Six people were killed and 100 more were injured in clashes between police and teachers demonstrating in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, local media reported Monday, citing the Mexican Health Secretariat.
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Clashes erupted when anti-riot police tried to disperse the protesters, who had been blockading roads. Movements used non-violent protests and occupied Oaxaca, but faced repression and criminalization. Officials said 53 civilians, 41 federal police agents and 14 state police agents were injured. The teachers are pr…
Decrying a “massacre”, the radical National Education Workers Coordinator (CNTE) union led the mostly peaceful march in the state’s eponymous tourist city of Oaxaca. The teachers are protesting…
Mexican police say few teachers were involved in violence at a weekend highway protest in the southern state of Oaxaca in which six people died.
The union has blocked roads in protests against President Enrique Pena Nieto’s education reform, which requires educators to undergo performance evaluations.
Protesters said the arrests were politically motivated.
Another person had died of wounds suffered while handling a powerful firework.
“It was a radical change of scene”, Mr Galindo said. Others were burned, lost fingers to firework blasts or were hit with machetes.
The CNTE, in turn, said those killed were teachers and members of other social groups that support them, adding that 20 people were missing.
Enrique Galindo, the head of Mexico’s federal police, said masked individuals who were not affiliated to the teachers’ union were behind much of the violence, lobbing Molotov cocktails and shooting at police and civilians.
None of the dead were teachers, Carillo said.
Cue has accused infiltrators and agitators in the ranks of protesting teachers of sparking violence and firing shots, while teachers firmly place the blame on police and government forces. “Moves to reform education are underway”, Gabino Cue, Oaxaca State Governor said.
For two years the union demanded a 3.5% cut of purchases made by unionised members from some businesses in Oaxaca, according to Mr Higuera. “They didn’t want to have dialogue”.
Twenty-one policemen were wounded in the melee, three by bullets, Galindo said.
AP footage showed at least one police officer firing a gun toward demonstrators several times.
Teachers and riot police clash in the town of Nochixtlan, Mexico, on Sunday. Protesters were allowing people to pass on the highway but continued to block commercial traffic.
The government has relentlessly promoted the reforms, which include mandatory teacher evaluations, as the answer to Mexico’s dismal state schools. On Monday afternoon, Oaxaca citys graceful main plaza was hidden under a sea of tarps and small tents set up by protesters.
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Ramos Zarate had reportedly been taking pictures of some looters in Juchitan cleaning out store shelves. The group said the killings were carried out by two men on a motorcycle.
