COR TV, 2006, Oaxaca (México)

COR TV's Background, the Teachers' Strike, and the APPO

COR TV is a public broadcasting corporation, operating radios 680 AM and 96.9 FM, and Oaxaca TV, a broadcast television station known as Channel 9. The goals for these public channels are to produce and disseminate programs promoting the state's development and supporting local cultures. Its slogan, “The radio and television of the Oaxacan people,” announces that these public media belong to and serve the people. There is also a general consensus that over time many of COR TV's public service objectives have been undermined to serve state government interests.

COR TV's directors were always from the same political party as the state governor, mostly from the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI; Institutional Revolutionary Party). Other members of its administration, too, were mostly aligned with the elected governor. The profound significance of these alliances became clearer during the dramatic events throughout 2006. It was then that many members of the public, along with unions and various civil society organizations, formed a coalition from which the social movement Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO; Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca) emerged.

APPO's formation was triggered by police repression against striking teachers. In May 2006, thousands of teachers went on strike asking for better salaries, better school conditions, and provisions of breakfast and books for poor students. Governor Ulises Ruíz Ortíz, elected in 2004 on a platform of promising to not allow marches, blockades, or encampments, rejected most of their demands.

By the end of May, the teachers had set up plastic tents, occupying the main zócalo (town square) and surrounding streets in downtown Oaxaca. Although not everybody supported this, sentiment soon turned against Ruiz Ortíz. At dawn on June 14, the governor sent about 1,500 riot police to the zócalo to take the sleeping teachers by surprise, which created an unexpected but widespread backlash against him. Brutal police behavior in evicting the teachers sparked tremendous solidarity with them.

University students and citizens went to the streets, confronting the police and demanding the governor's resignation. This turned into a day-long battle between the police and teachers, along with their citizen supporters. Whereas the police were heavily armed, teachers and citizens defended themselves with stones and sticks. Hundreds, [Page 145]including police officers, were badly injured and hospitalized. To make things worse, COR TV, and corporate media like Televisa and TV Azteca, justified the police violence.

From that moment on, the demand for the governor's resignation united people from different levels of Oaxacan society. A few days later at a large public forum, the movement formally adopted the title Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca (APPO). The APPO was unusual in not having a leader; rather, it was a grassroots social movement with a representative council.

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