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GUEST: Shannon Young, Correspondent for Free Speech Radio News

Mexican federal police backed by armored vehicles and water cannons tore down barricades and stormed the embattled city of Oaxaca yesterday seizing control of the city center from protesters who had held it for five months. What began in late May of this year as a teachers’ strike, descended into chaos after Oaxaca police tried to retake the central plaza the following month using violence. Protesters have accused Governor Ulysses Ruiz of rigging his 2004 election and using thugs to kill or intimidate political opponents. They say they will not stop their protest without his resignation. The main organization that has formed out of the protests is the Oaxaca People’s Popular Assembly, or APPO, its Spanish acronym. On Friday armed men, considered by locals to be government paramilitaries, tried to remove a blockade set up by protesters and ended up firing into a gathered crowd. Three people, including an American journalist with Indymedia named Brad Will, were killed.