*Updated Apr. 24 - Guerrero on verge of civil meltdown, as teachers riot
Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero -
A long simmering feud between a powerful school teachers' union and the Guerrero congress broke into outright violence Thursday, as union activists completely shut down a major highway through the region and forced their way into the state legislative chambers.
The union, Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guerrero (CETEG), has been marching along the famous Autopista del Sol for days, wreaking havoc with traffic and local commerce alike as it carries its complaints to the street. An Acapulco tourist workers' union said last week that blockades on the four lane have cost their industry at least 100 million pesos this season - about $8.3 million USD, and money which the hard hit resort can ill afford. Teachers in three states again form picket lines.
The teachers are determined to push an education bill through the highly factionalized legislature, which would attenuate federal law mandates approved in December. Although there are indications that a majority of lawmakers support some of their efforts, the sticking point is the union's demand that it be allowed to evaluate its own teachers, without interference from outside agencies or boards.
Under educational reforms advanced at the federal level by the new Institutional Revolutionary Party government of president Enrique Peña Nieto late last year, teachers would be required to submit to periodic evaluations by an autonomous body. CETEG is violently opposed to that proposal, but has yet to win legislative support in Guerrero for its self-evaluation plan, which maintains the status quo. Even if Guerrero legislators eventually yield on the point, they must carefully draft state legislation so it does not conflict with federal mandates already pushed through by the Peña Nieto administration. A legislative leader said this week that the chances of reaching an agreement on a state evaluation law which would satisfy, without overriding, the mandates are slim - "a constitutional impasse," he noted.
Thousands of Mexican teachers are protesting the PRI reforms, but most are concentrated in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. Chilpancingo, the site of Thursday's disturbance, is 55 miles from Acapulco and is Guerrero's capital.
Teachers shut down the Autopista del Sol for seven hours, spreading rocks and debris across the lanes. The north-south highway was backed up for miles, stalling trucks, commercial vehicles and Acapulco bound passenger traffic.
Other union activists stormed the doors of the legislative building, breaking through locked gates and forcing their way onto adjacent grounds. Many brandished axes, steel bars or wooden clubs. Some broke windows on the property. They said they wouldn't leave until Guerrero representatives pass a bill incorporating their demands. By preventing members from from entering the building, no legislative quorum could be mustered and yesterday's planned session had to be canceled.
In any case legislators, citing public security concerns, said they won't proceed with official business while demonstrators occupy their headquarters. The stalemate continues today.
Milenio reporters on the scene yesterday said that there was little police presence as a virtual riot unfolded in mid-afternoon. Some marching teachers were accompanied by citizen militias, called autodefensas, who claim they are in charge of local law enforcement. Mexico's troublesome policías comunitarias will prompt some to argue Failed State theories. Collectively, CETEG and local militias refer to themselves as Movimiento Popular de Guerrero - the Guerrero People's Movement.
Apr. 20 - Seven CETEG union leaders have been criminally charged by the Guerrero prosecutor for occupying the state legislature's installations and disrupting traffic on the Autopista del Sol this week. They didn't withdraw from government facilities and abandon the highway until 6:00 a.m. yesterday.
Apr. 23 - It's clear to everybody that CETEG - and those who support it within the Guerrero state legislature - are simply trying to override federal law on the issue of teacher evaluations. Mexico's national congress approved an autonomous evaluation process for the entire country in December, but thousands of teachers are determined to ignore it and enact their own self-evaluation procedures. Federal law always trumps state law, and yesterday Peña Nieto's Secretary of Education, Emilio Chuayffet, told the Milenio network that if Guerrero passes such a statute, the PRI administration will immediately challenge it before Mexico's Supreme Judicial Court, and ask that it be struck down as unconstitutional. Striking teachers cannot win this battle, but meanwhile they're urging members in many states to walk off the job indefinitely. The losers in this mess are hundreds of thousands of children missing school. The new federal government deserves much credit for trying to modernize and improve the quality of teaching, something which the profession itself should have done long ago.
Apr. 23 - The Wall Street Journal notes, Strikes by Mexican Teachers Challenge New President
Apr. 23 - With Guerrero and Michoacán on the verge of "anarchy," a respected columnist asks, ¿Dónde está el gobierno?
Apr. 24 - Guerrero on verge of civil meltdown, as teachers riot
Apr. 26 - A bankrupt Acapulco can't meet its payroll
June 7 - In an important ruling today, a federal court in Mexico City dismissed lawsuits brought by school teachers opposed to educational reforms approved by the Mexican congress in December. Because those reforms are amendments to the constitution, and not ordinary statutes, the court said it had no authority to intervene. The main reform teachers are trying to stop is one that mandates they be periodically evaluated by an autonomous agency, which will set uniform national standards for the profession. Niegan amparos a maestros por reforma educativa.
Aug. 25 - PRI government shows no resolve against thug teachers
© MGRR 2013. All rights reserved. This article may be cited or briefly quoted with proper attribution or a hyperlink, but not reproduced without permission.
Traffic ground to a halt on the Autopista del Sol, the main artery linking Acapulco and Chilpancingo
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