Oaxaca: Federal Police Retreat

Federal Police retreated from the Mexican city of Oaxaca yesterday, after protesters put up a fight.

The Federal Police was brought in to “restore peace and order,” yet no one from Oaxaca really asked them to be there. The rector of the local university, which has 30 000 students, said: “We cannot consent for the campus to be an object of occupation. I want to ask the federal government to be sensitive in its solution to the problem.” According to law, it is the rector of the university who is to ask for police assistance – he never did so in this case.

Sympathizers of the Oaxaca protesters have increased in number. In Mexico City, yesterday, protesters blocked traffic to demand that police retreat from Oaxaca.

The conflict in Oaxaca has been going on since May, when teachers went on strike to demand wage increases, with locals joining in to support them. The protests were then violently challenged by the federal government and by local governor Ulises Ruiz.

Cf: Protest at Mexican Consulate in Response to Weekend Violence.

“Political Imbeciles” in Japan — North Korea

North Korea has asked that Japan not participate in the nuclear negotiations, because officials are “imbeciles” for not accepting North Korea as a nuclear power. North Korea sees Japan as “no more than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed of the results of the talks by Washington.”

North Korea is yet again making the headlines by finding the least offensive way to be offensive. Targeting the US directly would not be in its best interest, but taking a stab at an ally of the US — and North Korea’s regional competitor — will keep North Korea in the news, without the repercussions. It is also something designed for a domestic audience; because the Koreans have agreed to go back to negotiations, they don’t want to look too weak domestically and making big statements is one way to do it. It is also something of great significance historically, because of Japan’s incursion into Korea and its hyper-industrialization which was achieved with a lot of Korean manpower.

Koreans in Japan today are still a separate part of society and there’s still issues of citizenship which have been unresolved.

Thus saying that Japan has a “wicked intention” vis-à-vis North Korea, is one way to get the domestic support that the Korean may need.