Mexico's Interior Minister Carlos Abascal would handle the conflict in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, not President Vicente Fox, presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said on Tuesday.

Protestors had occupied Oaxaca City, the state's capital, from May to October as the original teachers' strike developed into a protest demanding the resignation of Oaxaca's governor Ulises Ruiz after he made a bloody and botched attempt to evict striking teachers in June.

Anti-Ruiz protestors have called themselves the Oaxaca People's Popular Assembly (APPO).

Mexico's legislators have issued a motion calling on Ruiz to quit, but Aguilar said that this was the governor's decision to take, not the central government's decision to impose.

"Mexico is living in a moment on complete democratic opening, where dialogue and conciliation prevail," he said.

Mexican Federal Police, commanded by the central government, ejected protestors from Oaxaca City center on Oct. 27, a day after gunmen had attacked and killed three of the protesters on the city barricades. Mexican media said the assailants were off-duty police officers.

Also on Tuesday, 153 Mexican intellectuals published a statement in left-wing newspaper La Jornada, calling for more prudence from the central government. They said that the Preventative Federal Police had worsened the situation, and called for negotiations.

The statement also asked the government to neutralize paramilitaries, which local press say are linked to the Ulises Ruiz's Institutional Revolution Party (PRI).

Source: Xinhua