Prod from the Right

Oaxaca, dotted with old Spanish churches and circled by yet older Zapotecan pyramids, was a troublous city. Businessmen, with support of the people, had struck against the state government. Last week not a shop was open (except for druggists and undertakers). The Institute of Arts and Sciences had closed its classes. A thousand federal troops patrolled the streets, blockaded roads leading into the city. Most of the 35,000 inhabitants--with women & children in the van--paraded the streets in the sort of protest against local political bosses that was sweeping Mexico like a grass fire.

The flames had flared first last year in Leon, where trigger-happy soldiers killed 27 citizens demonstrating against a municipal government that had been "imposed" by bosses. Nationwide indignation drove the governor and mayor from office. Fire blazed again on New Year's Eve when police killed ten demonstrators at Tapachula. on the Guatemalan frontier. There the governor took hasty leave of absence.

Underlying cause of it all: discontent with oldtime governors and bosses who give lip service to the ideals of the revolution, political support to the regime in Mexico City, but rule their own states for themselves and their relatives. The rise of a new type of governor interested in being a good public servant, in pushing good roads and building schools, has compounded the impatience.

Smart rightists--the tough, gutter-smart Sinarquistas and the smooth, book-smart Action Nationalistas--have made the most of it. They have jumped on the bandwagon, talked loudly about morality in government, have urged more popular participation in civic affairs. Presumably they have also egged on at least some of the public uprisings. In Oaxaca last week the crowd uncovered when orators spoke the name of Pornrio Diaz, president-dictator (with a four-year break) from 1877 to 1911, and to many Mexicans a symbol of reaction and exploitation.

Washout. For President Miguel Aleman, the troubles posed a political dilemma. Whatever his lack of regard for the oldtime bosses, he still needed their support. Besides, he could not let the rightists make political hay. Firmness in the oil workers' strike (TIME, Dec. 30) had paid off; firmness in a political crisis like that at Oaxaca might pay dividends also.

Oaxaca's title-loving Governor Edmundo Sanchez Cano (who usually signs himself Doctor-Governor-General-Pilot) had been no administrative paragon. Examples: the road he built for President Avila Camacho's 1946 visit had washed away with the first rains; Oaxaca's streets were in terrible shape; enemies charged that tax revenues had vanished without trace. Last week Sanchez' police shot and killed five demonstrators at Etla, just outside Oaxaca. Aleman acted swiftly, sent his Minister of Interior to investigate. Sanchez resigned. In six other states, governors who were having their troubles shivered in their cavalry boots.

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