Alfonso Cepeda, general secretary of the SNTE, assured that 45,000 teachers attended the event. He assured that, although the union body was responsible for the cost of the trucks that transported them, assistance was voluntary.
The teachers traveled from the State of Mexico, Morelos and Tlaxcala. Some who reside in the capital also attended. They arrived at 2 in the morning to get a good space in the Zócalo of Mexico City, where Sheinbaum celebrated the seven years since the arrival of the Morena party to the Presidency.
“We have to reciprocate to the 4T government for how well it has treated us,” Cepeda told the media after participating in the rally.
Since Cepeda leads the SNTE, this union, considered the largest in Latin America, has become closer to Morena. He even achieved a senatorship under the shelter of this party.
As another show of support, he promised to affiliate 5 million people to Morena. Last September, Cepeda declared that one million 350,000 teachers have already become militants.
The union leader justifies this closeness with the government by arguing that the Moreno administrations have met the union’s demands. Sheinbaum raised the teacher salary 9% last May and his predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, did the same.
“In the world we are an example of how President Andrés Manuel was attentive to us during the pandemic. López Obrador, and we had, in the doctor’s first year, an excellent salary response,” he declared.
By 2026, it expects salary increases to continue and the provision of positions to about 500 teachers.
“We hope that next year we can reach the same level as the minimum wage, which is 13%,” he added.
