Teachers and Guerrero families campaign for elections boycott
10:57
JINHA
NEWS CENTER – In Guerrero and Oaxaca, teachers have occupied state facilities in support of the call for a boycott of Mexico's Sunday election. Meanwhile, police opened fire with tear gas on families of the disappeared peacefully organizing for the boycott in Guerrero.
Teachers in Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas have burned ballots and occupied state facilities in support of the boycott. The teachers' union CNTE, which has around 100,000 members across Mexico, has been on an indefinite strike since Monday. The teachers are denouncing widespread corruption around the elections in addition to the introduction of an "evaluation" process for teachers.
CNTE teachers have occupied and blockaded the Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan International Airport in Oaxaca; a refinery in Oaxaca; and a number of elections centers in several provinces.
The families of the disappeared in Guerrero have organized into committees and been flyering to convince local people to boycott the elections. Riot police have been provoking clashes with the women, according to CIMAC women's news agencies. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets into a tunnel as the families of the disappeared students, as well as current students, were going through it yesterday in Tixtla.
"We aren't carrying any arms or dangerous things; we are just looking for the 43 lives, nothing more," said Berta Nava Martínez, the mother of a young man assassinated in Iguala, speaking to CIMAC.
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