Mexico’s “legitimate president” continues his slow stubborn visits to every municipality in Oaxaca governed by the traditional usos y costumbres. PRI flunkies dog Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) every kilometer of the way, intimidating potential audiences by taking photos of those who show up to hear him, while at the same time they impede news coverage.

Nevertheless, photos daily of AMLO kissing babies. How can he kiss so many? Dunno. But his face in the news photos reflects a passive acceptance of his fate: he signed on and swore to kiss babies and by gosh, that’s what he does. The adults in the photos stand almost out of camera range, shabby men and women who may fear being pictured in AMLO’s company. This journey to the voters, the first of its kind ever —no politicians visit poverty-stricken villages— was scheduled to last five days per week, two villages per day, for 40 days. Approximately. A month has passed.

According to the political writer Pedro Echeverría V[1], Carlos Salinas de Gortari, a “known thief and assassin” came for a press opportunity in Oaxaca to aid the PRI governor. By coincidence López Obrador was in the midst of his weeks-long tour of the poorest Oaxaca towns.

Actually, Echeverria says, Salinas comes to remind the PRI politicos that he was their major promoter, permitting them to obtain positions that let them get rich.

The press celebrated him, along with Televisa, as he has begun to promote “the doll” Peña Nieto for the Presidency. (Noticias calls peña Nieto “the puppy”. )

The zócalo looks not normal but normalized. Today there were many people sitting on the walls, walking around, parents with kids, etcetera. No vendors. no banners, no protesters.

The four Spanish-Catalans who were arrested have been released. The translation of their account of events is below.

“Urgent” bulletins flying over the internet warn of the governor’s plan to incite a violent showdown around Monday July 23, of the Guelaguetza, now being referred to as the “guerraguetza.”

The facts we observe on the ground:

• military or state police (dark blue uniforms) occupying Fortin are practicing military exercises.
• the zocalo is heavily occupied by PRI vendors, Noticias says 700 puestos.
• Noticias says outlying roads are all blocked with military checkpoints through which no-one “suspicious” can pass.
• The governor is bussing in people from the rural areas (paying them to attend the commercial Guelaguetza),  and advising government employees to not bring their children.
• the APPO, the teachers, the civil society organizations and even Dr. Bertha Muños are sending messages warning of the government’s intention to provoke an excuse for military crackdown.
• the teachers assembly scheduled for Saturday afternoon has been cancelled to avoid further arbitrary arrests (I gather at least two “leaders” have been arrested and warrants are out).

On Friday June 29 a signed letter appeared in Noticias warning the public. Now, whether the author himself, one Patricio Solari, is acting in good faith or is himself a provocateur, I don’t know. But he outlined the plan, which we have already seen in its initial stages of the dozen or so commercial people from the zócalo area confronting the teacher APPO plantón with an ultimatum.. Solari names the ex- “chief of police” Manuel Vera Salinas, as being recruited along with other former chiefs. They would head up the selected infiltrators to be within the encampment. The former police, armed, would provoke the actual shooting – this in the middle of a zócalo occupied not only by overt partisans and teachers but also by vendors, tourists, children, and families. The infiltrators shooting into a column of marchers would incite the melee, bringing on the intervention of the ministerial police, state police, etcetera.

Here’s a note for comic relief: Section 59 of the teachers union has established a plantón in front of Government House in Santa María Coyotepec to demand a dialogue with the the governor, Ulises Ruiz. They want URO to attend to several of their educational demands. These demands are a direct result of taking over schools and classrooms without the normal administrative support system.

You may recall that Section 59 was a break-away group whose coming into existence was promoted and supported by URO, as a tool to fracture the Teachers Union Section 22, which had about 70,000 members when it began its 2006 strike. Section 59 peeled off maybe 2,000-5,000 of them. It was also supported and ratified by the dragon lady president of the national Teachers Union, Elba Esther Gordillo, who apparently now sells her favors to the PAN, having recently dropped the PRI as it collapses.

It seems that the Section 59 members are not reaping their just rewards. Or maybe they are.

May 15: A year after the 2006 teacher strike which set off the current movement, the new book by Víctor Raúl Martínez Vásquez of the Sociology Institute at UABJO was presented on Sunday night at the university by a panel of Oaxqueños, in front of an audience very much larger than anybody expected. The designated meeting room, which seats about two hundred, overflowed into the outside hallways where another two hundred people listened to sound-speakers. The book is called Autoritarismo, Movimiento Popular y Crisis Politica: Oaxaca 2006.

The reading population, as I recall, is about one book per person per year is the relevant statistic. So why were so many present to hear about a book, and buy copies on sale at the tables? It’s a book about a struggle that is dear to the people here who perceive it to be a valid, and largely successful attempt to bring to light and open discussion the failures of government, the threats of neoliberalism, and the long-standing and increasing impoverishment and inequity among the public; or, to put it simply, social injustice.

A second friend told me the APPO is suffering an internal battle with hard-left elements who want some kind of “party-line” top down control. I suppose they also want armed struggle, a ludicrous proposition for peoples who own the high moral ground, machetes and home-made sandals. I translated the minutes of the meeting with great caution.

The call is out on Radio Universidad that the PFP is once again moving toward the university grounds from Parque La Amor.

The attempt to block Radio Universidad is annoying, but not entirely successful. I tried walking around the house with a transistor in my hand like a dowsing rod and indeed found the spot where I could hear it. I can also pick up the broadcast streaming on the internet, but accompanied by the same interference. Intelligible, though.

During the night helicopters brought military troops into the city. According to “La Doctora,” impeccably calm and intelligent as ever on Radio Universidad, the people must remain non-violent. She mentioned Mahatma Ghandi and to avoid the provocations the military and PRI will attempt. The people must remain organized and dignified, she said.