Dispatch from Oaxaca: ‘A Year Later’

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  01.31.08 | 3:39 PM ET

imageCeci Connolly visited the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca recently to see how it was doing after the deadly riots of 2006. “It didn’t take long to realize that the answer is more complicated than I’d thought,” she writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Oaxaca is no longer the filthy, smoldering wreck of 2006. Nor, however, is it the bustling cultural center of years past. It appears safe and clean. But unresolved political tensions have prompted the U.S. State Department to keep it on a watch list.”

A frequent visitor told her efforts to clean up the Zócalo and surroundings have left the place feeling “antiseptic.” He added, “It feels as though it’s been prettied up and staged for the tourists.”

An AP story paints a rosier picture: “Poinsettias carpet the carefully tended gardens of Oaxaca’s arch-ringed main plaza, where smoking wreckage and barricades stood just over a year ago. Local bands and marimbas have replaced the sound of explosions, and the smell of gasoline bombs and tear gas have given way to the scent of coffee and mole sauce, two of Oaxaca’s specialties.”

That may be, but it couldn’t have been too pretty yesterday, when a local police chief and three others were shot to death while exercising in a city park. Officials are linking the attack to a turf war between drug cartels.

Oaxaca is one of my favorite cities in Mexico, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed the drug cartels quickly move along.

Related on World Hum:
* State Department Relaxes Warning for Oaxaca City
* In Oaxaca, a Different Kind of Day of the Dead

Photo by miss_rogue via Flickr, (Creative Commons).



8 Comments for Dispatch from Oaxaca: ‘A Year Later’

Ron Mader 01.31.08 | 6:47 PM ET

One quick point: AP’s story is current. Ceci wrote her story in November. I wonder why it took the San Fran paper to publish. It makes us redefine the word ‘news.’ Her initial story was well critiqued - with a response from Cici herself online Mexico Reporter
http://mexicoreporter.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/washington-post-article-on-oaxaca-gets-a-beating

Jim Benning 01.31.08 | 6:56 PM ET

Hey Ron,

Good hearing from you. I did notice that the Post ran the story earlier. I’m with you regarding some of the comments you point to: The critiques are a bit much. The city was in a messy state, whether you want to call it a “riot” or not. Bottom line: People who love Oaxaca won’t stay away long. It’s a lovely city.

By the way, I went to Planeta.com to see what you were writing about Oaxaca, ready to link to your site in this post, and the site was down. I trust you’re still publishing it, yes?

Ed Easton 01.31.08 | 11:55 PM ET

I was in Oaxaca for a month in the summer of ‘06 for an immersion Spanish course.  The grafitti was messy, the Zocalo a mess and an exciting energy infused the city.  At no time did I feel in any more danger than I have felt in the parts of New York, Washington, DC or Paris where it is normally safe to travel.  Oaxaca and its environs were no more dangerous to careful travelers than their own home towns.

Has anything changed?  Why and how?

matt plavnick 02.01.08 | 1:22 AM ET

“Officials are linking the attack to a turf war between drug cartels.”

Sure, but there was also talk of the EPR being responsible (http://elenemigocomun.net/1421#more-1421\http://elenemigocomun.net/1421#more-1421\).  Let’s pause to evaluate.  I thought narcotrafficking too, at first, but maybe there’s more going on.  It’s worth a second look.

Ron Mader 02.01.08 | 6:25 AM ET

Hello, Jim. There is a tech problem today with Planeta and it should be back online soon. Still publishing and just updating the Oaxaca section after our 8th annual Rural Tourism Fair.

FYI, I’m experimenting with wiki-style editing with friends in Oaxaca
http://oaxaca.wikispaces.com

And brand new video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPEsf3EcM2U

John M. Edwards 02.01.08 | 10:20 AM ET

Hi Jim:

I just find it satisfying to repeat the Mexican word Oaxaca over and over again. (For those of you unfamiliar with the festive pronunciation, it sounds like “Whaahaacaa!” Whoopey! Viva Zappata!) Though I’m hesitant to go to places on the State Department’s “Watch List,” I’m heading to Senior Swanky’s for some Oaxacan chicken with mole sauce and cafe con leche.

Jim Benning 02.01.08 | 2:40 PM ET

Glad to hear it, Ron. I’ll check it out soon.

emily 02.01.08 | 5:51 PM ET

Greetings all,

I am in Oaxaca right now, writing from a cafe on Garcia Virgil, and there is nothing that feels remotely dangerous to me.  People keep saying that there are no tourists, but this also is completely contrary to my observations.  Of course, I don’t know what it was like two years ago, just before the uprising, but there are certainly more tourists here now than there were when I was last here, 11 years ago.

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