The dissident CNTE teachers union broke off talks with the federal government on Wednesday after protesters were violently removed from a blockade they had established in the town of Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca.

CNTE members were in meetings with the Interior Ministry in the capital attempting to resolve long-standing labor issues when news of the attack prompted the teachers to abandon the negotiating table.

The CNTE — led by Oaxaca-based Section 22 of the union — began new protests this week demanding a better wage package than was offered earlier this month and the abrogation of the 2019 Education Reform Law, among other things.

Hundreds of teachers set up a protest camp at the edge of Mexico City’s Centro Histórico on Monday, while members of Section 22 established similar camps in Oaxaca city and elsewhere in that southern state.

In Villa de Mitla — a Pueblo Mágico about 45 kilometers east of the state capital — Section 22 teachers began blockading Federal Highway 90 connecting Oaxaca city to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec on Wednesday morning. Members of the community immediately objected, brandishing stones and threatening to tear down the barricades.

Around noon, Mitla Mayor Esaú López arrived with a contingent of armed men who after a brief dialogue forcibly evicted the protesters. Shots were fired and at least 16 teachers were hospitalized. 

The protesters in Mitla scattered but not before setting fire to a truck alongside the highway and reinforcing their camp in Oaxaca city’s main square. At the same time in Mexico City, CNTE members walked across Alameda Park and blocked a main intersection of Reforma Avenue, wreaking havoc during Wednesday rush hour. 

Mayor López, a member of the ruling party Morena, on Thursday accepted responsibility for Wednesday’s violence, but said the teachers were the aggressors and roughed up some members of his delegation as well as bystanders before shots were fired. He insisted he was not sure where the shots came from.

López submitted a formal request for a leave of absence on Thursday morning, adding that if his actions helped put an end to the constant Section 22 demonstrations he’d gladly accept the consequences. He was later summoned by prosecutors for questioning.

With reports from La Jornada, La Crónica and Proceso