Violence in Oaxaca, on Tuesday
Source: Agencia EFE

Venezuela dictator Hugo Chavez’s fingerprints are all over the leftist violence and insurrection going on in Oaxaca, Mexico right now.

That’s not my conjecture but what’s running in the mainstream Mexican press. Like here.

The past weekend, President Vicente Fox sent in the troops to the troubled region, where Zapatista ‘Otra Campagna’ far-leftists are battling PRI dinosaur leftists. It began as a teachers’ strike for higher wages but now has turned into a full blown insurrection, with neither group willing to give an inch. President Vicente Fox (of the center-right PAN party) sent in troops to restore order but this isn’t the kind of campaign that easily melts away with troops. It has the look of different ‘people’s groups’ in a state of rebellion who could eventually become guerrillas in the long run, from street to jungle. Now the Mexican press is reporting the hand of Hugo Chavez in all this rioting, no doubt taking the side of the Zapatistas, where the ties are strong. He’s probably delivering funding.

Curiously, the PRD is the only political player not seriously involved in this struggle. Much of the far-left has since abandoned PRD and its losing candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ever since the close of the election.

But surprise, Hugo Chavez is involved in the big new rebellion that sprung up in its immediate aftermath! Whodathunk?

Actually, it’s not surprising. Hugo Chavez has been seeking payback against Mexico’s legitimately elected President, Vicente Fox, all year, ever since Fox yanked his ambassador from Caracas late last year, and booted Chavez’s envoy from Mexico City. Fox threw him out because Chavez made a ‘devil’ speech directed at Fox (it was actually a ‘lapdog’ speech) and allowed his envoy to engage in politicial campaigning via ‘Bolivarian Circles’ at the University of Mexico, a real no-no for any foreigner. Relations have been in the freezer ever since. And for good reason. Hugo just can’t stop meddling.

There’s an interesting historic aspect to this rift. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Mexico have always had an ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ that Castro would never foment Marxist ‘revolution’ inside Mexico if Mexico allowed Castro to have a free hand to bankroll violent insurgencies throughout the rest of the hemisphere. It was a pretty horrible deal for the rest of the hemisphere, but for Castro, it was heaven. He also used Mexico as his spy base for assorted nefarious activities through the region. But he never attacked Mexico.

Today, Chavez, being Castro’s proxy, considers that gentlemen’s agreement off. That’s why he’s openly fomenting insurrection in Mexico, an insurrection the region has never seen before. Oaxaca has always been a peaceful state. Today, it’s a hopeless state of left-on-left violence.

StJacques of Free Republic has an important translation of the emerging new picture of who’s paying for the insane violent insurrection in this post here.

Scroll through his other stuff as well, using the search function from the ‘News and Activism’ bar – he’s got better coverage of this than just about anyone.

Check out what Mark in Mexico has on this as well, he’s continuously updating and his take is rock-solid.

TourPro at Andirondack Base Camp has an excellent, continuously updated OaxacaWatch that’s essential reading, starting with this link here.

Austin Bay has a very intelligent backgrounder on the Oaxaca events here.

Pajamas Media has additional key backgrounders in several links here.

Megaresistencia has more here, and Venezuela Today has an excellent summary and lots of links here.

UPDATE: Pajamas Mexia has new exclusive update from Mark in Mexico, blogging live from Oaxaca. Dig this detail:

I might note that the riflemen are all masked for two reasons. First, so that, in the event they kill someone, future reprisals against them by the opposition will be difficult. And second, and this is just my opinion, they cannot be identified for prosecution by the human rights groups, opposition political parties, and, indeed, their own commanders.
In Mexico, most police that you see are not armed. Those that are had better not use their weapons, especially if it just in defense of their own lives. Silly laws like these are what help breed the super secret, local government sponsored paramilitary hit squads. If you cannot legally use firearms against attackers, you wait and get them later.

It’s a must-see, must-read, read the whole thing here.