MEXICO CITY — Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong asked members of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) to lift the remaining blockades in the state of Oaxaca in order to continue their dialogue.
The second meeting between the teacher labor organizers and federal government officials at the Interior Secretariat (Segob) headquarters concluded after seven hours around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Accompanied by the Interior Undersecretary Luis Enrique Miranda, Osorio Chong said the federal government maintains the desire to continue working on developing agreements to resolve what has become a highly problematic situation in Oaxaca for the government after a blockade and protest in Nochixtlán by the teachers union resulted in a violent confrontation with the federal authorities, leaving at least eight dead.
Osorio Chong said that education reform “is not a subject we are able to consider, its repeal that they have been insisting upon and asking for is not an issue we are able to deal with.”
He said that the education reform “is a constitutional mandate, a reform made by legislators and by the Assembly, and is currently in the process of implementation throughout the country.”
According to Osorio Chong, it was not possible at this meeting to decide who carries the responsibility, but they were able to go forward and work to create the conditions to resolve this issue.
“And I want to reiterate the term joint responsibility. They have to work for conditions of peace and stability in the regions that today suffer serious circumstances of different problems,” he said.
Transit problems effect the supply of goods to many municipalities, particularly the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, Osorio Chong said, adding that above all, thousands of boys and girls are at risk of not completing the school year.
Miranda said that it is important to create a route that allows a comprehensive approach.
Osorio Chong mentioned that Nochixtlán is one of the issues he will work on and Wednesday he will meet with a committee of local residents.
“And I refer to what is already a commitment: the investigation, what we have to do about damages for the relatives of those who lost their lives, and also for those who are still wounded today and in various hospitals.” Osorio Chong said. “What we saw as an approach from them was not the repeal of educational reform, and what they reiterated over and over is that the solution is dialogue built between the two sides.”
He clarified that the Mexican government will remain open to dialogue as long as the conditions allow for it.
