MEXICO CITY — Cecilia Romero Castillo, deputy for the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), asked the federal government to use more force against teachers organized in the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), who have been maintaining roadblocks in Oaxaca and other southern states for more than two weeks.
Romero Castillo characterized the CNTE as a small group of teachers whose only goal is to destabilize Mexico.
Romero Castillo, along with the deputies from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín and Adolfo Mota Hernández, expressed her support for President Enrique Peña Nieto in his conflict with the teachers. Peña Nieto recently stated that although the Interior Secretariat has agreed to a dialogue with teachers about the education reform, the education reform itself is not negotiable.
Romero Castillo said that the CNTE is making irrational demands and that it only wants to preserve privileges for its members. She added that although the state should respect the human rights of protesters, human rights are less important than the right of communities to live in peace.
“The time must come when the authorities decide to exercise force against the protesters, in the interest of respect for human rights of other people,” she said.
Ramírez Marín said that while he respects the decision to maintain a dialogue with the CNTE, he hopes that the government will use force against the teachers if the negotiations break down.
“When it becomes clear that the dialogue won’t offer anything else, the State must take decisive action to defend the rule of law,” he said.