Leaders of the union representing Mexico's teachers will meet with the government following violent clashes that left eight dead and 100 injured amid international calls for an investigation.
Representatives with Mexico's National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) will meet with government officials Wednesday after protesters clashed with police Sunday night in Oaxaca, Mexico. Francisco Bravo, one of the CNTE leaders, will meet with Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong Wednesday to talk about "unavoidable education reform."
Bravo told Mexican newspaper Milenio that there are many activists taking measures to push back against Pres. Enrique Peña Nieto's education reforms, and recent teacher layoffs.
Bravo said they will talk about protests in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero and Michoacán but mainly they will focus on education reform.
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The CNTE teachers union protested Pres. Enrique Pena Nieto's education reforms by blocking roads for a week. Police dispersed the protesters and broke up roadblocks Sunday night with tear gas, and protesters burned vehicles to create barricades between them and the police. Police arrested 21 people.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office in Mexico has spoken out against the violence, calling for an "independent, swift, exhaustive and impartial" investigation.
"My office makes a call to avoid violence and for the involved parties to favor dialogue over confrontation in order to prevent a repeat of the situations that occurred," said Jan Jarab, the UN body Mexico representative, said in a statement.
This is not the first time there have been incidents associated with teachers' strikes. In 2006, protesters and teachers affiliated with the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) went on strike. protesters demanded for months that former Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz resign, and throughout that time there were violent clashes and reports of an unknown number of people who went missing or were killed.
