Teachers in Mexico Swap Police Hostages for Jailed Comrades

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico – Members of Mexico’s militant CNTE teachers union persuaded authorities to release six comrades arrested earlier in a swap for five police officers captured during a subsequent protest, union officials told EFE.

The CNTE has mobilized across Mexico against a new policy of teacher evaluations.

Authorities here in the southern state of Chiapas conducted evaluations this week, spurring major demonstrations in and around Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital.

Early Tuesday, more than 3,000 CNTE members and supporters gathered to block an intersection in Ocozocoautla, near Tuxtla Gutierrez.

Before 8 a.m., CNTE member David Gemayel Ruiz Estudillo died in a confrontation between the teachers and security forces, run over by a vehicle in circumstances that remain unclear.

Five other people were injured and six teachers were arrested.

Anger over Gemayel’s death swelled the turnout for a CNTE march on Wednesday in the state capital.

“This event brings us grief, courage and the signal that they want to impose the education reform in Chiapas through blood and fire,” CNTE member Pedro Gomez told EFE. “So the position of the movement will not cease demands that those responsible for this homicide be punished.”

Protesters set out from the east side of Tuxtla carrying a coffin meant to symbolize Gemayel and chanting slogans against the state and federal governments.

En route to the state house, the crowd clashed with a contingent of 350 police and the two sides traded volleys of rocks and tear gas for an hour until the protesters captured one of the cops.

At that point, senior Chiapas officials agreed to meet with CNTE representatives to negotiate a prisoner exchange, but the disturbances continued and four more police officers fell into the hands of the crowd.

The marchers then displayed the hostages, along with the officers’ guns and riot gear, in Tuxtla’s main square to increase the pressure on authorities.

Within hours, the state Attorney General’s Office approved the release of the jailed teachers in exchange for the five police.

State officials said that despite the protests, more than 73 percent of the Chiapas teachers subject to the evaluations took part in the tests.

The teacher evaluations are part of a sweeping education overhaul enacted in 2013 by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto over the strenuous opposition of the CNTE and grassroots organizations.

Many teachers say the education “reform” seeks to make them scapegoats for the failings of Mexico’s chronically underfunded schools.