CETEG TEACHERS REDECORATE SNTE HQ

This article by Laura Poy and Alexia Villaseñor first appeared in the June 5, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier leftist daily newspaper.

Mexico City. After nearly three hours of protesting in front of the central building of the SNTE (National Education Union), the CETEG (Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación de Guerrero) teachers decided to withdraw their contingents, who are now marching through the streets surrounding the Ministry of Public Education toward their encampment in the capital’s main square.

The intense plume of smoke generated by the burning of various objects accelerated the withdrawal of the contingents, who will decide the direction of the national strike this afternoon in their National Representative Assembly (ANR).

CETEG leaders stated that “today we come to express our affection for the charrismo union, and to remind them that we teachers in the mountains and highlands have no money to offer our students, while in our union offices there is only luxury and waste.”

Protests Began Early Thursday

Dissident teachers, mainly from the State Coordinator of Education Workers of Guerrero (Ceteg), with their faces covered, entered the SNTE building at noon and tried to break down the main entrance door.

They gathered in front of the headquarters of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), where some teachers used a sledgehammer to strike one of the main entrances.

Meanwhile, thousands of teachers from Section 22 of Oaxaca gathered from the Section 9 headquarters at Belisario Domínguez 32 to the corner of Plaza de Santo Domingo.

On the 22nd day of their protest, the dissatisfied teachers are demanding, in addition to the repeal of the 2007 Law of the Institute of Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), the dismissal of the secretary general of the SNTE, Alfonso Cepeda Salas.

The majority of the teaching contingent remained on the lookout for a group of educators to enter the national headquarters of the teachers’ union.

They Enter the Main Entrance

After more than an hour of beating on the metal door leading to the SNTE offices with sledgehammers and sticks, around twenty teachers, their faces covered, managed to remove one of the metal panels from the main entrance, as well as several tubes from the steel curtain that protects the entrance to the teachers’ union.

Dissatisfied teachers chant slogans such as “Hey, hey, hey, the charros are falling!” and “Charros of the SNTE, the bill is pending.”

At 12:38 p.m., about twenty teachers with their faces covered managed to open the five metal doors that protected access to the SNTE headquarters.

“Yes, we did it, yes, we did it!” chanted the CETEG teachers, who convened a “decoration committee” to enter the building and paint some graffiti. On Venezuela Street, in front of the SNTE building, one of the metal sheets protecting it reads: “Cepeda, traitor: CNTE,” while some educators set fire to two vests bearing the SNTE initials.

At another point during the protest, a teacher displays a picture of Alfonso Cepeda Salas on one of the Ceteg vehicles. Despite the fact that the main entrance to the building was opened, only a small group of teachers have been allowed inside.

Shortly after 1:10 p.m., CETEG teachers called on their colleagues who remained inside the SNTE building to leave.

Meanwhile, the burning of objects taken from inside the building continued, including chairs, speakers, caps, T-shirts, cardboard boxes, trash cans, and pictures of the national leader of the SNTE, Alfonso Cepeda Salas.