The inaction or “omission” on the part of the government to stop the political onslaughts from the minority National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) union has deeply divided Mexican society.
The guerrilla warfare road blockading tactics CNTE unionists have used for the past three months have not merely made a chink in the economic armor of the nation’s four poorest states, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, but has literally brought them down to their knees.
The reaction from the entrepreneurial community was to sue President Enrique Peña Nieto, Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong and Education Secretary Aurelio Nuño for “omission” in their duties as government officials.
Claudio X. González, of the non-government organization made up of businessmen, Mexicans First, charged Interior Secretary Osorio Chong of showing “a pitiful weakness, as the message he’s sending (to CNTE teachers in negotiations) is to ‘devote yourself to crime, to vandalize, to blockade roads and airports, burn trucks and buses and blockade railways. When you’re through I will welcome you with a red carpet and give you all you want.”
Statements like this as well as the suit filed by top echelon business organizations definitely had an impact on Interior Secretary Osorio Chong, who in a radio interview defended the government’s “pathetic” stance in negotiating with CNTE.
“We have been talking with the business sector but now that we are nearly on our way out (with CNTE), we suddenly see these manifestations, these petitions as if we had not advanced, as if things were not different … this is the first time I see them organized when, I insist, we’re on our way out.”
Osorio Chong says that having convinced the CNTE to retire the 17 blockading points they put on the Port Lázaro Cárdenas railroad exit was a “victory,” as well as convincing the teachers to allow for the celebration of the yearly traditional dance festival in Oaxaca City known as the Guelaguetza.
But what Secretary Osorio sees as a successful negotiation, business leaders see as a loss to the entire industrial community as the week-long blockade of the Port Lázaro Cárdenas railroad was estimated to have cost $37 million.
And at the Guelaguetza, CNTE teachers blockaded several of the entrances to the facility where the folk dance fiesta was held, but ticket holders managed to sneak-in anyway to enjoy this wonderful show.
But what hurt the administration the most was the behavior of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers (Concamin) which had agreed with President Peña Nieto to invest 50 billion pesos ($2.6 billion) in his pet projects to develop ports Lázaro Cárdenas, Salina Cruz and Chiapas into “Special Development Zones,” namely, industrialize their potential and help develop the states of Michoacán, Oaxaca and Chiapas, where at least 20 percent of the poorest of Mexicans live. They withdrew their investment plea thanks to the CNTE blockades.
Naturally the CNTE leaders called the “threat” not to invest “blackmail on the part of Concamin” and the threat to stop paying taxes by other organizations, such as the Concanaco-Servytur and Coparmex, was deemed “unacceptable” and unconstitutional by deputies from all parties who demand that businessmen “abide by the law.”
The solons, says a pundit, are “faking dementia,” as the CNTE-promoted business devastations in southern Mexico states have not been part of the solution.
This is exactly the same thing businessmen are demanding from the CNTE protesters, who have caused this situation on their quest to repeal President Peña Nieto’s Education Reform.
By the way, there is no way CNTE can topple this piece of legislation now in effect at the Public Education Secretariat. But they have sworn to continue on their economically disastrous “war against the government.”
In fact, the Chiapas teachers have already threatened to go on strike next Aug. 22, the day the 2016-2017 school period is slated to start. There’s no let up, they insist.
In case you’re wondering where the conflict is leading up to, your guess is as good as anyone else’s.
For the business community, however, it is clear that the Peña Nieto administration has been unable to quench the CNTE leaders thirst for political power and has created a new war front that was not there a week ago. Their financial losses merit their concern.
But do the CNTE teachers or the government care about wreaking financial havoc?
It just doesn’t look like it!
