Oaxaca usos y costumbres: In 27 municipalities, PRI resist with violence relinquishing power

During this week's change of power of these 570 municipalities, many of which the PRI had lost for the very first time, PRI thugs resisted with violence relinquishing power in at least 27 of them. In San José Tenango muncipality, for instance, a group led by losing PRI candidate Basilio Martínez Calvo, shot and attacked with machetes seven supporters of the incoming mayor Emilio Herrera Martínez, of the leftwing PRD, as well as smashing the mayor office and setting a vehicle on fire. 

Amador Jara Cruz, head of the Oaxaca state PRD branch, said the priísta thugs were encouraged by Federal Deputy Elpidio Concha Arellano of the PRI, with the explicit intent of destabilizing the new state government of Gabino Cué.

(El Universal reports that the transition was delayed in 48 municipalities due to violence and disturbances)

With the coming to power of Gabino Cué Monteagudo as head of a broad left coalition that was also backed by the right-leaning PAN, Oaxaca recently changed governor, ending more than 80 years of PRI hegemony. Until the historic elections in July 2010, the PRI also had managed a majority of the state's 570 municipalities, out of which only 152 elect their leadership through a competition by political parties, while the remaining 3/4 are so-called usos y costumbres, electing/selecting leaders through traditional practices. While meant to guarantee a certain level of autonomy for Oaxaca's indigenous population, the system of communal power sharing, dating from the 16th century, has nonetheless been increasingly criticized for its potential for abuse, including discrimination against women, and of having been hegemonized by groups sympathetic to the PRI.

One case in point regarding discrimination is the infamous case of Santa María Quiegolani, a predominantly Zapotec community, where Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza three years ago was denied assuming as municipal president by the communal council because she was a woman. As critics of the usos y costumbres system (found predominantly in Oaxaca but also in a few other states) have pointed out, these municipalities remain among the least developed in Mexico, and are often quite socially regressive, to the point where the father of the family often decides the groom for his 12-year old daughter. (See article by Carlos Marín). As for Santa María Quiegolani, to its credit, the Oaxaca state congress just made her the new president of the legislature.

Many political actors, as well as the archbishop of Oaxaca, has called upon Governor Gabino Cué to revise the system. Perhaps the recent violent episodes in relation with the changing of power will provide more impetus toward having a serious look at whether the usos y costumbres really serve the benefit of the people, or whether they are merely subverted and abused by the PRI.