Reuter's report on Oaxaca

This is the report from reuters. I would only point out the fact that police forces are composed of different squads, some armed and some others unarmend. Hence, the fact that the group walking towards the city centre didn't carry firearms does not mean the there were others squads in different places using weapons. Mexcian nespaper 'la jornada' reports three casualties all from APPO. (Note from WeT_AhUiZoTe)
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Mexican riot police reclaim siege city
Reuters
October 30, 2006
FEDERAL riot police backed by helicopters and armoured trucks seized control of Mexico's popular tourist city of Oaxaca today after months of street protests, and one man was killed in the violence.

Police carrying shields and wearing gas masks took over the colonial city's picturesque main square after hundreds of activists with metal poles and sticks surprisingly abandoned the plaza, their bastion for five months, without a fight.

After a full day of breaking down burning barricades and clashing with protesters, police then quickly dismantled the shabby tent city the activists had set up in the square.

A nurse was killed in another part of the city, and protesters said he was hit by a tear gas canister. A white sheet and a Mexican flag covered his body.

Mexican President Vicente Fox ordered federal forces to seize the city, which striking teachers and activists have occupied since May to demand the state governor's resignation, after gunmen thought to be local police shot dead a US journalist and two other people on Friday.

The invasion began this morning as armoured trucks, with V-shaped plows and flanked by riot police, destroyed barricades of burning tyres, rocks and old furniture.

They fired water cannon at anyone in their way into the city centre, protected by SWAT teams with assault rifles.

Demonstrators fled in some areas but stood up for a fight in others. Hundreds surrounded six busloads of unarmed police, forcing them to flee and then set fire to the buses.

Several blocks from the city centre, dozens of demonstrators, many using goggles to protect their eyes from tear gas, waited behind a barricade of burning tyres, which sent plumes of thick smoke into the evening sky.

``It makes me annoyed that I can't do anything,'' said Maylet Pacheco, a 26-year-old teacher. ``We asked for a solution and this is what they offer us,'' she said, pointing down the street at advancing riot police.