.
"The main teachers' union says the reforms violate its members' rights.
Performance-related tests are among the changes being introduced."
9/13/13, "Police move in on Mexico City protesters," AP, by Mark Stevenson, Adriana Gomez Licon, via SF Gate
"Thousands of striking teachers briefly seized control of the historic heart of Mexico City on Friday, blockading the Zocalo
plaza armed with metal pipes and wooden clubs. Minutes after a
late-afternoon government deadline, riot police started pushing into the
area, firing tear gas and ducking hurled rocks in a confrontation
culminating weeks of protests against an education reform.
The teachers used steel grates and plastic traffic dividers to block the streets leading into the Zocalo, home to the Metropolitan Cathedral,
Templo Mayor and National Palace, some of the city's best-known tourist
attractions. Hundreds of Mexico City and federal riot police massed on
the other sides of the barriers, then swarmed into the square past the
famed Aztec temple, chasing down and arresting protesters.
The
teachers, many veterans of battles with police in the poor southern
states where they live, promised not to move from the square where they
have camped out for weeks, launching a string of disruptive marches
around the city.
Shortly
after the deadline, the police swarmed in, shooting tear gas from
specially equipped fire extinguishers and tossed flash grenades.
Protesters hurled sticks and chunks of pavement broken from the street.
Within
a half hour, police had cleared the Zocalo, and much of the surrounding
historic center, of virtually all protesters. Union organizers said
they would reassemble away from the main plaza.
The
teachers have disrupted the center of one of the world's largest cities
at least 15 times over the last two months, decrying a plan that aims
to break union control of Mexico's dysfunctional
education system.
President Enrique Pena Nieto
dashed the teachers' hopes of blocking the overhaul when he signed the
new system into law Tuesday. On Wednesday, the protests began turning
violent, as protesting teachers scuffled with riot police after officers
set up a line to keep protesters from blocking one of the city's main
expressways. City officials reported 15 police hurt as protesters seized
some plastic riot shields from officers.
The
teachers say blocking the reform itself is no longer the point. They
say they are now trying to maintain pressure to protect their rights and
privileges as the government puts the labor reforms into effect and
reduces union control over teacher hiring and assignment.
As
federal police helicopters swooped low overhead Friday, teachers struck
tents they have been living in for weeks and burned garbage and plastic
traffic barriers, filling the Zocalo with thick, acrid smoke. A group
of battle-hardened teachers said clearing the tents was a tactical move
to allow them maneuvering room for any possible clash.
In
echoes of the Oaxaca clashes of 2006, a group of Oaxaca teachers said
they had already commandeered a bulldozer from road works in the Zocalo
and had moved it to the front lines, to use against a possible
police attack.
"We've got the bulldozer ready," said primary-school teacher Cesar Perez,
who teaches in the impoverished Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca. "The
president isn't going to give the shout here. Here they are going to
listen to the people."
As the teachers waved pipes and cudgels in the air, singing "we will overcome!" actor Pepe Ortiz cheered on the crowd dressed as independence hero Miguel Hidalgo and clutching a big Mexican flag. He brushed off criticism that the protest was preventing the customary shout of independence....
The protests are being led by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee, or CNTE, the smaller of the country's two main teachers unions. The larger union has supported Pena Nieto's reform.
The
teachers argue that the powerful listen only to power, and their main
strength is the ability to shut schools and make life inconvenient in
Mexico's economic, political and cultural heart.
Mexico
City's government has avoided intervening until Friday, increasing the
frustrations of many of the capital's residents. The city's leftist
government has historically been slow to crack down on protests, fearful
of violence on the capital's streets. Two massacres of protesting
students in 1968 and 1971 became national traumas."
============================
Images:
First: "Protesting teachers light a bonfire in Mexico City main plaza, the
Zocalo, Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. Thousands of teachers who have camped
out at the Zocalo for more than a month have been told by authorities
they need to leave today setting the stage for what could be an ugly
confrontation culminating weeks of protests against an education reform.
As federal police helicopters swooped low overhead Friday, teachers
struck tents they have been living in for weeks and burned garbage and
plastic traffic barriers, filling the Zocalo with thick, acrid smoke.
Photo: Eduardo Verdugo"
Second: "A man walks past a wall of riot police near the Zocalo, Mexico City's
main plaza,
Friday, Sept. 13, 2013. Thousands of teachers who have
camped out at the Zocalo for more than a month have been told by
authorities they need to leave today setting the stage for what could be
an ugly confrontation culminating weeks of protests against an
education reform.
Photo: Eduardo Verdugo".
Third: "Protesting teachers arrive on a bulldozer to prepare their barricades
near the Zocalo in Mexico City, Mexico, Friday, Sept. 13, 2013.
Thousands of teachers who have camped out at the Zocalo for more than a
month have been told by authorities they need to leave today setting the
stage for what could be an ugly confrontation culminating weeks of
protests against an education reform.
Photo: Eduardo Verdugo"
.
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