Mexican federal police pushed through barricades on roads leading to Oaxaca's state university Nov. 2, firing tear-gas canisters and water cannons at protesters, who fought back with rocks, slingshots and molotov cocktails. But the police stopped short of crossing onto the campus. At least eight people were injured in the fighting, including a newspaper photographer who was "hit by fireworks" launched by protesters, according to the New York Times. Flavio Sosa, a leader of the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) pledged "we will not surrender." (WP, NYT, Nov. 3; La Jornada, Nov. 2)

In his first public appearance upon his arrival in Chihuahua City on his tour of northern Mexico, Subcommander Marcos announced the Zapatista rebels' total support for the people of Oaxaca "and their most diginifed representative, the Popular People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO)." Marcos said from the city's central Revolution Park, "As of today, the federales have killed at least three people, including a minor; left dozens injured, including several Oaxacan women; and detained dozens, who have been illegally held in military prisons." In a communique, the General Command of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) called for the immediate resignation of Oaxaca's Gov. Ulises Ruiz, the total withdrawal of all federal police forces, the unconditional release of all the detained, and the apprehension and punishment of the assassins." The statement said Zapatista militants would begin blocking roads in Chiapas to press these demands Nov. 1. (La Jornada, Oct. 31)

In his tour of Mexico's northern state of Sonora, Zapatista Subcommander Marcos made public the existence of "forced labor camps," where mostly indigenous migrant laborers from Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero and southern Veracruz live in "inhuman conditions" and "virtual slavery."

On Oct. 20 Raul Ojeda Zubieta, center-left candidate for governor of the southern Mexican state of Tabasco, charged in a press conference that Andres Granier Melo, candidate for the centrist Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), had won in the Oct. 14 state election through the "manipulation and addition" of 89,689 votes. Demanding a recount, Ojeda said that in addition to buying votes and stuffing ballot boxes, the PRI had conspired with other parties, principally the center-right National Action Party (PAN), to shift votes from their candidates to Granier to give him his margin of victory. (La Jornada, Oct. 21)

The state leader of the Chiapas branch of the Independent Center of Campesinos and Rural Workers (CIOAC), Luis Hernandez Cruz, told a march of some 15,000 followers in the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, that if the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TRIFE) overturns the victory of leftist gubernatorial candidate Juan Sabines Guerrero, there will be a "social explosion" throughout Chiapas, similar to that in Oaxaca. (APRO, Oct. 18)

Gunmen shot two people at a roadblock in Oaxaca City Oct. 14, killing one. The assailants fired at protesters at a street barricade in the predawn darkness, hitting one in the head and another in the arm, according to activists. The victim with the head wound died later in the hospital. The shooting began after strikers refused to let two apparently drunk men in a vehicle pass across an occupied street, according to the state government. (Reuters, Oct. 14) A report in La Jornada identified the victim as Alejandro Garcia Hernandez, and said the killers were military troops in civilian clothes. (La Jornada, Oct. 15) El Universal identified the attackers merel as "drunken men leaving a bar." (El Universal, Oct. 15) AP reported Oct. 15 that a soldier has been arrested in the incident, but blames the shooting on a "drunken argument." (AP, Oct. 15) Noticias de Oaxaca noted a similar incident of gunfire on protesters Oct. 12, saying the attackers were state police and "porros" (paid provocateurs). (Noticias de Oaxaca, Oct. 12)

Federal legislators from the ruling National Action Party (PAN) say they are determined to revive plans to build a mega-airport for Mexico City in Texcoco, despite the militant opposition of the farmers at the conflicted village of San Salvador Atenco, whose lands would be seized for the project.

Especially given the contested presidential elections and the seizure of popular power in Oaxaca—both potential threats to Mexico's ruling elites—it is ominous indeed to see the evident emergence of Colombia-style death squads linked to the drug trade and (we can assume) elements of the security forces. From Reuters, Oct. 8: