MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz’s government violated individual rights during the disturbances that rocked the southern state from May 2006 to January 2007, leaving about 20 people dead.

“The governor of the state of Oaxaca bears clear and plain responsibility” for what happened, the high court said in a ruling issued on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court’s ruling is not binding, but it can be taken into account by federal officials, Congress and the Oaxaca legislature if they decide to take legal action against Ruiz.

The high court found that federal security officials should not be held responsible for the violations of human rights that occurred during the conflict.

The Supreme Court had been investigating the conflict in Oaxaca since August 2007.

The Oaxaca conflict began in May 2006 when 70,000 teachers walked off the job.

The conflict’s transformation into a movement to oust Ruiz, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, occurred on June 14, 2006, when police used force to break up a sit-in by strikers in the main square of Oaxaca city, the state capital.

The clash lasted nearly four hours and left dozens injured and under arrest.

The incident marked the start of a six-month conflict in Oaxaca that left at least 20 dead, including an independent U.S. journalist.

Gov. Ruiz was a polarizing figure even before the clash with the teachers, as many accused him of rigging the 2004 election that brought him to power in Oaxaca.

The uprising against the governor was crushed by thousands of federal police and troops in November 2006, but not before at least 20 people – mostly Ruiz opponents – had been killed and the protests had caused millions of dollars in losses in the normally popular tourist destination of Oaxaca city.

Oaxaca is one of Mexico’s poorest states and is also the one with the largest Indian population, in terms both of absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total inhabitants. EFE