Articulo original en Español | Photos at http://www.asambleapopulardeoaxaca.com
Notimex / La Jornada On Line
18/06/2007 15:44
Oaxaca, Oax. The encampment is made up of around 2000 administrative workers of the SNTE and members of the APPO who set up a barricade today (Monday) in the Zocalo and Alameda of this city to demand the release of prisoners, the removal of the orders of apprehension and the exit of the Oaxacan governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz...
The secretary of the union organization, Esequiel Rosales Carreño, indicated that the encampment is made up of officers and supporters of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) and not by teachers with classroom responsibilities.
For that reason, clases were not suspended for the more than 1,300,000 students that attend around 13,500 schools in the state.
During an interview, the teacher let it be known that the objective of the encampment is to force the negotiations that the union seeks to initiate with the Secretary of the Interior (SEGOB), and that would include the APPO, to discuss the political demands of both.
He informed that these demands are the elimination of the ISSSTE law, the resigning of Ulises Ruiz, the freedom for the 8 prisoners of the APPO, the cancellation of 20 orders of apprehension and the handing over of 188 elementary schools that are controlled by PRI Municipal Authorities.
Also, he explained that the demonstrators still had not defined the hours for the encampment and that they would be discussing throughout the day if they would spend the night in the zocalo or leave, given that “one of the proposals is that the encampment would be from 7 am to 7 pmâ€.
8 months after the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) forced out the encampment that the teachers and the APPO had mainted from May 22 to October 28, at noon the tablecloths, banners and protest signs returned as part of the scenery of the zocalo and the Boulevard of Leon.
Although the Section 22 announced that 10% of its members would come to the encampment, or 7,000 teachers, only a few thousand came, and Ezequiel Rosales said that the rest of the teachers would arrive throughout the rest of the week.
In spite of the encampment, the commercial activity in the zone of the Historic Center and the Gateways was not interrupted and only one restaurant did not open its doors while the rest of the businesses operated as usual.
