Air Force Lifts Food Into Villages as Striking Teachers' Blockades Spread Reuters
go to original July 2, 2016

The situation in the southern state of Oaxaca still remains tense after clashes between teachers unions and the police. Blockades remain, while shortages of basic products are affecting the region. (CCTV News)

Update: Mexican Teachers Vow to Launch Wider-Reaching Indefinite Strike (teleSUR)

Mexico’s air force flew tons of grain to the southern state of Oaxaca on Friday as protests by teachers opposed to education reform spread across the country and road blocks led to dwindling food supplies in some remote regions.

Tension in the state intensified after eight people died last month in clashes between police and the protesting teachers, and unrest has flared throughout Mexico. Local media reported protests by factions of Mexico’s CNTE teachers union on Friday in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Michoacan, Chiapas, Nuevo Leon and in Mexico City.

The union has blockaded 11 highways in Oaxaca, a hotbed of dissent for protesters opposing President Enrique Pena Nieto’s education reform that allows the federal government to remove teachers who fail evaluation exams.

The protests have prevented food trucks from reaching remote coastal villages in Oaxaca, where some of Mexico’s poorest people live, the country’s federal food distribution chief Juan Manuel Valle said.

...On Friday, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior promised action against the blockades in Oaxaca, saying dialogue with teachers’ unions could not continue without respect for citizens’ rights.

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Mexico's Education Reform Is Being Imposed with Bloodshed (Televisión del Sur)

Related: Teachers Union Says Burden on Mexican Government to Resolve Labor Conflict (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Related: National Rights Commission Says Striking Teachers Abused Federal Police Officers (The Associated Press)

Related: The Ugly Reality of Police Violence Against Mexico's Protesters (CityLab)

Related: Is Another 'Oaxaca Commune' in the Works? (teleSUR)

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