The 2006 Oaxaca protests began as a teachers’ protest, occupying the main square, or Zocalo, of Oaxaca city in May 2006. Increases in wages and employment benefits were announced a short time later, but an internal conflict in the local teachers’ union led to accusations that the bargaining had not really been in the teachers’ best interest. Work stoppage and occupation of the square continued from May 22 to June 1. At this point, radical groups joined in with the protest and the disorder grew, closing banks, access roads, the airport, access to stores and harassing the governor of the state in public appearances. Many of these groups merged with the teachers’ union to form the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO). The disruption turned into a siege that lasted five months. Violence included the deaths of a number of people including Indymedia journalist Bradley Roland Will on October 27, 2006 and Roberto López Hernández and Jorge Alberto Beltrán on October 29, 2006 when over 10,000 federal police and army intervened. The situation calmed in the second week of November when the Federal Preventative Police took over the city and disbanded the
