Caribbean Times 28th Issue - Monday 14th June 2016

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16 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g Monday 13th June 2016 Violent clashes between teachers and police OAXACA - Teachers belonging to the dissident CNTE union are protesting against the neoliberal education reform of President Enrique Peña Nieto. The ongoing conflict between teachers and the government of Mexico reached a boiling point Saturday night in the city of Oaxaca, with nearly 500 protesters violently evicted from a public square by at least a thousand police officers, La Jornada reported on Sunday. Teachers belonging to the dissident CNTE union were occupying since the headquarters of the Oaxaca State Institute of Public Education, located in the historic center of the capital, as part of the general strike to protest the education reform. Officers began firing tear gas to disperse the teachers, GUERRERO - Teachers have been engaged in a strike since May, demanding the government end testing imposed by a neoliberal education reform. Teachers in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero have allegedly burned down a building that housed offices of the state’s education ministry, Proceso reported on Friday. The action was conducted in the state capital of Chilpancingo to protest the education reforms of President Enrique Peña Nieto. According to local press accounts, personnel inside the building were evicted before a protester set a fire in the first floor of the facility. The teachers belong to a local union called CETEG, which along with the National Coordinator of Education Workers, or CNTE, has been conducting who responded by throwing stick and stones but were ultimately forced to leave the place. They then went to the main square of the city, where they began to built barricades to resist the police onslaught. Greatly outnumbered, they were then forced out of the square as well. The violent night ended when teachers reportedly set fire to a bus, with riots following the detention of the CNTE’s leader in the state, Francisco Villalobos, who was sent to a federal prison on charges of aggravated robbery. CNTE teachers, who are also occupying a public square in Mexico City, have said the detention of Villalobos is “a provocation by the government of Enrique Peña Nieto.” Meanwhile supporters of the dissident leader in Oaxaca have denounced the arbitrary detention of at least seven union leaders as part of what they called “schematic government repression against a general strike since last May demanding the government repeal the teacher testing imposed by the reform. The phone at the union’s headquarters was not answered when teleSUR sought comment. This is the most violent action so far since the strike began. Local authorities say they have already identified the union leaders who led the burning and that arrest warrants have been issued. Peña Nieto unveiled the education reform in 2013 as part of a set of 11 neoliberal structural reforms implemented in his first 20 months of power. Since then teachers have been protesting, mostly in the violent southeast states of Oaxaca, Michoacan, Guerrero and Chiapas, where millions of children have been affected by the strikes. teachers.” Peña Nieto unveiled an education reform in 2013 as part of a set of 11 neoliberal structural reforms implemented in his first 20 months of power. Since then teachers have been protesting, mostly in the violent southeast states of Oaxaca, Michoacan, Guerrero and Chiapas, where millions of children have been affected by the strikes. The controversial law imposes teacher evaluations in order to determine which applicants will be chosen to fill open posts in the public school system nationwide. Critics say the testing only justifies mass layoffs and does not effectively measure teaching skills, like the special knowledge and demeanor needed to teach in rural areas and Indigenous communities. (TeleSUR) Teachers allegedy burn down building in Guerrero The controversial law imposes teacher evaluations in order to determine which applicants will be chosen to fill open posts in the public school system nationwide. Critics say the testing only justifies mass layoffs and does not effectively measure teaching skills, like the special knowledge and demeanor needed to teach in rural areas and Indigenous communities. Education Minister Aurelio Nuño has refused to negotiate any point of the reform and has said he has the support of the Mexican National Educational Workers Union, or SNTE, which is the largest trade union in Latin America, with over 1.4 million members while dissidents have reportedly 200,000 members. (TeleSUR)
Monday 13th June 2016 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g 17 Worst mass shooting in US history: 50 slain at gay nightclub ORLANDO, Florida – It had been an evening of drinking, dancing and drag shows. After hours of revelry, the party-goers crowding the gay nightclub known as the Pulse took their last sips before the place closed. That’s when authorities say Omar Mateen emerged, carrying an AR-15 and spraying the helpless crowd with bullets. Witnesses said he fired relentlessly - 20 rounds, 40, then 50 and more. In such tight quarters, the bullets could hardly miss. He shot at police. He took hostages. When the gunfire finally stopped, he had slain 50 people and critically wounded dozens more in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Mateen, who law enforcement officials said had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a 911 call around the time of the attack, died in a gun battle with SWAT team members. Authorities immediately began investigating whether the assault was an act of terrorism and probing the background of Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen from Fort Pierce, Florida, who had worked as a security guard. The gunman’s father recalled that his son recently got angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami and said that might be related to the assault. Thirty-nine of the dead were killed at the club, and 11 people died at hospitals, Mayor Buddy Dyer said. Jon Alamo had been dancing at the Pulse for hours when he wandered into the club’s main room just in time to see the gunman. “You ever seen how Marine guys hold big weapons, shooting from left to right? That’s how he was shooting at people,” he said. “My first thought was, oh my God, I’m going to die,” Alamo said. “I was praying to God that I would live to see another day.” At least 53 people were hospitalized, most in critical condition, and a surgeon at Orlando Regional Medical Center said the death toll was likely to climb. The previous deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. was the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech, where a student killed 32 people before killing himself. Mateen’s family was from Afghanistan, and he was born in New York. His family later moved to Florida, authorities said. His ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, told reporters that her former husband was bipolar and “mentally unstable.” Mateen was short-tempered and had a history with steroids, she said in remarks televised from Boulder, Colorado. She described him as religious but not radical. He wanted to be a police officer and applied to a police academy, but she had no details. The couple was together for only four months, and the two had no contact for the last seven or eight years, she said. A law enforcement official said the gunman made a 911 call from the club in which he professed allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The official was familiar with the investigation, but was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The extremist group did not officially claim responsibility for the attack, but the IS-run Aamaq news agency cited an unnamed source as saying the attack was carried out by an Islamic State fighter. Even if the attacker supported IS, it was unclear whether the group planned or knew of the attack beforehand. Mateen was not unknown to law enforcement: In 2013, he made inflammatory comments to co-workers and was interviewed twice, according to FBI agent Ronald Hopper, who called the interviews inconclusive. In 2014, Hopper said, officials found that Mateen had ties to an American suicide bomber, but the agent described the contact as minimal, saying it did not constitute a threat at the time. Asked if the gunman had a connection to radical Islamic terrorism, Hopper said authorities had “suggestions that individual has leanings towards that.” Mateen purchased at least two firearms legally within the last week or so, according to Trevor Velinor of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. In a separate incident, an Indiana man armed with three assault rifles and chemicals used to make explosives was arrested Sunday in Southern California and told police he was headed to a Los Angeles-area gay pride parade. The Orlando shooting started about 2 a.m., with more than 300 people inside the Pulse. At 2:09 a.m., Pulse posted on its Facebook page: “Everyone get out of Pulse and keep running.” When he heard shots, Rick dropped to the ground and crawled toward a DJ booth. A bouncer knocked down a partition between the club area and an area where only workers were allowed. People were then able to escape through the back of the club. Mateen exchanged gunfire with 14 police officers at the club, and took hostages at one point. In addition to the assault rifle, the shooter also had a handgun and some sort of “suspicious device,” the police chief said. About 5 a.m., authorities sent in a SWAT team to rescue the remaining club-goers, Police Chief John Mina said. (AP)
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Caribbean Times 28th Issue - Monday 14th June 2016

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