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Mexican President Sends Police to Oaxaca
Shop owners shuttered their businesses and demonstrators built up street barricades Saturday after President Vicente Fox ordered federal police to intervene in this picturesque city torn by more than five months of protests and violence. Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, had refused repeated requests to use force in Oaxaca even as the southern city slid into chaos. But gunbattles Friday that killed a U.S. journalist and at least two Mexicans apparently exhausted his patience. Fox's Interior Department issued an ominous statement late Saturday demanding protest leaders "immediately hand over streets, plazas, public buildings and private property" so that federal authorities can "guarantee public order and adherence to the law, as well as preserve respect for the population's individual guarantees." It was unclear how many officers of the Federal Preventative Police were converging on this long popular tourist destination, though police in gray uniforms and carrying riot shields poured off of transport planes at Oaxaca's airport, which was closed to commercial traffic. Teacher's union leader Daniel Rosas said protesters believed 4,000 federal police had arrived. Posted by: Fred 2006-10-29 |
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