Well, here it is a couple of days after the federal troops entered Oaxaca. Things are much calmer now. People are walking around the zocalo, and some of the stores and restaurants have begun to re-open. The Day of the Dead celebration is very muted this year, with far fewer altars in the stores and hotels. Of course this is because many of them are still closed, or the owners don't have the cash to buy the supplies they need to make their altars. We went out to the cemetery at Xoxocotlan last night, where we had gone last year. The number of people tending the graves of their relatives seemed about the same as last year, and the atmosphere was still magical, but there were very few tourists in evidence. Last year it was a mob scene.

To go to the zocalo, and to the stores and banks around it, you have to walk past lines of federal troops who are standing there guarding the streets around the zocalo. They look at you, or they donīt, but if you say "buenos dias" they respond politely. They are being very low-key. Their gear is all around the zocalo, which now looks like an army camp rather than an encampment of protestors and strikers. Their water trucks and plastic shields and sleeping bags are lined up around the zocalo. Thereīs a field kitchen set up in the middle of the zocalo to feed the troops, and there are port-a-potties set up all around for them to use. Itīs kind of funny to see the soldiers lined up to go into the toilets, half of which say "DAMAS."

There was a brief march the other day of people who were demonstrating their approval that Fox had sent in the troops and that the town is being cleaned up. This was portrayed in some of the press as a group of PRI-istas who were showing their support for the governor of Oaxaca, but in reality it was merchants and regular citizens who feel that their voices havenīt been heard in all this, and are glad that peace has been restored to Oaxaca.

People say that the troops will stay until they are no longer needed, probably into the new year. Although we are in sympathy with the ideology of the APPO, and agree that Ulisses Ruiz needs to be removed, we are glad to have the town gradually getting cleaned up and the barricades removed. There are still burned-out buses in some of the intersections, and graffiti on many of the buildings, but the heart of the city has been taken back, cleaned up, and made useable again, and that's an important psychological step.

The protestors have moved their locus to the area right in front of Santo Domingo church. There are tarps set up, and speeches, but not huge numbers of people and no barricades. So far the troops have stayed away from this area. People have set up Day of the Dead altars on Alcala leading up to the church, and some in front of Santo Domingo. As I sit here in this internet place across from Santo Domingo, I hear a band playing. Amidst everything that has been happening, this is still Oaxaca.

Will keep you posted if there are dramatic new developments, but things are slowly getting back to normal.

Reporting from the scene, this is Juanita. Back to you in the booth, Katie.