MEXICO CITY (Xinhua) -- The Mexican authorities on Monday released 18 more protestors arrested last month in a clash with the federal police in Oaxaca City, the capital of a southern Mexican state of the same name. These protestors, who had been held in Tlacolula Jail in Matamoros, paid a total of 47 million pesos (4.3 million U.S. dollars) in bail.
The release brought the number of freed protestors to 91. Two hundred people had been arrested during a clash between riot police and protestors on Nov. 25 in Oaxaca City.
The protestors had occupied Oaxaca City, 500 km from Mexico City, from May to October as a teachers' strike developed into a protest demanding the resignation of Oaxaca's Governor Ulises Ruizafter 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. In late October, the Mexican government ordered the federal police to evict the protestors, and the police have remained in charge of the city center since then.
The state government estimated that the six-month occupation caused 300 million pesos (27.5 million dollars) worth of damage to the city's historic center.
Tourism, one of Oaxaca's main income sources, collapsed during the protests, and visitors are still staying away.