Striking Mexican Teachers Killed by Police Assault - 26:28
Deadly Assault by Mexican Police on Striking Teachers Leaves 10 Dead, Dozens
More Injured and 22 Disappeared.
with
Laura Carlsen, Americas Program, Center for International
Policy
There is an urgent situation
facing teachers and their union, the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores
de la Educación (CNTE/SNTE), in Mexico. On June 19, teachers in the town of
Nochixtlán, Oaxaca, were fired upon with live ammunition by the Federal
Police as part of the effort by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to
break the nationwide strike by teachers against the
government's privatizing
"education reform" program. The peaceful demonstration in Nochixtlán was
also held to demand the immediate release from prison of the three top
elected union officers of Section 22 of the CNTE/SNTE, the union
representing the teachers in the state of Oaxaca. These union leaders had
been jailed and sent to a federal prison more than 1,000 miles away by the
government on trumped-up charges. Ten people in Nochixtlán were killed by
the Federal Police, with dozens more wounded, and 22 disappeared. Protest
organizers also informed the Deputy Counsel of Mexico that labor and
community activists across the United States are demanding that the U.S.
government halt all military aid to Mexico, as the weapons made available to
the Mexican Federal Police to repress the teachers have all been sent by the
United States under the Plan Mérida. The anti-union repression against
striking teachers in Mexico -- following on the heels of the so-called
"reforms" imposed by the international financial institutions (IMF, OECD,
World Bank, etc.) -- concerns all workers and trade unions the world over.
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