Report blasts Fox administration on Oaxaca violence

Last year, the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca was convulsed with violence stemming from a bitter confrontation between state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and tens of thousands of striking teachers and their supporters.

On Thursday, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission issued its final report on the crisis, in which at least a dozen people lost their lives.

According to an Associated Press story, the commission's report "slammed" the federal government of former president Vicente Fox for not intervening more quickly to end the months-long standoff. In the report, commission president Jose Luis Soberanes blamed both police and protesters for "committing excesses."

Among the abuses was evidence that police physically tortured a number of detainees. The commission also faulted the investigation of the death of Bradley Roland Will, a 36-year-old New York journalist-activist who was gunned down while reporting on Oaxaca's streets.

Posted by Reed Johnson in Mexico City