EDITOR’S NOTE: Mitchell Verter is an El Tecolote contributor doing personal research on Ricardo Flores Magón in Oaxaca, Mexico. The following are some of his observations since he has been there.

Dec. 2004—Before a large crowd at the Guelaguetza Auditorium, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, the new governor of Oaxaca, delivered a well-written speech that covered all the bases. In a convincing oratory, Ruiz Ortiz promised to transcend party politics and the interests of any particular group, pledging his loyalty to Oaxaca in all its unity and diversity.

Oaxaca is a state with a high percentage indigenous population, and correspondingly, is one of the poorest states in Mexico. Ruiz Ortiz vowed today to promote the welfare of Oaxaca’s Indian masses.

Listening to his speech over a loudspeaker in the zocalo, downtown Oaxaca City, thousands of indigenous campesinos gathered to protest that they still felt abused and neglected by the government. From villages throughout the state came infants and elders, women and men, many carrying machetes or walking sticks, many wearing bandannas to cover their faces. Some banners proclaimed “RESPECT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS” or “WE NEED SCHOOLS FOR OUR CHILDREN”.

Alario, a Oaxacan who had been expelled from his Stanford University janitorial job and the United States after September 11, explained the people’s discontent. “We want change, but they just push us down. The government does not want to listen. They only worry about themselves.” Others averred that the government was selling off its natural resources to multinational corporations, widening the already enormous gap between rich and poor.
Simón, a member of the Oaxacan Popular Indigenous Council-Ricardo Flores Magón (CIPO-RFM), gave an example of the misery in the villages: “In Mexico, one has to pay for potable water. There is no clean water in many poor, largely indigenous communities. People are dying. Child mortality rates are high. The government has never fulfilled its promise to deliver adequate health care. Because so many corrupt bureaucrats pocket the funds, there has only been enough money for doctors but not for medicines or for medicines but not for doctors.”

Like most other campesinos, Simón doubts anything will change under the new governor. Ruiz Ortiz is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), a group that has controlled Oaxaca for most of the twentieth century. The PRI government of Ruiz Ortiz’s predecessor in the statehouse, Jose Murat Casab, was notorious for its avarice and its violation of human rights. Simón believes that the same institutional corruption will continue under the new PRI leader. Furthermore, he claims that no other party would be any better. Invoking the spirit of the great Oaxacan anarchist, Ricardo Flores Magón, Simón asserts, “We do not need this government or any government. They are all the same. All they do is sell the people out. The government must learn to respect the autonomy of the people. Then we will no longer need them.”

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