Calls CNTE to respect the vote in the election of sectional committees in Chiapas and Michoacán

Laura Poy Solano

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday March 10, 2023, p. eleven

Leaders of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) demanded, in a meeting with the head of the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), Leticia Ramírez Amaya, that the decision of the magisterial bases is respected in the renewal processes of the sectional committees of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) of Chiapas and Michoacán, considered bastions of teacher dissidence in the country.

In the meeting, held last Wednesday, the general secretaries of section 7 of Chiapas, Pedro Gómez Bamaca; from section 9 of Mexico City, Pedro Hernández Morales; from section 18 of Michoacán, Gamaliel Guzmán Cruz; section 14 of Guerrero, Héctor Torres, and section 34 of Zacatecas, Maura López Aguilar, ratified their rejection that there is any type of interference by the state and federal governments in the processes of renewal of teachers’ leadership.

In an interview, Hernández Morales expressed his opposition to the Regulations for the Election of Sectional Directors imposed by the charra leadership of the SNTE, since it does not guarantee an even floor or the full exercise of the right of all teachers to be elected as part of their union representation.

Gómez Bamaca also highlighted the demand that the governments of the states Take your hands off the election processes of our leaders. In the case of Chiapas, he said, we are going to a process called for next March 14, both in section 7 and in section 40, in good spirits, but alert to any possible state interference.

The leaders of the CNTE pointed out that, in that entity, the local Secretary of Education seeks to hinder the vote by summoning recently qualified teachers to receive their appointment in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez on March 13, that is, one day before the election, which for many would imply not going to vote given the distance that exists between your school zone and the state capital.

They indicated that in the case of Michoacán The state government seeks to intervene in union processes, since it encourages a rupture of the teachers’ bases with a spurious sectional congress, without recognition of the bases or the CNTE.