Mexican schools appear increasingly vulnerable to the country’s drug violence, with five human heads dumped outside one school and threats of a grenade attack on another in the past week alone.
From northern border areas to Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, to the port of Veracruz, on the Gulf of Mexico, the trend has seen parents keep their children at home as both students and teachers see themselves as targets.
The five decomposing heads were found near an elementary school on Tuesday last week in the port city of Acapulco, where teachers have been on strike for nearly a month to seek better security and protest extortion attempts on their salaries.
In Veracruz — where 49 bodies were dumped on roads within three days this month — parents are increasingly hesitant to send youngsters to class, fearful of armed clashes nearby between the Zetas drug gang and a mysterious new group called the “Zeta Killers.”
Hundreds of parents rushed to take their children out of schools in Tierra Blana, in Veracruz state, after warnings of heavy police deployments spread on social networks last week.
Beyond threats linked to drug gangs, violence threatening children and teachers has also occurred in recent weeks inside schools, including in northeastern Sinaloa and northern Nuevo Leon states.
In Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa, teachers protested on Thursday in front of the state congress to call attention to growing theft and attacks in classrooms.
“The community has organized itself and decided not to send children to school until we receive promises from the authorities,” said Lourdes Sarabia, director of the National Union of Education Workers of Culiacan.
The mayor of the town of Santiago, in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon, called for calm on Friday after messages threatening grenade attacks on schools spread fear through the population.
“It’s logical that people panicked. Fear spreads after the appearance of four banners announcing grenades would be thrown at schools,” Vladimiro Montalvo said. “We’ve asked for help from the army and the police, who are patrolling in the area.”
Around a dozen men were detained in relation to the banners on Friday.
The fears appear excessive, but are “part of the deterioration of daily life in some communities, as violence affects civilians in public places,” said Javier Oliva, an expert in security issues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
At the end of August, armed men even shot at parents waiting for their children in front of a school in the notoriously violent norther border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing a teenager and injuring four women.
The challenge in schools was shown months earlier at the end of May, when a teacher in the northern city of Monterrey received an award for distracting a class of five and six-year-old pupils by making them sing as a shootout occurred nearby.
Perhaps the biggest drama though has played out in violence-plagued Acapulco, where thousands of teachers have demonstrated and almost 200 schools in the area have been paralyzed by a month of strike action to persuade authorities to improve security amid extortion threats.
Teachers and local government officials last week came to a deal to return to classrooms today, but it was unclear if the unions would give up the negotiations.
Two weeks ago, the government said classes would resume, after they promised to install panic buttons in schools and police patrols nearby, but the protest continued.
Acapulco street seller Elizabeth Garcia, a 26-year-old mother of two, said she felt calmer keeping her kids at home.
“I don’t know if it’s better that they don’t go to school, but at least I know where they are,” Garcia said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was