Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Oaxaca shut down for second day after teachers protest

Fourteen thousand schools shut down in Oaxaca. 1.3 million students left without school, as their teachers are continuing their actions against the state government of Oaxaca, protests that appear increasingly radical: Yesterday, members of the 73-thousand strong teachers union, SNTE Sección 22, having earlier shut down virtually the entire Oaxaca downtown, upped the ante by blocking down shops and commercial centers, government offices, and even taking a highway tollbooth. 

From what I can tell, Governor Gabino Cué has bent over backwards to appease the teachers, which insist the state has been awarded much more money meant for them, and demand the firing of several government functionaries. 

Yet far from being a case of a downtrodden, overworked, and underpaid union demanding its legitimate rights, there is much more to this than meets the eye: Mexico's federal auditor has detected at least 10,000 aviadores or teachers in name only, who appear on government payrolls yet have never set their foot in any classroom. SNTE 22 demand the regular incorporation of 3,000 people, yet refuse to accept any auditing of these and their credentials. How many of these are now blocking downtown Oaxaca? 

Moreover: What will be the financial cost to Oaxaca, on of the poorest states in Mexico, and what will the future cost of again depriving students of their eduction?

2 comments:

  1. Though late on reading this, and while assisting one of my English students do research for her opinion essay, I appreciate that you don't have a blanket over your eyes as to what really goes on with these protests. I was sympathetic in 2006, but not any longer. The residue of harm and destruction during and after these protests is sad. Students loose their education, roads are blocked leaving ambulances in chaos when trying to get to hospitals, more thefts occur, the streets are littered by the teachers with no consideration for others, and businesses are selfishly cut off by these educators. True- Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico, but must these protests take everyone down with them. Is there not another way of communicating their needs. Also the government knows this will happen every May for one month, so why doesn't it propose resolutions and negotiations. The people here protest about everything, and these teacher-educators are the models for the others.

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  2. Your comments are appreciated and very much agreed to. Yes, as a backlash to the criminalization of protest under the PRI regime, there seems at times to be almost a pathological fear of any use of force against sectors that are not merely expressing their demands, but seriously hurting others in the process. Even if the Oaxaca SNTE section is a "dissident" one and really controlled by the "rival" CNTE, they seems unfortunately to be just the same. At some point I fear it will simply boil over for all those affected by this incessant protests.

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