ABSTRACT
In 2006, Mexico and Nigeria saw ongoing political crises connected in no small way to the extractive regime. In Mexico, following disputed national elections in July 2006, the opposition Presidential candidate Lopez Obrador declared an alternative watchdog government. In the state of Oaxaca a teacher’s protest galvanized a broader movement demanding the resignation of the state governor and gaining international support. In the oil-producing region of Tabasco, Lopez Obrador’s home state, state elections were marked by irregularities. Suppression of the opposition in Tabasco and Oaxaca and, later, mobilizations in Southern Veracruz in support of the Oaxacan movement involved arbitrary detentions, violence against protesters, arrest of organizers and participants.
