• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Shannon Young and Vladmir Flores, Correspondents for Free Speech Radio News

Earlier this week, fighting erupted between protestors and police forces in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. At least forty people were injured and twenty police wounded in the worst outbreak of violence since November of last year. The confrontation with police occurred when demonstrators and supporters of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, or APPO, attempted to march to the city’s stadium to hold an alternative “Popular Guelaguetza festival.” Oaxacan activists say that the state sponsored week-long Guelaguetza festival, which is set to begin next Monday, July 23rd and is also a major tourist attraction, has become too commercialized. The alternative festival was organized by APPO and the teacher’s union. Activists vow to continue the boycott of the state-sponsored Guelaguetza and seek to reclaim the cultural festival. Last year’s Guelaguetza was canceled due to the social strife that took place in Oaxaca that sought to oust Governor Ulises Ruiz.