Mexican police attacked teachers
striking against neoliberal education reforms in the southern state
of Oaxaca, killing at least nine people and leaving dozens more
injured, teleSUR Correspondent Fernando Camacho reported on Monday.
Police were attempting to evict
teachers from a road blockade on the Oaxaca-Puebla highway in the
municipality of Nochixtlan when gunfire erupted, leading to violent
clashes that lasted approximately four hours.
Teachers from the dissident CNTE
union, also known as Section 22, had set up the blockade as part of
protests over an education reform implemented by President Enrique
Peña Nieto and the arrest of several of the unions' leaders over the
past week.
In a press conference from the
Mexican capital, a spokesperson for the union said the dead included
Andres Aguilar Sanabria, 23, and Santiago Jimenez Aylin, 28, who have
been identified as trainee teacher students. The spokesperson said
there was a third fatality but did not provide any details.
The union spokesperson blamed the
police forces who participated in the eviction for the three deaths,
calling it an “attack,” and asked the government to engage in
dialogue with the striking teachers.
Full
report:
A journalist in Oaxaca was shot
dead Sunday afternoon after covering the teacher’s blockade of a
main highway.
Eligio Ramos Zarate, reporter at
El Sur that went by the pseudonym Guillermo Parie, was shot in the
neck by two motorcyclists who are still unidentified as he was
photographing the holdup of a convenient store nearby.
Raul Cano Lopez, brother of the
director of Hechos, another newspaper in Juchitan, Oaxaca, was also
killed in gunfire. His brother said that he was just sitting at the
bus stop. One unidentified person was injured.
The state agency for
investigations said it has not confirmed any motive, but that Ramos
Zarate had connections to someone who “supposedly committed illegal
acts,” reported El Proceso.
The state of Oaxaca has been under
fire during escalating strikes by the SNTE teachers union, affiliated
with the CNTE, against neoliberal education reforms.
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