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Description
After a trip last June to the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca I experienced some different kind of culture. My surfing trip got rained out due to a huge tropical depression and tons of rain. So I decided to head to Oaxaca City for the end of my trip. There are lots of nice art galleries, Indian ruins, one of the oldest trees in the world, restaurants and parks. However what I wasn't expecting was the "planton" taking place in the downtown park. A few years back teachers were protesting because they were due to retire, but the government didn't have their pensions so they told them that had to work a few more years. When the teachers organized and protested after months of camping out in the same park I was visiting the military moved in. The results needless to say were devastating. You can see news footage on youtube if you just click and paste this in your browser [link]

Description
After a trip last June to the Southern Mexican state of Oaxaca I experienced some different kind of culture. My surfing trip got rained out due to a huge tropical depression and tons of rain. So I decided to head to Oaxaca City for the end of my trip. There are lots of nice art galleries, Indian ruins, one of the oldest trees in the world, restaurants and parks. However what I wasn't expecting was the "planton" taking place in the downtown park. A few years back teachers were protesting because they were due to retire, but the government didn't have their pensions so they told them that had to work a few more years. When the teachers organized and protested after months of camping out in the same park I was visiting the military moved in. The results needless to say were devastating. You can see news footage on youtube if you just click and paste this in your browser [link]