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| Thursday, teachers enter Guerrero Congress after another blockade of Highway of the Sun Photos: Saul Lopez / Cuartoscuro |
A group of deputies of the Party of the Democratic Revolution [PRD] in Guerrero agreed to resume dialogue with dissident teachers regarding the reform of the state education law, after which teachers and other dissident organizations vacated their blockade of the entrances to the state Congress, at which, last week, they had thrown stones.
Thursday's protests were held to pressure lawmakers to take up again the initiative that was agreed upon with the governor of Guerrero, Ángel Aguirre, on March 24 but rejected by the Congress.
It is expected that the document presented at noon by the teachers' leader, Gonzalo Juárez Ocampo, will be made into a bill that will be presented by the PRD to the next session of the Guerrero Congress.
The 4,000 members of the Popular Movement of Guerrero, now comprised of dissident teachers, community police, student teachers and social organizations, blocked the Highway of the Sun beginning at 1:30 PM.
After about two hours, elements of the Federal Police arrived and were placed in positions to begin evicting the teachers, with a smaller group behind the teachers, who, with sticks, metal poles and stones in hand, were prepared to respond to the eviction. However, after discussions with the police, the teachers were allowed to proceed to the Congress.
After the confrontation with the Federal Police (PF) on the Highway of the Sun, the teachers of the State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers of Guerrero (CETEG) had marched to the state Congress headquarters, where they established a dialogue with PRD deputies to discuss the proposal.
Guerrero Teachers Seize Six Regional Administrative Offices
In Acapulco, the regional committee member of the State Coordinating Committee of Education Workers (CETEG), Nestor Miranda Vinalay, said that so far six of the eight regional administrative offices of the state government had been seized. He said that this measure is a second stage of the movement which took place on Thursday.
"With this second stage of the movement, we are responding to a decision of the state assembly. We have seized six of the eight regional administrative offices of the Secretariat of Government Relations (SEG) in the state. We will go to the North and Tierra Caliente [Hot Country] regions in the coming days," he said.He acknowledged that
"each region (of the state) is analyzing how to participate in this strike. Here in Acapulco, it is a strategy in stages, as we are concerned about wages being withheld, because the Secretariat of Education frightens us with threatening the cessation of employment contracts."He said that in Acapulco there is a work stoppage in the schools, a strategy being established with the students and parents, whom they consider allies of the movement.
"Dialogue, yes, but without pressures or threats; first the rule of law!"Spanish original