In protest-besieged southern Mexican city, tensions run even higher after dark

By Will Weissert
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 a.m. August 25, 2006
AP Photo

OAXACA, Mexico – Gone are Oaxaca's familiar nighttime sounds of tinkling marimba music and vendors hawking chocolate or traditional fried grasshoppers, replaced by gunfire, the roar of burning tires and shouts from bands of men armed with clubs.

Protests in this picturesque colonial city that began with a teachers' strike in May have ballooned into a political battle against state Gov. Ulises Ruiz.

Some 40,000 teachers, as well as leftists, student groups and anarchists have set up hundreds of roadblocks, seized the city's central plaza and covered businesses, homes and historic buildings with graffiti. They refuse to give up until the governor resigns.

The group leading the protests said Thursday it would accept an offer from President Vicente Fox's government to negotiate an end to the conflict, but only if state officials were not included.