Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Teachers in Mexico latest target of extortion

Schools are shutting down across Mexico, as teachers have become the latest targets of extortion:
Since the anonymous threats began last month, when students returned to classes after summer break, hundreds of schools have shut down.
“This isn’t about money, this is about life or death,” Alejandro Estrada, an elementary school teacher, said as he marched in protest with thousands of other teachers down Acapulco’s seafront boulevard last week. “If you don’t pay, you die.”
The word here, in the tough neighborhoods that tumble down the far side of the mountains lining the once-splendid bay, is that everybody is paying protection money: doctors, taxi drivers, local stores.
The latest report from Acapulco is gruesome.
Am I alone in feeling that we ought to be doing something in solidarity with educators in Mexico around this?

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