Mexico Teacher Protests Against Mandatory Testing Turn Deadly

Violent clashes between police and members of a radical teachers’ union on Sunday left six people dead and more than 100 injured, officials said.

The violence erupted as anti-riot police moved in to dislodge protesters blocking a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, are opposed to the mandatory testing of teachers as part of Mexico’s sweeping education reform and are also protesting the arrest of union leaders on money laundering and other charges.

In Sunday’s clashes, protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails, and burned vehicles, while Associated Press journalists saw riot police firing on protesters. Clashes took place in several municipalities in Oaxaca, but the most violent were in Nochixtlan, north of the state capital also called Oaxaca.

The violence erupted as anti-riot police moved in to dislodge protesters blocking a highway in the southern state of Oaxaca. Television footage showed chaotic scenes of men running from police as gun fire rang out.

In a late-night press conference, Oaxaca state Gov. Gabino Cue, accompanied by Federal Police chief Enrique Galindo, raised the death toll from the clashes in Nochixtlan to six. They said 53 civilians, 41 federal police agents and 14 state police agents were injured.

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