Mexican interior secretary to meet with striking teachers

By Nancy Caouette

MEXICO CITY (AA) – Mexican authorities on Tuesday agreed to meet with representatives of a striking teachers union after violent protests led to the deaths of at least eight civilians.

“We wish that ideas and arguments will be the bridge that leads to the solution, not violence,” Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said at a news conference where he announced the meeting for Wednesday.

Thousands of members of the CNTE, a union of teachers labeled as “radical” by the government, declared an indefinite strike May 15 to protest a requirement of an education reform law enacted in 2013 that forces teachers to pass a mandatory test in order to keep their jobs.

The CNTE, which counts more than 100,000 members, mostly in the poorest states of the country, said it was open to meet with Osorio Chong in order to “find solutions to the problem that [teachers] publicly exposed in several occasions.”

Federal and state police officers who were clearing roads occupied by striking teachers on Sunday, opened fire after they said unspecified “radical groups” shot agents.

An ensuing five-hour clash that erupted in the municipality of Nochixtlan in the southern state of Oaxaca, killed six civilians and injured 100 others, according to authorities.

Two other people were killed Monday during a protest in Juchitan.

“Six people died in Nochixtlan and none of them are teachers,” Oaxaca Gov. Gabino Cue said during a broadcast interview Sunday.

Cue has faced criticism for the violent response of police officers deployed to calm tensions in Nochixtlan.

The indigenous affairs minister of Oaxaca, Adolfo Regino Montes, and labor minister Daniel Gutierrez, resigned their positions to register objection to the heavy-handed response by authorities and to show support for the striking teachers.

Observers from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) arrived Monday in Nochixtlan to gather information and testimony.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said that he has asked his administration to find a solution to the conflict.

‘’I regret the loss of lives. My solidarity with their families and with those who were injured," he tweeted Tuesday.

Teachers say they are planning a major march for Sunday.