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| (Photo: Enrique Castro) |
Proceso: Editors
Mexico City - After Michoacán authorities launched the warning that police forces would evict the students if they didn't stop their actions, around 1:00 PM, the students from the normal school [teachers college] freed the Morelia-Salamanca highway exit.
Furthermore, they delivered the two tank trucks of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) that they had abducted, under threat of setting fire to them, and released the three policemen they were holding.
During the morning, student teachers had confronted units of the Special Operations Group (GOE) with sticks and stones when the GOE tried to free the roads from those [students] who had taken them.
The conflict began when a group of students, who began their protests last Wednesday, April 17, to demand automatic [teaching] positions for graduates of eight schools. They blocked the exit to Salamanca and were arrested by police units.
The arrests caused the arrival of more students, who closed the road with two buses and two tank trucks, then confronted the GOE units who were trying to keep traffic moving.
In support of the students, another group blocked the Morelia-Patzcuaro highway in both directions at the community of Tiripetío [location of one normal school].
At the state capital [Morelia], the protesters blocked streets and seized several shopping centers and banks, while members of Section XVIII of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers [CNTE] also closed about two thousand schools and access to various government offices. The teachers also blocked access to malls in Uruápan, including the Plaza Ágora. In Morelia they tried to take the Morelia and Las Américas Malls, but riot police units stopped them.
At the state capital [Morelia], the protesters blocked streets and seized several shopping centers and banks, while members of Section XVIII of the National Coordinating Committee of Education Workers [CNTE] also closed about two thousand schools and access to various government offices. The teachers also blocked access to malls in Uruápan, including the Plaza Ágora. In Morelia they tried to take the Morelia and Las Américas Malls, but riot police units stopped them.
Regarding the indefinite strike announced by the dissident teachers on Monday, April 22, the CNTE State Comptroller Victor Manuel Zavala Hurtado, noted that it is an action of rejection of the labor, energy, tax and education reforms.
"We strike after we have knocked on all the doors of the government, when we seek ears to listen to our petitions, when we solicit the protection of justice in the courts, and when we have publicly asked to be included in discussions for the construction of the educational model that the country needs," he pointed out.Zavala Hurtado noted that the decision for a total work stoppage is due to the government's refusal to listen to them and respond to their requests. The demands of the teachers, he said, are just,
"and we are clear that while the indefinite strike reduces the number of school days in the schools, not taking up the struggle against this ill-intentioned reform is to give up the public schools we have."
On the other hand, companies such as Danone, Bimbo and Pascual filed at least a dozen complaints with Michoacán's Attorney General against the normalistas [teachers college students] for stealing goods during yesterday's demonstrations.
Conservatively, the losses are estimated to be 100,000 pesos [$8,170 USD].
According to the complaint, students of the Normal School of Tiripetío intercepted several delivery trucks on the Morelia-Patzcuaro highway and brought them to campus facilities, where they emptied them. Once "clean", the students returned them to their drivers with a receipt that said:
Conservatively, the losses are estimated to be 100,000 pesos [$8,170 USD].
According to the complaint, students of the Normal School of Tiripetío intercepted several delivery trucks on the Morelia-Patzcuaro highway and brought them to campus facilities, where they emptied them. Once "clean", the students returned them to their drivers with a receipt that said:
"To whom it may concern: I hereby write to you in a most attentive way to let you know that the product of this truck (unit number, license plate and company) was taken, because the state government is holding back the food resource for our student base."