Chronicle of the Battle of Oaxaca: Stage Three, Day One

By James Daria
The Other Journalism with the Other Campaign in Oaxaca

October 30, 2006

With the death of at least three people (including a foreign journalist) on Friday, Mexican president Vicente Fox must have found his excuse to bring in federal police to repress the civil unrest that has made the state of Oaxaca practically ungovernable and has spurred further unrest throughout the republic. By Saturday, elements of the Federal Preventive Police landed at the Oaxaca airport and word spread about their arrival by ground just north of the city. According to word on the street the federal forces were supposed to have entered the city under the cover of darkness Saturday night. Although the city was abandoned and no new barricades were erected, the arrival of the police did not happen. Sunday morning came and the city awoke to a buzz of activity as troop movement was detected at different points of the city and helicopters could be seen flying overhead. The battle of Oaxaca was about to begin and who would control the city at the end of the day would be decided at various strategic barricades.

The majority of the federal forces were stationed at the base of the PFP near the entrance to the highway to Mexico City just past the village of Etla. The police, dressed in full riot gear and equipped with various “tanks” (actually armored vehicles with water cannons and video cameras), stationed themselves just on the edge of this highway. What laid between them and the center of Oaxaca City were no less than five major barricades made up of buses and semi trailers and the fury of thousands of common Oaxacan citizens. There were also reports of troop movements in the south of the city.

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