CNTE Teachers Thwart Right Wing Party Assembly

ByMexico Solidarity

This article by Jorge A. Pérez Alfonso originally appeared in the October 27, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Santa Cruz Amilpas, Oaxaca. Shouting: “No forgiveness, no forgetting, punishment for the murderers!”, teachers from the Valles Centrales region affiliated with Section 22 of the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) boycotted the state constituent assembly of Mexico Nuevo, a party that former governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (2004-2010) intends to found.

Yesterday at 9:00 a.m., teachers gathered at the corner of Ferrocarril Avenue and Constitución Street in the municipality of Santa Cruz Amilpas and marched toward the district’s sports complex, where the assembly was scheduled to take place an hour later.

The mentors entered the site under the watchful eye of National Electoral Institute (INE) employees, who would certify their political activity.

Ulises Ruiz is accused of repressing the teaching profession in 2006, which led to a political and social movement in which more than 20 people were murdered, according to the teachers.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and “Ulysses, murderer, the score is due,” the educators shouted as they entered, removing and throwing chairs in the air.

They also destroyed and burned banners of Mexico Nuevo while Sofía Castro, the association’s coordinator in the state, watched.

The INE workers, as well as the assembly participants, left through the back door, while the teachers advanced toward the podium.

The protesters chased after Sofía Castro, Ruiz Ortiz’s nominee for governor in the upcoming elections. She has served as a local and federal legislator for the Institutional Revolutionary Party. The teachers followed her, shouting and chanting slogans against her and Ulises Ruiz.

The woman left the place accompanied by her team, and they dispersed among the people.

América Reyes Luna, a member of the Oaxaca State Coordinator of Education Workers, which is also part of Section 22, pointed out that the teachers’ movement has not forgotten the affronts committed by the former leader against teachers and the people of Oaxaca, and therefore will not allow activities like this assembly to take place.

“The Central Valleys region will pursue him”

He stated that the Valles Centrales region will pursue him throughout its territory if necessary, as they have not forgotten the murders committed, nor the dozens of people who disappeared in 2006, the year in which he repressed the social movement with the police, but also with the creation of the “caravans of death,” armed groups that attacked the various barricades set up in the city of Oaxaca and its outskirts.

Meanwhile, Álvaro Carrillo, a member of the Popular Revolutionary Front, stated that in Oaxaca, Ruiz Ortiz is persona non grata, and considered that the former governor should be in jail for the multiple human rights violations committed during his administration and crimes against humanity, such as murder, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

After the failed event, Ulises Ruiz posted a video on social media, in which he asserted that “the government of the Republic does not want opposition parties.”

He called the protesters “hired vandals” and “criminals disguised as teachers’ or social movements,” and maintained that “they fear us, because New Mexico is going to restore order to this country.”

The former head of the state executive branch also held President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, “governors, governors, and other authorities” “directly responsible” for any future attacks against activists and leaders of Mexico Nuevo.

He stated that “these acts, paid for and protected by the government itself, are intended to subdue and frighten us, but on the contrary, they strengthen us to move forward,” and he stated that his movement will continue “regardless of the acts of vandalism.”