 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2006 
Teachers Refuse to Return to Work After Demonstrators' Death
 EFE
| | A women puts flowers on the coffin of Jose Jimenez during a his funeral in San Miguel Ejutla, Oaxaca, Mexico Saturday Aug. 12, 2006. Jimenez was killed Thursday, Aug. 10 during a protest in support of the striking teachers in Oaxaca. (AP/Pablo Spencer) |
Oaxaca, Mexico - Striking teachers in the southern state of Oaxaca decided on the weekend not to return to their classrooms as planned because of the death of a demonstrator last week, union leaders said.
The educators also determined and announced on Saturday morning that they would not go back to work until Oaxaca Gov. Ulises Ruiz resigns and several arrested demonstrators are released, according to the SNTE teachers union.
The leadership of the regional SNTE had announced that the teachers would return to work on Monday to give make-up instruction to students who during the last school year could not attend classes for several weeks due to another teachers strike demanding Ruiz's resignation.
Union spokesman Daniel Rosas told journalists that the decision not to return to the classrooms was made at the end of a meeting held Friday evening and early Saturday morning.
The decision came a few hours before the burial of Jose Jimenez Colmenares, the husband of a teacher, who died late Thursday after being shot in the neck by an unknown gunman during a demonstration by the teachers.
Jimenez was buried Saturday in the town of Ejutla de Crespo, near the city of Oaxaca, the capital of the eponymous state.
"We demand that the death of Jose Jimenez be cleared up and those responsible be punished," said another union leader on several local radio stations.
Some 3,000 people belonging to the so-called Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca, or APPO, who have joined the teachers protest marched on Friday through the streets of the state capital demanding punishment for the killer along with the governor's resignation.
Oaxaca state prosecutor Lizbeth Caa Cadeza said Friday that Jimenez's death came in the context of a "fight," and that the victim had been involved in violence prior to the outbreak of gunfire.
The conflict began in late May with some 70,000 teachers staging a sit-in to press their demand for pay raises. In June the situation deteriorated when police tried to dislodge demonstrators and in doing so brought on a radicalization of the movement, which now demands that Ruiz resign. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us