Human rights organizations warned that the removal of teachers who blocked the Highway of the Sun in Guerrero on Friday, makes apparent what the level of repression by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto against social movements will be, while lawmakers of the National Action Party and Mexico Green Ecologist Party [PVEM, a small pary allied with PRI] celebrated that the authorities applied the law "without hesitation".
Abel Barrera, director of the Tlachinollan Center for Human Rights in Guerrero, said the police operation shows that the current administration will implement a strategy to criminalize any expression of social discontent, putting it outside the law and then justifying its repression.
"The breaking up [of the demonstration] is another step that puts social movements between a rock and a hard place, because the path of dialogue was already canceled and there were only reiterated threats, so the use force determines the resolution of conflicts. This is very serious, because it will generate an unlimited authoritarianism and greater social tension," the expert warned.Manuel Olivares, technical secretary of the Guerrero Network of Civic Human Rights Organizations, agreed that the removal of the dissident teachers
"indicates to us that the government will exert a strong hand against social movements," in order to impose "privatization" on the sector at any cost.The president of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Marti Batres Guadarrama, considered that "repression" of the teachers on the Mexico-Acapulco highway highlights
"the federal government's inability to negotiate and find a consensus with the sectors that don't necessarily agree with the decisions of the federal administration."In contrast, PVEM Senator Pablo Escudero commended the Federal Police
"for having recovered the Highway of the Sun while respecting human rights and the proportional use of force. It was a good message for the thousands of families who spent 10 hours on the road last week!"
MV Note: On Friday, March 22, at the beginning of the Holy Week holiday, the teachers blocked the highway from Mexico City to the resort of Acapulco for some 9 hours. This past Friday, April 5, they again blocked it.PAN Senator Javier Lozano also expressed satisfaction with the police operation, writing in his Twitter account:
"So it must be. Conformity with the law and without hesitation."The coordinator of the PRD senators, Miguel Barbosa, insisted that the teachers' disagreements should be resolved through dialogue, since the closure of highways only causes rejection by citizens. Spanish original