In Oaxaca, teachers resumed protests against education reforms in Mexico, just one day after violence with police left 8 killed and over 50 people injured, Euronews reports.
Carrying a makeshift coffin the teachers brandished placards denouncing government repression.
Teachers and their supporters want police to leave the streets, arguing that they are protesting peacefully.
“We don’t want anymore massacres. We don’t want repression. The police need to go back to their stations because Oaxaca is not at war. We’re protesting peacefully, expressing what we think is not good. This is why we demand negotiations where we can have a debate,” said Juan Garcia of the CNTE teachers union.
In Mexico City, teachers and their supporters came out in protest in a show of solidarity with their colleagues in Oaxaca.
Last week, Mexico’s government arrested Ruben Nunez, the leader of a dissident teachers’ union, for alleged corruption. The move was seen by many as political.
The education reform in Mexico seeks to improve teaching standards in the country, which lags behind all members of the OECD. The reform stipulates that teachers should be tested periodically to ensure they are up to standard. New teachers could lose their teaching jobs if they fail.
Although passed in 2013, stiff resistance from teachers refusing to comply continues.