OAXACA, Mexico – With virtually no police in the streets, residents of this colonial town in rebellion are stepping in to fill the void – often with brutal consequences.
People accused of being thieves are tied to light posts and beaten. A home was torched and a man was stabbed to death with an ice pick as five months of protests erode the rule of law in what was once a major Mexican tourist destination.
The beating of Manuel Dominguez was the latest example of how far Oaxaca has spun out of control as mobs of striking teachers, farmers and other protesters demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz step down. They accuse Ruiz of rigging the 2004 election to win office and of repressing dissent with violence.
Late Tuesday, about 50 people stripped off Dominguez’s T-shirt, lashed him to a pole and beat him nearly unconscious. They accused Dominguez, who works as a security guard at a local jail, of trying to rob a house. The crowd left him tied up overnight, finally turning him over to the few police left in town early Wednesday.
For police commander Aristeo Lopez, it was just another public beating. Lopez acknowledged he didn’t know how the guard was doing nearly 12 hours after the attack.
“We haven’t had time to check what happened to him,” he said.
Because there are no police patrols, masked and armed protesters roam the streets, seizing anyone they suspect of criminal activity.
Often, they grab young men accused of trying to commit various crimes, tie them up for hours and beat them.
The conflict began in June, when police attacked striking teachers in the city’s colonial center. Protesters rebelled, forcing police and other state authorities out of downtown, taking over television and radio outlets and scaring away tourists drawn to the region by its colonial architecture, Indian culture and handicrafts such as brightly colored wool rugs and black pottery.
On Oct. 5, a teacher opposed to the strike, Jaime Rene Calvo Aragon, was killed by two assailants who stabbed him in the neck with an ice pick. His attackers are still at large.
The state government has repeatedly asked federal authorities to send in troops, but President Vicente Fox has instead tried to broker peace negotiations that have made little progress.
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