Morena Mayor who Organized Shock Group That Shot at & Kidnapped Striking Teachers in Oaxaca Resigns

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the May 28, 2026 edition of SV Noticias.

The announcement comes amid a severe social crisis triggered by the violent armed eviction and use of shock troops against teachers from Section XXII who were maintaining a blockade in the Rancho Zapata district. The attack sparked outrage among teachers’ unions and the local Congress, who were already demanding his removal from office and an immediate arrest warrant.

In the text signed by the now former mayor and dated this Wednesday, May 27, López Quero argues that his resignation is an act of personal consistency to allow for ministerial investigations into the civil attack: “I have made the decision to request an indefinite leave of absence from the public office of Constitutional Municipal President of the municipality of San Pablo Villa de Mitla so that the competent authorities can clarify the events that occurred today in the road blockade of our municipality.”

Furthermore, the manifesto adds emphatically: “I do so from the conviction that no position is worth more than the truth and that no authority should become an obstacle to justice fulfilling its function.”

The End of a Cornered Administration

The fall of López Quero marks the climax of a day of high tension in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. Just hours earlier, the leadership of Section XXII of the CNTE teachers’ union and the STEUABJO university union had declared a state of maximum alert, threatening mass mobilizations if the State Prosecutor’s Office did not take legal action against the municipal authority.

Meanwhile, the MORENA caucus in the Oaxaca Congress already had the legal route ready for the Revocation of Mandate or the declaration of Disappearance of Powers in Mitla, stating that “whoever violates the people does not deserve to govern them.”

With Esaú López Quero’s indefinite leave of absence, the Oaxaca State Attorney General’s Office will have free rein to delve deeper into the investigation files regarding the alleged hiring and facilitation of armed civilians to repress the teachers’ protest.