Obrador's party joins movement in Oaxaca

A leader of Mexico's largest leftist party led thousands of protesters in a march to the center of Oaxaca on Dec. 10, demanding the resignation of the state governor and the withdrawal of thousands of federal police. Shouting "Freedom for political prisoners!" the demonstrators also called for the release of more than 250 people arrested in the six-month-long conflict in Oaxaca that has shattered the local economy and left at least 20 dead. Another 50 are missing or "disappeared." Leonel Cota, president of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), marched at the front of the demonstration alongside his party's lawmakers and Oaxacan protest leaders. The march was called by the protesters' main association, Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) and joined by human rights organizations, artistic, cultural and academic figures, and the left-wing Broad Progressive Front and the Workers' and Convergencia parties, which oppose the national government and support former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The protesters accuse Gov. Ulises Ruiz of rigging his election in 2004 and of sending armed thugs against his opponents. They took over the center of Oaxaca for five months until thousands of federal police drove them off in clashes in October and November. Protesters have barricaded streets, seized radio stations, burned buses, scrawled graffiti and torched several landmark buildings. The PRD has become increasingly involved in the Oaxaca conflict after keeping its distance for months. Last week party leaders took up the cause of protest leader Flavio Sosa, who was arrested in Mexico City, calling him the first political prisoner of recently sworn-in President Felipe Calderón. The PRD claims Calderón's victory over Obrador in July was fraudulent and refuses to recognize him as president. Most of the victims of the Oaxaca violence have been protesters who were shot by armed gangs, and activists blame local police for many of those killings. Federal police raided the offices of the Oaxaca state police on Dec. 8, and seized their guns to determine whether any were used in shootings of demonstrators. Human rights groups have asked UN officials to intervene on behalf of the Oaxaca prisoners, alleging they have been tortured, sexually abused and taken to prisons thousands of miles away.