Six killed in Mexico teacher protests

Violent clashes between police and members of a radical teachers’ union who blockaded a highway in southern Mexico have left six people dead and 100 injured.

Tue, 21 Jun, 2016 - 01:00

Sayra Cruz

The activists, from the National Co-ordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, are opposed to the mandatory testing of teachers as part of education reform, and are also protesting the arrest of union leaders on money-laundering charges.

In clashes in the southern state of Oaxaca, protesters threw stones and petrol bombs, and burned vehicles, while riot police were said to have fired on protesters.

Clashes took place in several municipalities in Oaxaca, but the most violent were in Nochixtlan, north of the state capital, also called Oaxaca.

In a late-night press conference, state governor, Gabino Cue, accompanied by federal police chief, Enrique Galindo, said the death toll in Nochixtlan was six.

53 civilians, 41 federal police agents, and 14 state police officers were injured. Twenty-one people were detained. All the dead were civilians, with two connected to the CNTE union.

Earlier, Mexico’s government had said that 21 federal police had been wounded, three of them by gunfire, and that its agents had not carried guns.

“The attacks with guns came from people outside the blockades, who fired on the population and federal police,” it said. Footage showed at least one police officer firing a gun several times.

Mr Galindo acknowledged that he had sent in some officers with guns, after agents had come under fire. “The police obligation is to protect the population,” he said.

Clashes continued outside Oaxaca city, and in the municipalities of San Pablo Huitzo and Santiaguito, where protesters burned federal police installations.

Over the past week, unionised teachers have blockaded streets, a shopping centre, and train tracks in the western state of Michoacan.

They have also forced some bus lines to cancel trips to Oaxaca, which is a popular tourist destination, and blocked a highway in Tehuantepec.

Federal prosecutors accuse union leaders of setting up an illegal financial network to fund protests and line their own pockets. They allege the scheme controlled the payroll of Oaxaca’s teachers.