Eviction of the teachers’ sit-in (Photo@ChiapasDenuncia Pública)
On the morning of July 20, the sit-in protest in rejection of education reform that the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) has maintained on the toll road to Tuxtla Gutierrez, was destroyed “by a group of 150 armed people.” The representative of Section Seven, Adalberto Rabanales, said the attackers belong to “two attack groups: ALMETRACH (Association of Tenants of Traditional Markets of Chiapas) which works with the Municipal President of San Cristobal de las Casas, Marco Cancino- and a group led by the mayor of San Juan Chamula, Domingo López González, a member of the Green Ecologist Party.” These groups “of attack and the Municipal Police arrived to cause damage, employed the use of firearms and tear gas, respectively.” That same day, according Radio Regeneracion, four people were reported injured: Rumualdo Guadalupe, primary school teacher who had his body pierced from behind by a firearm projectile, Guadalupe Estrada, wounded by a bullet to the shoulder, one person by a blow with a firearm and another who was run over. The final toll has not been released. There were also attacks on the press. Dolores Rodriguez of Chiapas Network News, was assaulted and injured.
After the eviction, the teachers regrouped in the central park of San Cristobal de Las Casas and made a call to the general public for the reconstruction of the sit-in. Teachers began a demonstration to the blockade to reinstall it. “The show of solidarity was immediate and there where the camp was destroyed, the hands of teachers together with the people returned to lay the foundations of the camp.”
Regarding the dialogue with the Federal Government, a representative of the Chiapas teachers stated that, “it is not possible that being at a negotiating table, for some days they have been trying to break the dialogue. The government wants to impose education reform. We will not remain silent.” Meanwhile the Fray Bartolome de las Casas Center for Human Rights (Frayba) spoke out against these events and declared that this attitude “does not help the process of ongoing dialogue with the Federal Government.”
For more information in Spanish:
Reinstalan bloqueo carretero en Chiapas (Desinformémonos, 21 de julio de 2016)
CNTE demanda al gobierno de Chiapas desmantelar grupos de choque (Proceso, 21 de julio de 2016)
Boletín informativo: Desalojo violento hacia el plantón de maestros y maestras en San Cristóbal (Chiapas Denuncia Pública, 20 de julio de 2016)
Gobierno Municipal utiliza grupos de choque para desalojar plantón en Chiapas; CNTE S-7 se reagrupa (Regeneración Radio, 20 de julio de 2016)
Denuncian violento operativo policíaco en San Cristóbal de las Casas, contra bloqueo en apoyo a la CNTE. (Radio Pozol, 20 de julio de 2016)
Maestr@s y sociedad solidaria regresan a bloqueo en San Cristóbal, tras ser desalojados violentamente por grupos de choque y policía federal y estatal. (Radio Pozol, 20 de julio de 2016)
Policías y grupos de choque desalojan a tiros y con gases lacrimógenos a maestros y padres de familia en bloqueo de Chiapas (Desinformémonos, 20 de julio de 2016)
Grupo de choque indígena desaloja bloqueo de la CNTE en Chiapas (Proceso, 20 de julio de 2016)
Repudia sección 22 operativo de desalojo contra maestros en Chiapas (Proceso, 20 de julio de 2016)
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