ConflictBarometer_2016

THE AMERICAS
2012/13 education reform promoted by the federal government.
Sporadically, smaller unions and teacher trainees,
so-called normalistas, joined them. Roadblocks and protest
marches represented major instruments of contention and
grew in frequency from May on.
On May 15, for instance, around 15,000 CNTE-affiliated teachers
in Chiapas, Estado de Mxico, the Federal District, and
Oaxaca organized strikes, blockades, and marches calling
upon the government to revoke the education reform. In response,
the government deployed 15,000 soldiers to Chiapas
one week later, intending to reestablish order. On May 25 and
26, three policemen and nine unionists were wounded during
demonstrations in Tuxtla Gutirrez, Chiapas. While protesters
hurled stones and used clubs, police responded with tear gas.
Clearances of roadblocks triggered violent clashes, as on June
10, for example, near Tamult de las Sabanas, Tabasco state,
when some 25 protesters and policemen were injured. Police
used rubber bullets and tear gas, while protesters threw
Molotov cocktails. Protests in Nochixtln, Oaxaca, on June
19, escalated when police killed eight teachers, six of them
by gunfire. Moreover, around 155 protesters and 43 policemen
were left injured in the most violent encounter since the
launch of the CNTE's anti-reform protest in 2013.
The latter used rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the
crowd, whereas protesters threw stones and incendiary devices.
On July 26, the human rights ombudsman for Oaxaca,
Arturo Peimbert Calvo, confirmed infringements of human
rights by federal police during the Nochixtln protests.
During their protests, CNTE members repeatedly hijacked
and torched buses. Over the year, CNTE had hijacked 200
buses for more than four months. On December 1, the National
Chamber of Bus Transportation, Passenger Services and
Tourism reported considerable financial losses. In reaction to
the increase in roadblocking in Oaxaca and Guerrero the government
established an air bridge for food supplies to both
states on June 30.
CNTE showed solidarity with normalistas, as on September
25, when they joined a march commemorating the second
anniversary of the forced disappearance of 43 normalistas
[→ Mexico (public security].
Following the Nochixtln protest, the government agreed to
reestablish dialogue on June 21 which, however, failed six
days later. Throughout July, several round tables for mediating
between CNTE and government representatives took
place, all of which finished without formal agreements. Despite
ongoing protests, Peña Nieto stated on July 15 that the
reform would remain unaltered. jok
MEXICO (DRUG CARTELS)
Intensity: 5 | Change: | Start: 2006
Conflict parties: drug cartels vs. vigilante groups vs.
government
Conflict items: subnational predominance, resources
The war over subnational predominance, illegal drugs, and
natural resources between various drug cartels, vigilante
groups, and the government under President Enrique Peña Nieto
continued. The most active drug cartels were the Sinaloa
Cartel, Los Zetas, Los Caballeros Templarios (LCT), and the
Gulf Cartel (CDG). Guerrero, Tamaulipas, and Michoacán were
the most affected states. July was the month with the highest
number of homicides since mid-2011. Additionally, cartel
infighting remained highly violent [→ Mexico (inter-cartel violence,
paramilitary groups)].
Guerrero remained a hotspot of violence. On January 27,
3,500 members of the military and 200 federal police (PF) officers
started the third and largest federal security intervention
in the state since the beginning of the conflict, named
''Operation Chilapa.” On August 23, between 100 and 150
heavily armed cartel members opened fire on 15 PF officers
entering General Heliodoro Castillo town. The four-hour
shootout left three police officers and three criminals dead
as well as two officers wounded.
Levels of violence in the north-eastern border state of
Tamaulipas stayed high. On March 13, CDG and Los Zetas
members attacked a navy patrol in the city of Reynosa. The
marines killed ten cartel members while the latter injured
four navy forces. Between April 25 and 27, marines killed ten
CDG members in Reynosa. On August 25, in the municipality
of Miguel Alemán, five PF officers were left with burns and
two with gunshot wounds when suspected CDG members in
a pickup truck threw a spike strip at apolice patrol vehicle
and fired at the petrol tank. On September 3, ten Los Zetas
members were killed in several shootouts with the military in
the city of Nuevo Laredo.
Between April 11 and 12, PF arrested 22 suspected members
of the local Los Viagras Cartel as part of operations launched
in the municipalities of Apatzingán, Parácuaro, Uruapan, and
Zamora, Michoacán state. Subsequently, cartel supporters
blocked highways, burned vehicles, and set three service stations
and stores on fire in 14 towns. On September 6, LCT
shot down a helicopter of the Public Security Ministry in the
municipality of La Huacana, which had assisted federal and
state security forces on the ground pursuing a LCT vehicle
convoy oflocal cartel leader Ignacio ''El Cenizo” Rentería Andrade.
Four crew members died and one was injured. The
previous week, PF had seized two rocket launchers and three
anti-tank missiles during a raid in a nearby LCT hideout. De-
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