Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
All the entries posted on November 01, 2006.
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2006 > November > 01
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Altars and local angles in Oaxaca
Last night, a couple of other journalists and I visited the spot where New York City-based Indymedia reporter Brad Will, 36, was shot and killed on the outskirts of Oaxaca City on Friday. Day of the Dead begins today, and protesters, many of whom say they knew Will well, built one of the most beautiful altars in this city full of altars.
“Brad, I’m sure you are an angel,� a message reads. Talking with some of the residents who helped build the altar, it seems that even though the crisis in Oaxaca has become an international issue, Will was caught up in some very local politics.
Will was killed in the middle of a shootout between protesters and what some suspect were militants of the PRI, the party that had ruled Mexico for 71 years before the 2000 election. Local PRI officials were identified in video of the shootout, according to Mexican media.
The neighborhood where Will was killed is next to a heavily PRI enclave, an area where most residents belong to the party and in some way derive their living from it. The altar-makers say the local PRI-istas are scared to death that the protests will bring an end to their long-held privileges, which they claim include not paying local taxes.
The movement in Oaxaca is aimed at ousting PRI Gov. Ulises Ruiz, but such a move could have ripple effects.
In many ways, local PRI militants are fighting to maintain their way of life, which may help explain the extreme violence in some of the hardscrabble neighborhoods outside of downtown Oaxaca.