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alp227

(31,959 posts)
Sat Sep 14, 2013, 12:39 AM Sep 2013

Mexico teachers clash with police in Zocalo Square

Source: BBC

Police in Mexico City have clashed with protesters during an operation to clear a square occupied by striking teachers.

Riot police used tear gas and water cannons to remove the protesters from the city's main square, the Zocalo.

Striking teachers had been camped out there for weeks. Some responded with petrol bombs as police moved in after a government deadline passed.

The teachers have been demanding changes to education reforms approved by President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24089051



Al Jazeera: Mexico police remove striking teachers
El Universal Mexico: Ingresan cuadrillas de limpieza al Zócalo (Cleaning crews entering Zocalo plaza) - this site has a lot of photos/video...
http://fotos.eluniversal.com.mx/coleccion/muestra_fotogaleria.html?idgal=16122
http://www.eluniversaltv.com.mx/videos/v_49d6a2b8bf6d47c581cd885e0f3fb60d.html
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proverbialwisdom

(4,959 posts)
1. The Real News: Tens of Thousands March Against Mexico School Privatization
Sat Sep 14, 2013, 01:17 AM
Sep 2013
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10676

Tens of Thousands March Against Mexico School Privatization

Teachers blockade downtown Mexico City to protest education reforms they say is harmful to public schools - September 5, 2013


VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT

[img][/img]

ANDALUSIA KNOLL, PRODUCER: Tens of thousands of public school teachers have taken to the streets in Mexico City in protest of secondary labor laws that follow educational reform that was implemented by the Mexican government in late February 2013. The educational reform would impose nationally standardized evaluations of teachers that would lead to their automatic firing if they don't past three times. Mexican President Henrique Peña Nieto has maintained that this reform will improve the quality of public education in Mexico. On Monday, September 2, he gave a State of the Union address that had been postponed one day due to the protest.

ENRIQUE PEÑA NIETO, MEXICAN PRESIDENT (SUBTITLED TRANSL.): This is an important and transcendental step to improve the education of Mexican children and young people.

KNOLL: The majority of the striking teachers come from the southern state of Oaxaca and were involved in the large uprising in 2006. They have set up an encampment in the Zócalo, the main plaza in Mexico City. For the past two weeks, they have blockaded major avenues, government offices, and even the airport to demand negotiations with the government and changes to the educational reform.

Alfonso Arellano traveled from Oaxaca as part of Section 22 of the CNTE, or teachers union, to participate in the mobilizations.

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JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,282 posts)
4. If only those striking teachers would teach some Spanish to the BBC ...
Sun Sep 15, 2013, 09:45 AM
Sep 2013

It's an odd headline, with "Zocalo Square", since a zocalo is a town square. Many Mexican cities have a zocalo. Few of the squares are named "Zocalo".

It seems like a repetitious redundancy.




Guaguacoa

(271 posts)
5. Pri (pena nieto) stabbing prople in the back that supported them.
Sun Sep 15, 2013, 01:32 PM
Sep 2013

Here in mexico all big businesses and unions support pri (they have virtually all of the monet, seeing even a banner for any other groups here in mexico state is rare). The teachers union is irate that pena nieto is stabbing them in the back. One of my sister in law's is a retired teacher in mexico city and in on the protests.

I do support the teachers, but the union is corrupt and support pri who cares nothing about the people. Since pena nieto has been elected gas has shot up over 50 cents a gallon and will still increase every month for several more months. It does not go down here when it goes up. Food has shot up. The trachers union is in bed with pri and pri is a bunch of snakes with ties to narcos. In some ways the teachers union is getting what they asked for, so feel bad for the teahers....not the union. The union is like a mafia.

The unions here are not like there where they support democrats. Here big businesses and unions both support pri and are run by people like the very corrupt alba esther gordillo* that has become very rich off of the union with a salary of about 2500. us a month.

* Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 on charges of embezzlement and organized crime.[3]
Gordillo has held considerable influence over governments and individual Presidents by persuading her union members to vote as a single bloc. Gordillo was arrested by the Mexican authorities on 26 February 2013 after her private jet in which she had travelled from California landed at the Toluca airport near the capital. She was arrested for allegedly embezzling $2 billion pesos ($156,816,000 USD or €119,242,600 euros) from the Mexican National Educational Workers Union (SNTE).[6][7] Prosecutors argue she would not have been able to make several purchases on her salary.[8] ($31,398 pesos or $2,459 USD per month.[9]) She has been charged with embezzlement and organized crime.[1][3] To head her criminal defense, Gordillo hired prominent penal lawyer Marco Antonio del Toro Carazo who is also defending labor leader Napoleón Gómez Urrutia.[10]
The national public schools had been a system dominated by Gordillo's union in which teaching positions could be sold or inherited.[1]

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