The southern Mexican city of Oaxaca showed few signs of returning to normal on Monday after federal police took control of the city from protesters who had been occupying it for five months.

A few businesses opened and some crowds of people milled around the main streets of the city of more than 275,000. But teachers stayed off the job and children did not return to school the day after the police pulled down blockades that had been used as the protesters' base.

Storefronts were covered with graffitti, many businesses were shut down and the streets were littered with burned out cars.

The protesters had been demanding the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz. They have accused Ruiz of corruption and fixing his 2004 election.

Ruiz was expected to give an address to Oaxaca residents on Monday.

Protesters said they planned to take the city back from Mexican police, and would organize marches to express their opposition.

On Sunday, one protester was killed at the barricade, as the city resembled a battleground, with police using armoured vehicles and water cannons to take it over.

Mexican President Vicente Fox, who leaves office Dec. 1, ordered police Saturday to take control of the situation, after a U.S. activist and two residents were killed by gunfire on Friday.

What began as a strike by teachers grew into a major protest when a variety of groups, representing anarchists, Indians and students, took over the main square, known as a Zocalo.

The city was said to be in a state of civil rebellion.

Clashes between police and the protesters in the last five months have killed at least nine people.

Oaxaca, a city laid out in Spanish colonial style, was once a popular destination for tourists. It is the capital of a Mexican state of the same name.

 

 

 

With files from the Associated Press