Hope Arrives as Oaxaca Elects Gabino Cue Governor

Alvin Starkman, who writes widely about Oaxaca, posted this article on July 7, 2010.  I want to share it with you.

It was the foresight of Gabino Cué Monteagudo, a career politician in the Southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, which resulted in his election as Governor on July 4, 2010, for a six-year term (exchange of power to take place late autumn). For Oaxaca it provides the best opportunity in well over a decade for a return to order and prosperity, certainly absent since the 2006 civil unrest which befell the state under the rule of outgoing governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

While the chaos of the Ulises years (2004 – 2010) did not actually produce notable threats to the safety and security of tourists visiting this UNESCO World Heritage Site, tourism had nevertheless been adversely affected to a significant extent, with international media and foreign governments taking every opportunity to warn prospective travelers to Oaxaca of the mere potential for danger.

Tourists who did visit the city were at times denied the opportunity to fully appreciate the beauty and quaintness of the downtown core – centro histórico – and to get out into the countryside to experience the pageantry of market towns and the richness and diversity of craft villages. Downtown was often a tent city of striking teachers and other interest groups, and roads and highways were often blockaded.