Thoughts about the Informe, the CNTE, and Government Inaction/Grayson

Thoughts about the Informe, the CNTE, and Government Inaction/By George W. Grayson

1.     Neither the Federal nor the Mexico City administrations wants a drop of blood spilled amid the volatile atmosphere engulfing Mexico City, lest foes of education and energy reform incur martyrs.  Bloodied heads, broken arms, tear gas attacks would precipitate cries of “victimization,” “government repression,” and “police brutality.”  The media and NGOs would trumpet such accusations, which would swell the ranks of demonstrators in a city with a police force of only 3,500 elements. 

2.     Government Secretary Osorio Chong’s is delivering the Informe in what appears to be a sign of weakness.  In fact, it conforms to the strategy of President Enrique Peña Nieto and Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera to avoid confrontations amid the invasion of the capital by more than 20,000 members of the radical La Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE). Although CNTE leaders have pledged not to disrupt the event, they are leading a march to Los Pinos presidencial residence.  Furthermore, they may not be able to control allied firebrands in Mexican Electricians Union (SME), the UNAM Workers’ Union (STUNAM), and the Francisco Villa Popular Front (FVPM) whose forte is squatting on vacant land.  

3.     Meanwhile, former Mexico City mayors Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who have voiced sympathy for the CNTE, are also spearheading demonstrations again reforming the petroleum sector, which exacerbates the highly-charged atmosphere in the besieged capital, which must cope with a march by UNAM and National Polytechnic Institute students, members of the militant General Union of Mexican Workers (UGTM), and elements of the #YoSoy132 Movement.  Their battle cry is:  “¡El Petróleo es el Nuestro!”—“The Oil is ours!”  Mancera closed DF streets to Sunday bicyclists and a major soccer match, expected to draw 80,000 fans, was rescheduled for tomorrow night (September 2). 

4.     Above all, Peña Nieto’s entourage is trying to avoid Airport 2.   PAN President Vicente Fox (2000-2006) made construction of a new Mexico City airport his number-one public works project.  He and his politically tone-deaf collaborators neglected to co-opt residents with robust property compensation, employment opportunities for area residents, and the relocation of their homes near San Salvador Atenco, Mexico State, the proposed site of the much-needed facility.  Machete-wielding peasants, who opposed the construction, soon attracted acolytes López Obrador, the Barzón debtors’ organization, student activists, dissident union flame-throwers, and other organizations hostile to the government.  In July 2002, state police confronted protesters in a free-for-all in which dozens of people suffered injuries, 15 hostages were seized, and a five-day crisis ensued until Fox threw in the towel.  This capitulation came four months after the Senate vetoed the president’s planned trip to the U.S. and Canada.  Two years into his sexenio, the Mexican leader became a lame-duck.

5.     If Peña Nieto can’t resolve the acrimonious dispute with the CNTE, he will have difficulty enacting even more vital measures such as permitting a form of risk contracts in which private firms that invest in discovering and producing oil obtain a share of the black gold.  To achieve this objective, he must amend Article 27 of the Constitution, which requires state control of the exploration and development of the nation’s dwindling proven hydrocarbon reserves, especially off-shore, deep-water deposits for which Pemex has neither the know-how nor the equipment to exploit.  Without an overhaul of Mexico’s anachronistic energy statute, the country will find itself importing oil and gas, which now generates one-third of government’s revenues. 

6.     How is La Coordinadora different from the SNTE teachers’ union? The Coordinadora broke off from the SNTE, which its leaders viewed as a lapdog of PRI administrations.  On January 29, 1980, the CNTE launched its strategy of grassroots organization to pressure governors in Oaxaca and other impoverished states to improve the salaries and benefits for its members.  The so-called “democratic” locals were 7 (Chiapas), 9 (Mexico City), and 22 (Oaxaca).  Later, locals 14 (Guerrero) and 18 (Michoacán) joined what became an increasing insurrectionary movement. 
In contrast, the SNTE is bureaucratized, boss-led, politicized, and often cuts deals with candidates who will reward their backing.  In contrast, La Coordinadora exhibits collegial decision-making, holds assemblies of grassroots stalwarts, boasts leaders who are close to their lower-class followers.  In addition, the CNTE disdains Mexico’s “illegitimate” electoral regime, abhors global capitalism, and employs violence to garner higher salaries and more perquisites for teachers in impoverished states.  Not only is the rebellious union just as corrupt “La Maestra” and her minions, it also boasts support from the anarchic, PRD firebrands like René Bejarano and his wife Senator Dolores Padierna thrive on turmoil in Mexico City where they have their base, and deputy from the left-wing Workers’ Party served as a lookout for the CNTE when it drove deputies out of their chamber before they could consummate the educational reform. 

7.     
What is the precedent for the CNTE’s incursion into the capital? The 73,000-member Local 22 in Oaxaca had for 15 years staged strikes and demonstrations to extort benefits from governors, who feared that melees involving small local police force and ruffians would devastate the tourism and commerce.  Thanks to sky-high Christmas bonuses and undeserved productivity incentives, local teachers receive the equivalent of 120 days of salary in benefits.  The government also bought them a house in a middle class area of Mexico City. 

On June 14, 2006, hard-line PRI governor Ulises Ruíz Ortiz refused to be blackmailed. The dinosauric Ruíz dispatched state and local police to break up a three-week strike by CNTE, which was seeking to hike the minimum wage, loft school funding, and jail corrupt officials.  The law-enforcement personnel used bullets and tear gas to destroy the demonstrators’ tents and radio station.  After four hours of combat, the officers were forced to retreat.  The raid led La Coordinadora to become the center-piece of a volatile amalgam of out-of-state teachers, Popular Revolutionary Army guerrillas, hard-line leftist PRD politicos, university radicals, and other malcontents.  Known as the known as the Popular Assembly of Oaxacan Pueblos or APPO, this coalition sparked a civil war that convulsed the Oaxaca capital for seven months, closed down businesses, scared off visitors, and gave rise to deaths, even as the national media, human rights organizations, and NGOs excoriated the impotent Ruíz for “repression.”  
Peña Nieto also wants to avoid Oaxaca-2.

Major CNTE Locals, Leaders, and Relations to Governor*

State	Sección/Local	Leader	Governor’s Role	Students without teachers
Oaxaca	22/73,000 members	Rubén Núnez Ginés	PRD’s Ángel Aguirre Rivera has capitulated to “La Coordinadora”	1.3 million
Guerrero	14 (Call their local the Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de Educación (CETEG)/35,000 members	José Ortega Madrigal	Left-right coalition governor Gabino Cué has blustered that the state will not pay striking teachers.  In fact, he will not penalize the CETEG, which holds him hostage	800,000
Mexico City	9	Francisco Nicolás Bravo	Leftist coalition Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera has refused to use his political capital against the vandals; he fears that bloodshed would redound to the benefit of former mayor Marcelo Ebrard who may be his opponent for the PRD/ left nomination in the 2018 presidential race.
Michoacán	18/30,000 members	Jorge Cázares Torres	PRI Governor Fausto Vallejo y Figueroa preoccupied with the violence among cartels, self-defense groups, and police sweeping the state	1,500 (for reasons of security)
Chiapas	7/15,000 members	Adelfo Alejandro Gómez	Green Party Governor Manuel Velasco Coello has agreed to CNTE union demands	None

·       CNTE claims to have 16 locals