The governor of Oaxaca State, the site of five months of violent protests, rejected calls by Mexico's legislature on Monday to resign as federal police continued to clear demonstrators from the southern city.
Ulises Ruiz gave a tired "no" to reporters' questions of whether he would bow to pressure from the government to resign, insisting he would see peace restored to Oaxaca city and would meet protestors to negotiate.
The presence of federal police "will not resolve the conflict, and for that reason it is necessary to open talks" with the protest groups, he said.
"The solution to the conflict is over a negotiating table," Ruiz insisted.
Ten people have been killed in and around Oaxaca since the protest movement began in June over the city's tough handling of a teacher strike demanding higher wages.
Although the teachers voted last week to go back to work, thousands of demonstrators remained, blocking the streets of Oaxaca demanding Ruiz step down.
On Saturday President Vicente Fox ordered federal police clear the streets and restore peace.
But on Monday both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate passed non-binding resolutions demanding Ruiz's resignation.
The Senate resolution was unanimous and backed even by Ruiz's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It called on the governor to "consider resigning from office to help restore law and order" to the troubled region.
The resolution fell short of actually firing Ruiz but was worded more strongly than the Chamber's earlier statement, which passed by a two-thirds majority.
But an angry Ruiz vowed to take the legislators' demand to the Supreme Court, saying they were out of order.
The members of the Chamber of Deputies, he told W Radio, "have no authority ... to make such demands that violate Oaxaca's sovereignty."
Hundreds of riot police controlled Oaxaca's central square on Monday, where a day earlier a tent-city protest was cleared, but thousands of demonstrators defied security measures in other parts of the city insisting on Ruiz's ouster.
While President Fox said on Monday that "peace and tranquility has been restored," Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal insisted that some 4,000 federal police and soldiers would remain in Oaxaca until complete order is restored.
Abascal said that the federal forces would also ensure the safety of students and teachers as schools, shuttered by the protests, reopened.
Protesters in Oaxaca broke out in cheers when the resolutions were announced. "Like it or not, Ulises is already out," they chanted at one point.
The streets of Oaxaca were calm on Monday, but most of its residents were wary of venturing outside and many shops remained closed. Public transport was also suspended.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese