A bitter standoff involving newspaper workers, state-run police, and union members in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca has ended. About 30 employees of Noticias, the region's largest-circulation newspaper, had been holed up in their building for over a month, resisting what they said was an attempt by local politicians to shut down the paper in retaliation for its critical coverage. The Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants, or CROC, had set up a picket line outside the building, and was demanding a 25 percent wage increase for the workers. But the barricaded employees rejected CROC's leadership, saying the union was in cahoots with the state government.
See "Oaxaca Paper Standoff Ends", Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times, July 19, 2005