An old Mexican adage claims that when a disaster occurs and more follow, it is “raining when it’s already wet.” (Lloviendo sobre mojado.)
The proverb makes sense because after years of seeing the nation assailed by minority union National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), President Enrique Peña Nieto now has to respond to a legal accusation made by top business organizations against the economic damage CNTE blockades have caused, reeling thousands of small and large business into crisis or outright bankruptcy.
Businesses now threaten to stop paying taxes.
“Kidnapping economic activities within a regime that must defend legality is unacceptable,” says Employers Federation of Mexico (Coparmex) president Gustavo de Hoyos, as his and several other organizations have sought legal protection (amparo) from a federal court against “the acts and omissions of the federal, state and municipal authorities who have violated the fundamental rights of Mexicans recognized by the constitution and international treaties when faced with the violent actions that for more than 11 weeks the CNTE has been performing.”
The suit names by name President Enrique Peña Nieto, Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and Education Secretary Aurelio Nuño as well as state governors and municipal mayors of “being responsible of omission” (for looking the other way, in non-legal terms) as the CNTE teachers “sequester economic activity” and of not complying with “their basic duty of abiding by the law.”
The leaders of the most affected industry, the Chambers of Commerce Confederation-Services and Tourism (Concanaco-Servytur) Enrique Sentíes, Humberto González and Julio Reyna demand to expand their accusation further to both houses of Congress on whom they call to jointly, and with the executive, to assume “the political cost,” that by now has paid for putting an end to the CNTE protests.
This means legislators must repeal President Enrique Peña Nieto’s Education Reform and start from scratch in order to please the by now uncontrollable mob of teachers who are checkmating their business.
They blame the president and his negotiators of “excessive tolerance” and that all the talk “is worth nothing” as nothing stops the teachers from violating federal law.
Coparmex’s de Hoyos made it a point to say that his, or other business representative organizations, are against “the repression of social movements when they are respectful of the social and economic context” but that CNTE has gone way beyond this point, as they have no respect either for economic activity nor human rights hence the request for an “amparo” (protection) to force the government to “act” to restore peace, as well as traffic freedom.
On Tuesday in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, the local Business Coordinator Council (CCE) chapter sent an open letter to President Enrique Peña Nieto demanding he declare the state of Chiapas “an economic disaster area” given the CNTE blockades of the past 80 days (82 by now) who are stopping business activity with road and airport blockades.
If unheard by the president, CCE leader David Zamora will carry out a “technical stoppage of activities” as of Friday, August 5, in agreement with employees “because we can no longer pay them full wages, nor afford paying benefits such as Social Security and Housing.”
In case their request goes unheeded by President Peña Nieto and state Gov. Manuel Velasco Coello, Zamora said entrepreneurs will shut down all business and industrial activity.
Similar protests are being heard from the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Michoacán where the rage that the CNTE teachers have against the president’s Education Reform is also leading towards economic disaster.
Adding injury to the multiple insults received from the righteous CNTE leaders who claim “we are the offended ones,” president of the national Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin) Manuel Herrera Vega on Wednesday tallied industrial losses at 10 billion pesos ($529 million) and threatened that programmed investment for the affected states of 50 billion pesos would be shelved.
“There must be certainty for new investments and we must speed up the federal support programs from the Special Economic Zones federal program” in which the four affected states are included.
Political reality at this point of this very dangerous game CNTE is playing is that there are only two options. Either Peña Nieto backs down from his Education Reform or uses the Mexican Army (which is really what the guerrilla-prone CNTE teachers are looking for) to remove them from the blockades.
Either option looks bad for Peña Nieto in whose parcel it keeps raining when it is already flooded.
President Enrique Peña Nieto is on vacation until Aug. 8. Ohum!
