Heavily armed police using tear gas and water cannons against teachers in Mexico
The news reports began coming in on Friday, September 13, 2013, that heavily armed police were moving against protesting teachers in Mexico City. The reports stated that the police moved in on orders of the federal government. According to the reports, the police were using armored vehicles, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the teachers, who have been protesting moves by the government to push corporate "school reform" on the country.
Police in Mexico City move against the colorful tents which teachers had used for the occupation of Zocolo Square in Mexico City on September 13, 2013.One of the first reports came via the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) and included the usual unattributed claim that the teachers union is "corrupt" and protecting "unqualified teachers." Another report has been published on line by The New York Times. A longer report came out early on September 14 from Al Jazeera, along with several dramatic photographs. Those stories, assembled as of the early morning of September 14, follow below here:
Mexico teachers clash with police in Zocalo Square... Police used water cannon and tear gas against protesters
Police in Mexico City have clashed with protesters during an operation to clear a square occupied by striking teachers.
Riot police used tear gas and water cannons to remove the protesters from the city's main square, the Zocalo.
Striking teachers had been camped out there for weeks. Some responded with petrol bombs as police moved in after a government deadline passed.
The teachers have been demanding changes to education reforms approved by President Enrique Pena Nieto.
The authorities said they wanted to clear the Zocalo for the Independence Day celebrations at the weekend.
Most of the protesters left peacefully by Friday's deadline. But some stayed on, and police backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters clashed with missile-throwing protesters on the square and in nearby streets.
Most of the teachers left the Zocalo quietly after the police moved in.
Officers tore down the teachers' temporary shelters and put out small fires started by the demonstrators and made a number of arrests.
The BBC's Will Grant in Mexico City says government's aim of clearing the square has been achieved — but the sight of riot police and armoured vehicles in the country's most emblematic plaza is not the image of unity it wanted to portray hours before Mr Pena Nieto's first Independence Day as president begins.
Our correspondent says that some of the demonstrators were thought to be radical anti-government activists who were not necessarily associated with the teachers union.
The educations reforms introduced by the government include performance-related tests for teachers.
Critics accuse Mexico's teachers' unions of being corrupt and having too much control over job allocation.
Last week, thousands of its members protested outside the Senate in an attempt to disrupt the passing of the bill, which had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies.
The government has argued that union control over teaching jobs has contributed to corruption, which has seen poorly trained teachers promoted over more qualified colleagues.
Police using water cannons from armored vehicles against protesting teachers in Mexico City on September 13, 2013.NEW YORK TIMES BELOW HERE:
Protest by Mexican Teachers Is Ended. By THE NEW YORK TIMES. Published: September 13, 2013
MEXICO CITY — The federal police moved into this city’s historic central square on Friday to retake the space from thousands of teachers who had been occupying it for the past month to protest an overhaul of nation’s education policies.
The action took place in a matter of minutes as the teachers met a 4 p.m. deadline the government had imposed to leave the Zócalo, as the square is known. After a month of tolerating the encampment and almost daily marches intended to snarl traffic, both the city and federal government moved to end the occupation on Friday, two days before Mexico’s Independence Day celebration.
President Enrique Peña Nieto is to give the traditional shout of independence on Sunday evening from the balcony of the National Palace to a crowd that assembles in the Zócalo.
The teachers had been trying to block a measure requiring them to be evaluated or lose their teaching jobs. The measure reassigns them to administrative posts if they fail.
AL JAZEERA MEXICO CITY STORY BELOW HERE:
Mexico police clash with striking teachers
Anti-riot police use water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters camped in Mexico City against education reforms.
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2013 09:18
Riot police have swept thousands of striking teachers out of the heart of Mexico City, driving protesters through the streets with tear gas and water cannons in a swift end to the weeks-long protests against education reforms.
Authorities did not immediately report any injuries. Federal police chief Manuel Mondragon said on Friday that more than 20 demonstrators were arrested.
The teachers, who had occupied the Zocalo square for three weeks, had been ordered to vacate the area ahead of the nation's independence day celebrations this weekend.
The protesters used steel grates and plastic traffic dividers to block the streets leading into the Zocalo, home to the Metropolitan Cathedral, Templo Mayor and National Palace, some of the city's best-known tourist attractions.
School reform is enforced against a teacher (foreground) by Mexico City police during the clearing of the square on September 13, 2013.There was additional pressure to clear the Zocalo where the teachers had been camping out before the president's first traditional Independence Day celebration in the massive colonial-era square on Sunday and Monday.
The confrontation erupted after the teachers armed themselves with metal pipes and blocked off the Zocalo with steel grates and plastic traffic dividers, threatening to scuttle the Independence Day gathering.
The government responded that celebrations, including the president's shout of independence from a balcony of the National Palace overlooking the Zocalo, would take place in the square as scheduled on Sunday night.
It was a dramatic reassertion of state authority after weeks of near-constant disruption in the centre of one of the world's largest cities.
The teachers have marched through the capital at least 15 times over the last two months, decrying President Enrique Pena Nieto's plan to break union control of education with a new system of standardised teacher testing that become law on Tuesday.
The teachers' demonstrations have slowed passage of Pena Nieto's education reform and the pace of his wider agenda of structural reforms, which seeks to reengineer some of Mexico's worst-run institutions, including the weak tax-collection system and underperforming state oil company.
The Mexican president will almost certainly gain significant political capital if the Friday afternoon operation, led by federal instead of city police, definitively ends the demonstrations that have snarled traffic for weeks in Mexico City.
The teachers say blocking the reform itself is no longer the point. They say they are now trying to maintain pressure to protect their rights and privileges as the government puts the labour reforms into effect and reduces union control over teacher hiring and assignment.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT PUBLISHED IN USA TODAY AND ELSEWHERE IS BELOW HERE:
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican riot police have cracked down on the strongest challenge yet to President Enrique Pena Nieto's reform program, sweeping thousands of striking teachers out of Mexico City's main square with tear gas and water cannons.
Workers moved swiftly late Friday to demolish the half-burnt protest camp where striking teachers had camped out for weeks in a bid to block Pena Nieto's education reforms, which are aimed at introducing teacher evaluations and reducing union discretion in hiring.
Associated Press photo September 14, 2013 from Mexico City.But while Pena Nieto can now use the vast main square known as the Zocalo to hold the country's traditional Independence Day celebration on Sunday, it's unknown whether the crackdown will heighten opposition to his energy and tax reforms.
Moving against the striking teachers may have set the tone for any future protests of Pena Nieto's proposals for a steep tax hike and profits-sharing contracts for private companies in the state-owned oil industry. Both the tax and oil proposals have drawn howls of opposition.
Friday's massive raid by thousands of police against the teachers was a dramatic reassertion of state authority after weeks of near-constant disruption in the center of one of the world's largest cities. The teachers have marched through the capital at least 15 times over the last two months.
Authorities did not immediately report any injuries. Federal police chief Manuel Mondragon said 31 demonstrators were arrested, none of them teachers.
There had been mounting pressure to clear out the teachers before the first Independence Day celebration Pena Nieto will lead as president in the massive colonial-era square on Sunday night, followed by a military parade Monday.
The confrontation erupted after the teachers armed themselves with metal pipes and blocked off the Zocalo with steel grates and plastic traffic dividers, threatening to scuttle the Independence Day gathering.
The teachers, many veterans of similar battles with police in poor southern states, vowed to not move from the square where they have camped out since last month. Some fixed knives and nails to wooden planks and declared themselves ready to fight. Others set up sewage-filled portable toilets in the path of police vehicles.
Shortly after 4 p.m., the police swarmed in, firing tear gas canisters and spraying water from armored trucks. Protesters hurled sticks and chunks of pavement broken from the streets around world-famous tourist attractions including the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Templo Mayor and the National Palace.
But within a half hour, police had cleared the Zocalo and much of the surrounding historic center of virtually all demonstrators. Union organizers said they would reassemble away from the main plaza at the nearby Monument to the Revolution. Small knots of teachers, self-described local anarchists and other supporters hurled bottles and rocks at police on some of the main downtown avenues.
"We're going to reorganize and go back," said a masked teacher who gave only his first name, Juan Carlos, as he waited in an alley with about 10 other demonstrators. "It's not going to stay like this. The government isn't going to repress us."
Pena Nieto's new standardized system of test-based hiring and promotion is expected to give the government the tools to break teachers unions' near-total control of school staffing. That control includes the corrupt sale and inheritance of teaching jobs, and it has been widely blamed for much of the poor performance of Mexican schools, which have higher relative costs and worse results than any other country in the 34-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
With the education reforms now law, the teachers say they are trying to maintain pressure to protect their rights and privileges as the government puts the changes into effect and reduces union control over teacher hiring and assignment.
The protests were led by the National Education Workers Coordinating Committee, or CNTE, the smaller of the country's two main teachers unions. The larger union has supported Pena Nieto's reform.
The teachers argue that because they are from poor states and don't have the means to enact peaceful change, their main strength is the ability to shut schools and make life inconvenient in Mexico's economic, political and cultural heart.
