Oaxaca, Mexico: Lines being drawn in the sand . . . again

An undersecretary for the Secretary of Interior warned the striking teachers that they must be in their classrooms on Monday or the "offers" made by Interior will be withdrawn.

Yawn.

This must be about the 10th time, at least, that one government funtionary or another has issued a warning to the APPO/SNTE bloque. So far, no none seems to be overly impressed by government threats. The SNTE responded that they would not schedule meetings . . . again . . . with the rank and file until Tuesday.

Since the APPO/SNTE had already rejected the offers, after initially accepting them, I don't see any sharp teeth in Interior's warning. APPO spokesmen Flavio Sosa and Alfredo Chiu did respond by "demanding that Interior 'watch its language' and that these types of statements don't help the environment of dialogue and solution."

Environment of "dialogue and solution", eh? What environment of dialogue and solution? The "dialogue and solution" environment here consists of 1.)Demand 2.) Negotiate 3.)Agree 4.)Reject the agreement after 24 hours 5.)Build more barricades, burn more buses, paint more cars, fire more gunshots 6.) Demand more and lament the environment of confrontation 8.) Rinse and repeat.

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TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, hollow threats