sucks, no health care for anyone that doesn’t work for the government etc, etc, etc. and how in the world they survive in the face of incredible corruption and repression…and unspeakable poverty. There is no economic development here. Just tourism, such as it is, and government. The people in the pueblos farm corn to eat…that is priced out of the market now that cheap corn (that they don’t like) is coming from the States.

Are you there as a reporter?

Just reporting what I and others witness on the ground. The US and international media stinks…portraying what happens here all out of proportion. Clashes last for short periods of time in very very limited geographical areas. Many people don’t even know anything has happened until they read about it in the next day’s paper.

Or to change history?

That would be pretty presumptuous

What does being a participant in such potentially dangerous environs do for your human heart.

I am not a “participant” in any way. It is against the law here for foreigners to get involved in the political life. And it is not dangerous here as I have said many times in my blog entries. (It will take some reflection to know what it’s all done for my heart.)

What I’m really wanting to say… is Come home!!! but I want to know why you’re not.

I committed to staying for a year…leasing an apartment. I had no reason to leave before the year was up.

You’re an intelligent, communicative person — you must have some reason other than that you like your apartment??

I’ll get there when I get there. I have been fighting with the insurance company to get a fair settlement on the damage to my front bumper. It has been four months. Probably will be back in Oregon sometime after the first of August.

Please be safe,

I am, I assure you, and all the other 2000 expats and the tourists that are here. No tourists or expats have ever been hurt. Many of the locals who do participate in the activities are putting themselves in great jeopardy for what they see is a struggle to end corruption and injustice. They are not doing it perfectly. The resistence is very controversial…some people innocently, peacefully and conscientiously working for justice and others with many hidden and counterproductive agendas.

Without actually being there with you, it’s hard to mentally see what the scene is.

I have never seen any violence in Oaxaca first hand or been anywhere near it. On November 25, when thousands in the streets were teargassed and beaten, a friend and I drove four hours in the mountains to a small village..which I reported.

I did walk to the zocalo several times to see the marchers, which is always a celebratory event, and I did film some of the aftermath of the violence…like the morning after the June 14 attack and the morning after the federal police took over the zocalo in October. You can click on the “Photos and videos of Mexico” in my links to see my videos. Some of the pictures imbedded in the videos of the violence were taken by other witnesses…not me. It is true…I guess this makes it appear that I was a direct observer near the fighting. Sorry if this created some confusion.

Of course we are safe. I have not talked to one tourist or expat who says they feel unsafe…on the contrary we all feel perfectly safe.

Thousands of tourists are staying away and everyone here is hurting…businesses, employees and vendors alike. When a business closes down all their employees are on the street. Most of the tourists that are here are European…scarcely an American. Expats laugh among themselves about the purported “danger” here. But as you say, if you are outside Oaxaca there is no way to know what it is like here. Hence my blog entries on the subject. If I heard there was a demonstration in downtown Portland against the war in Iraq that resulted in a clash with police…and some of the demonstrators got hurt, should I be worried that your son who lives there was in danger? Of course not…unless he was in the demonstration.

Oaxaca depends almost entirely on tourism. The tragedy here is the economic crisis. Many people blame the resistors. Many people blame the governor. Many people blame them both. Many of us also blame the media that only report the blood. I have never seen one indepth analysis in the media of the causes of the disruption here…which is deeply historical by the way.

Everyone here in Oaxaca, whether they are sympathetic to the Governor/resistors or not, is trying to get the word out that tourism is safe here and to come and support the poorest of Mexico’s people.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate the concern of a dear friend.

I need to correct the record on the July 16 clash between the police and protestors in Oaxaca as I keep seeing mainstream and alternative media reports that the police were preventing people from entering the Fortin Hill auditorium where the dance festival was being held.

My understanding, having lived here for the last year, was that the Popular Guelaguetza was going to be held, like last year, someplace in the city. Then the APPO announced it would be held at the auditorium on Fortin Hill. However, over the weekend, police fortifications began gathering on the hill. To avoid a bloodbath of innocent people and performers, Noticias printed a last minute notice that the popular guelaguetza would be held in the Plaza de la Danza, which many of my friends attended although I did not. At some point, apparently during or shortly after the dance at the Plaza, several thousand protestors began marching to the auditorium with the intent to occupy it to keep the commercial event from happening on the two following mondays. They were met by the police of course and the rest is history.

(If any of this scenario is not correct please let me know. You know how difficult it is to know what exactly is happening in Oaxaca even when “you see it!”

I have no idea why the APPO press statement would say that the police launched an attack against the people “who were celebrating…in the auditorium” and that police surrounded the auditorium “in order to prevent people from entering the festival.” They wanted to make the attack look worse? Or maybe the release was manipulated by the translators?

Now the English language (at least) media and bloggers have picked up the following translated APPO press release exerpt that is patently untrue.
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Saturday, July 21, 2007 2pm

“Urgent” bulletins flying over the internet warn of the governor’s plan to incite a violent showdown (see bulletin below, in Spanish) around Monday July 23, of the Guelaguetza, now being referred to as the “guerraguetza”.

The facts we observe on the ground:

* military or state police (dark blue uniforms) occupying Fortin are practicing military exercises.

*the zocalo is heavily occupied by PRI vendors, Noticias says 700 puestos.

*Noticias says outlying roads are all blocked with military checkpoints through which no-one “suspicious” can pass.

*The governor is bussing in people from the rural areas (paying them to attend the commercial Guelaguetza), and advising government employees to not bring their children.

*the APPO, the teachers, the civil society organizations and even Dra Bertha Muños are sending messages warning of the government’s intention to provoke an excuse for military crackdown.

* the teachers assembly scheduled for Saturday afternoon has been cancelled to avoid further arbitrary arrests (I gather at least two “leaders” have been arrested and warrants are out)

Another expat 6:40pm: “Word on the street is that two “symbolic” marches will take place as the “boycott” is too dangerous. On Sunday July 22 the march will go from Cinco Señores to the zocalo at 10:00 natural time, 11:00 AM daylight savings time. On Monday, a “megamarch” will go from the office of the Procuradura to the zocalo, also 10:00 natural time/ 11:00 daylight savings.

I don’t know where the office of the Procuradora is??? but the idea is to avoid Fortin and to avoid any provocation.”

According to Víctor Manuel Gómez Ramírez of MAS, (editorial in Noticias) the leaders of the teachers popular movement are taking the movement into a dead end. He sees a lack of coherent policy and lack of such a policy’s enforceability (I believe he means a policy of confrontation). The State Council of the APPO has been unable to prevent people from falling into provocations. (Note: I take this to mean how can APPO keep from falling into the hands of provacateurs.)
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I received this information on a discussion site just now from a local expatriot who lives here:

“For those of you who might not know, Dr. Muñoz, a medical doctor, became the preeminent voice of the popular movement on the university’s radio station throughout the period of the most intense conflict in 2006. She and her two sons were forced to go into hiding shortly after the massive attack by the militarized PFP (the so-called Federal Preventive Police) the night of 25-26 November 2006.”

The expat says: “I received a note that Doctora Berta Elena Muñoz sent yesterday evening with the following message:”

Dr. Berta says:

“The following information was just sent to me. I think it should be disseminated:

One of my old comrades tells me that URO will require that people in whom he has confidence in the government sectors go to the hill [Cerro Fortin, where the Guelaguetza Stadium is located] on Monday in order to show the public that Oaxaca is in support of him. Furthermore, he will seek to be attacked in order to impact and damage the image of the APPO and to make use of repression….I think you can make use of this information in order to prevent and evade Uro’s plans.”

The expat says he wrote back to her and a few others:

Skirmishes should be avoided if at all possible. Of course many of the older people in APPO and Section 22 and in allied groups realize all this, but among younger people in the movement I think there’s still a great need for education. Che ought no longer be an idol for the youth.”

Rumors are circulating that as much as 50% (or perhaps more now) of reservations for the commercial Guelaguetza and tourist amenities like hotels have been cancelled. Attacking an unarmed and peaceful march exactly one week before the biggest week for the state’s economy, in front of BBC and other international news cameras was a blunder.

Amnesty International issued a call to action this morning. Will it do any good? Will the presence of another set of human rights observers change anything? The CCIODH (Mexican human rights organization) reports did virtually nothing. Will the national human rights commission’s investigations change anything? Last time they held APPO just as responsible as Ulises.

The protestors were unarmed. Seems like the police could have just guarded the entrances to the tunnels leading into the auditorium like they did the zocalo…standing at attention with shields would have disallowed anyone from entering. It was the teargas cannisters that wounded many and killed at least one. And why arrest and beat up the people? Protesting is supposed to be legal here. But the protestors had to know they were pushing the envelope on this one. No one is surprised at what happened.

The clash was limited to the area around Fortin Hill. Meanwhile the city went about it’s business as usual.

Saturday night I got a ticket for parking in the wrong place in the Centro, so a bilingual friend in my apartment house generously accompanied me this morning to Santa Rosa on the outskirts of the city to pay my $15 fine and get my “placas” back. When you get a ticket in Oaxaca they take your license plate from the back of your car which forces you to pay your fine. There were no “no parking” signs or indicators. And none of the other cars, front and back, were issued a ticket. Hmmmm.

So I missed the Popular Guelaguetza that was held this morning in the Plaza de la Danza. Then about 10,000 protestors marched to the auditorium on Fortin Hill. Police, deployed in the area since Saturday, forced the protestors back when they tried to enter the auditorium and a bitter clash followed with teargas. A government employee told a friend in my apartment house that they were told that the protestors wanted to occupy the auditorium in anticipation of stopping the commercial Guelaguetza planned for the next two mondays.
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Last year, the resistance “movement” (principally the APPO) that c0-0pted the annual teacher strike, boycotted the government-sponsored Guelaguetza, a traditional indigenous dance exposition that has been held at a specially built auditorium on the Fortin Hill… I think for only three years previous. The movement felt that the people, who performed for free as part of their contribution to their communities, were being exploited by the $40 entrance fee that the typical Oaxaqeno cannot afford. So an alternative “Popular Guelaguetza” was performed at a site on the outskirts of the city last year…free to all attendants.

This year, the commercial event is being boycotted again. No one is sure if it will take place the last two mondays of July as usual. Someone recently said they heard that hardly any tickets had been sold. Such is the difficulty of getting current information that seems to change moment to moment in Oaxaca these days.

Meanwhile, the APPO and the teachers had kicked off a “symbolic” strike this year on June 14, the first anniversay of the police attack on the teachers in the zocalo. Teachers have been maintaining a presence, rotating in and out of the zocalo, but are not sleeping and cooking there. Barricades have been set up around the city, often changing locations, to remind the government that the resistance is still alive.

Talks with the government have been held off and on…the average person not really sure of outcomes…and some people feel there are probably hidden “deals” that have been taking place.

There has been no police presence (except for plain-clothed police) in the zocalo but recently heavily armed police have been showing up in nearby areas as planning for the Popular Guelaguetza continues for this morning, June 16. At first we heard it would take place at a site near the city. Then we heard it will take place at the auditorium on Fortin Hill. Then we heard it will take place in the Plaza de la Danza.
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Pedro Matias, a journalist with 20 yrs of experience watching governmental abuses here in Oaxaca said recently that every hundred years Mexico seems to explode in revolution: in 1810 with Independence, 1910 with the Revolution, and people are now wondering what is in store for 2010.