I have heard that Flavio Sosa was something of a political mover and shaker who once supported Fox.

And yes, I have talked to people and do talk to people who have been in Oaxaca and have what I consider to be reliable information on the subject.

I also heard from hordes of people who tell me that I “have no idea what is really going on here.”

And they never offer to enlighten me.

“Because it would get me killed,” and a dozen other lame excuses that amount to asking me to believe something without giving me any evidence.

Straight out of the infowar manual, that one.

I have watched this story in multiple sources for quite some time now, and have attempted to evaluate the reliability of those sources by tracking developments and cross-referencing coverage.

In the process, I have yet to find, and none of these usually anonymous or pseudonymous correspondents has offered, any credible information to falsify the version of the story whereby an SNTE local union tried to cross Elba Ester “The Teacher” Gordillo and Ruíz used his state police as death squads against them.

Or that the Ruíz people are using the media there to propagate disinformation. Putrid, neanderthal-grade disinformation.

But you suggest that this is a war between political factions.

Look, I keep a fairly close eye on newsflow on the SNTE and PRI — where Gordillo is at work trying to get her hand back in — and do not see any organized opposition to Gordillo there that would qualify either as pro-APPO or cacique-like.

I HAVE read a lot of easily falsifiable — and mostly jaw-droppingly idiotic — disinformation to the contrary. Which in the long run has led me to a rule of thumb: People who ask me to believe in conspiracy theories rather than reliable sources of information are jerking me around.

I could be wrong. And you could be John Dickie. But I doubt it.

Look, I have already done my service in the public-educational trenches, and I had just exited a high-stress job at the time.

And I just know if I had taken that work someone would have convinced me that the Fellows needed collective bargaining, and pretty soon my hair would be falling out after 7-day weeks of 16-hour days.

I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.