Mexican Teacher Protests Turn Up Heat on President

The New York Times, 4/25/13

One of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s signature efforts to shake up the country — a broad plan to overhaul the education system — has run into violent protests that underscore how difficult it may be to carry out, particularly in some volatile states with poor academic performance. Armed with iron rods and rocks, dozens of masked members of the teachers’ union in Guerrero State attacked the local offices of the four major political parties on Wednesday, smashing windows and overturning furniture. They also set fire to the office of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, to which Mr. Peña Nieto belongs.

On Thursday, in a further sign of the growing conflict over education changes, teachers marched down Mexico City’s main boulevard, temporarily closing it down. The education overhaul, which transfers power from the potent teachers’ union to the federal government, proposes periodic teacher evaluations to determine appointments, salaries and dismissals — a major adjustment for workers who are accustomed to buying or inheriting their positions and who have had, until now, virtual immunity from the state.

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Click here for pictures and video of the riots.

Mexico Education Reform: President Enrique Peña Nieto Faces Teachers’ Revolt

Associated Press, 4/14/13

Easter vacation was over, but there wasn’t a teacher in sight at the boarding school for indigenous children on the edge of this sunbaked southern Mexico hill town. A 37-year-old cook who hadn’t finished high school sat between two little girls on a cement stoop outside the kitchen, peering at their dog-eared notebooks as they struggled with the alphabet and basic multiplication. “I’ve got the children here. If there aren’t any classes while they’re here, I have to teach them,” said the cook, who shared only her first name, Gudelia, for fear of retaliation from striking teachers.

A short drive away, teachers marched by the thousands through the streets of the state capital, some masked and brandishing metal bars and sticks in an escalating showdown over education reform that’s become a key test of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s sweeping project to reform Mexico’s most dysfunctional institutions.

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Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto Faces Backlash Over Education Reform

Fox News Latino, 4/14/13

Teachers marched by the thousands through the streets of the state capital, some masked and brandishing metal bars and sticks in an escalating showdown over education reform that’s become a key test of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s attempt at sweeping reforms of Mexico’s most dysfunctional institutions.

The fight is dominating headlines in Mexico and freezing progress on a national education reform that Peña Nieto hoped would build momentum toward more controversial changes. Those include opening the state-owned oil company to foreign and private investment and broadening Mexico’s tax base, potentially with the first-ever sales tax on food and medicine.

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Op-ed: Those Who Can’t Teach Block

By Carlos Puig, The New York Times, 4/11/13

When the federal policeman approached the strikers, they started to sing the national anthem. “I am Mexican,” the policeman told them. “You are Mexican. But there are thousands of Mexicans behind me who just want to get on their way. So I am asking you to free at least one lane — just one lane.”

It was 5:30 p.m. on Friday, April 5, and the middle of the highway that goes from Mexico City to sunny Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero. For two hours a group of some 2,000 teachers from Guerrero had been blocking traffic both ways. Two weeks earlier, at the beginning of the most important vacation of the year, the teachers staged a protest on the same highway for more than nine hours, creating chaos for travelers.

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Weekly News Summary: April 5th

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

This week, The Economist congratulated President Enrique Peña Nieto for a promising first four months in office, but warned that he will ultimately be judged on the implementation, and not just legislation, of his reformist agenda. The Associated Press reported Mexican drug cartels have agents working deep within the United States. The AP also made headlines following its announcement that it would drop the term “illegal immigrant” from its stylebook, choosing instead to refer to “people living in the country illegally” or who “entered the country without permission.”

A UNICEF/CONEVAL report concluded that the majority of Mexican children – 53.8% – live in poverty. Media outlets also reported that Mexican wages are now cheaper than China’s, and that remittances to Mexico in February dropped 11% compared to the same month last year.

U.S. immigration reform efforts continued to move forward, with business and labor agreeing on an increase in visas for temporary workers. In an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Selee argued that the deterrent effect of increased border enforcement, coupled with Mexico’s well-performing economy and changing demographic profile, will likely mean that the majority of future illegal immigration flows will come from places other than Mexico. A piece by The New York Times echoed this sentiment, pointing out that changing economic and demographic conditions in both the U.S. and Mexico make it unlikely that a path to citizenship would lead to a massive influx of undocumented immigrants.

Weekly News Summary: March 1st

The Mexico Institute’s “Weekly News Summary,” released every Friday afternoon summarizes the week’s most prominent Mexico headlines published in the English-language press, as well as the most engaging opinion pieces by Mexican columnists.

What the English-language press had to say…

This week, Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful leader of the SNTE, Mexico’s teachers’ union was arrested for allegedly embezzling over $150 million in union funds to support her lavish lifestyle. The arrest shocked the nation and came only a day after President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law a new education reform package. Many interpreted the move as an attempt by the Peña Nieto administration to reassert state authority over special interests, and as a warning to other industries (e.g. telecommunications and energy) that reform is on the way. NYT columnist Thomas Friedman gave much to talk about following two very optimistic pieces. He suggested Mexico will become a dominant economic power in the 21^st century, and praised Mexico’s young ‘just do it’ generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya mirrored Mr. Friedman’s optimism by suggesting a reinvigorated energy sector will transform Mexico into the world’s “new Middle East.” Meanwhile, north of the border, looming automatic budget cuts prompted ICE to release several hundred low-risk immigrants from deportation centers across the country.

Mexico union replaces Elba Esther Gordillo

BBC  News, 2/28/2013

Juan Diaz de la Torre was appointed at an extraordinary congress of the SNTE, the most powerful union in the country. The BBC’s Will Grant in Mexico City says that his selection in effect strips Ms Gordillo of her title of president-for-life. She will now have to face the charges without SNTE backing.

The woman known as “La Maestra” or “the teacher” reportedly spent millions at a US department store, on plastic surgery, property and a private plane. She had led the SNTE since 1989. Her arrest came a day after the enactment of major educational reforms designed to change Mexico’s union-dominated system, under which teaching positions could be inherited, and which had led to posts being sold.

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Mexico’s Arrest of Teachers Union Head Part of a Much Bigger Story

World Politics Review, 2/28/2013

Elba Esther Gordillo, the leader of the most powerful teachers union in Mexico, was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of embezzling millions in union funds for personal expenses, including paying for private property and plastic surgery.

The arrest of the Gordillo, known throughout Mexico simply as “La Maestra,” or “The Teacher” and previously seen as being above the law, came a day after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto signed a sweeping educational reform that the union she led had opposed. …

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Arrest of union boss rivets Mexico

Los Angeles Times, 2/27/2013

The reversal of fortune could not have been more striking. And for many Mexicans, the images, broadcast live on national television Wednesday, could not have been more unexpected.

Here, once again, was Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful boss of Mexico’s massive, sclerotic teachers union. But instead of the image Mexicans were used to — Gordillo standing in front of adoring followers, defiantly speechifying, dressed to the nines — her famous face was now barely visible through the bars of a Mexico City jail.

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Mexico Sends Hint With Union Arrest

The Wall Street Journal, 2/27/2013

The arrest on corruption charges of the head of Mexico’s teachers union was widely seen Wednesday as a double win for President Enrique Peña Nieto, striking a blow against a controversial political figure and reasserting state authority over special interests. Elba Esther Gordillo, one of the country’s most powerful political figures of the past two decades, appeared in a televised courtroom inside a grim Mexico City prison to hear charges of money laundering and organized crime read out against her.

The government alleges Ms. Gordillo, arrested Tuesday, embezzled as much as $160 million from the coffers of the public teachers’ union. The somber-looking union leader declined to speak to the court, except to say it was a matter for her lawyers. Her lawyers didn’t speak in court, nor could they be reached for comment.

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