Plan B Forum

Thousands of protesting teachers bring chaos to Mexico's capital

MEXICO CITY — Thousands of striking teachers have invaded this capital, shut down both houses of Congress, forced changes in the route of an international marathon and generally created mayhem at levels not seen in a long time in what is always a chaotic city.

The teachers, part of a so-called dissident union that routinely opposes government actions, are demonstrating against a proposed education reform that, among other components, would require mandatory evaluations of teachers’ skills.[Oh The Horror! ]

On Friday, several thousand teachers were marching down a major city highway en route to the airport, authorities said.

“Mexico City held hostage!” blasted the banner headline in Friday’s Reforma newspaper. Throughout the week, teachers have also staged massive sit-ins in downtown’s iconic Zocalo, or plaza, and outside government buildings. They have repeatedly shut down Reforma Boulevard, the main thoroughfare, tying traffic in gargantuan knots.[I'll bet that's won them lots of friends...]

A group on Thursday swarmed a hotel where politicians were holed up, reportedly screaming, “Go for the suits!”

There are far-reaching political implications coming out of this mess. President Enrique Peña Nieto has staked his young government on an agenda of reforms, including education and energy. Most reforms received wide support, in theory. But the fight over the education bill shows that when it comes to hashing out the details, the president can face stiff and disruptive opposition that could ultimately doom his plans.

And the mayor of Mexico City, Miguel Angel Mancera, is coming under severe criticism for his failure to better secure roadways and public buildings. “We will not let the city become a battle ground,” he said.

Pundits noted that since the 1968 massacre of demonstrating students by Mexican security forces, authorities here are reluctant to crack down on protest marches. Yet several suggested there must be a middle ground between allowing anarchy and shedding blood.[Ya think?]

Earlier in the week, the demonstrators at different times surrounded the Senate and lower house of Congress. The protests forced legislators to move their activities to a bank complex, where they could be seen voting from floors crowded with folding chairs. One senator said the forced transfer was “practically a coup d’etat.”

The legislators were debating the very education bill that triggered the unrest. They eventually passed some elements of the bill but postponed the especially controversial portion involving teacher evaluations, apparently bowing to pressure.

That feature "is the heart of the reform -- the game-changer," said Claudio X. Gonzalez, president of Mexicanos Primero, an education advocacy group. It would for the first time set up a meritocracy for teachers and principals, he said, ending the current practice of buying and selling teaching posts or passing them on to heirs, without any testing of qualifications.

"What's at stake is not just this reform but the administration of President Peña Nieto and his entire reform agenda," he said.]

Mexico has one of the worst-performing educational systems in the hemisphere. Proponents have said an overhaul is necessary to raise the level of student performance and break the overwhelming grip on schools exercised by teachers unions. The unions have great leeway in deciding who is hired or fired and in spending millions of dollars of public money without accounting for it in a transparent fashion, critics say.

... During a brief court hearing, Ms. Gordillo, dressed in a simple T-shirt and beige pants, stared out bitterly from behind the bars of a prison courtroom as the charges were read against her. She declined to make any statement.

Her downfall, a shock to a nation accustomed to powerful figures untouched by the law, amounted to a bold statement by the new government that could open the way to weakening the vice grip of the 1.5 million-member teachers union, the largest in Latin America. It has exerted its influence so thoroughly that the government does not even know how many teachers there are — the union does the hiring, with jobs passed among family members like heirlooms — or even how many schools it has because they, too, are essentially run by the union. ... Ms. Gordillo, given to bombastic speeches in her nearly 25 years at the union’s helm, lorded over Mexico, delivering votes to politicians like former President Felipe Calderón, whom she helped elect in 2006, and thwarting efforts to clean up a system everyone agrees is broken. Mexico’s education ranks in the cellar among nations of similar size and wealth, a deficiency long cited as a prime reason the country has not developed as much as it could have. ...