Protesting teachers block Mexico president from daily televised address

Record ID: 1634018

  • Title: Protesting teachers block Mexico president from daily televised address
  • Date: 27th August 2021
  • Summary: TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, MEXICO (AUGUST 27, 2021) (REUTERS) PROTESTERS SURROUNDING PRESIDENT'S VEHICLE PROTESTERS BLOCKING THE STREET
  • Embargoed: 10th September 2021 18:54
  • Keywords: Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tuxtla Gutierrez protest teachers
  • Location: TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, MEXICO
  • City: TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, MEXICO
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: South America / Central America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA003ES24LL3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Mexican teachers in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Friday (August 27) blocked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from entering a venue in the regional capital where he was due to hold his daily televised news conference.
    The leftist president was forced to deliver his remarks via a video call on his phone from a car in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, while inaudible protesters shouting and speaking on a megaphone could be heard in the background.
    Mexican teachers often strike, and Lopez Obrador has previously praised powerful teaching unions that have in the past protested, sometimes violently, against centrist and right-wing Mexican governments.
    The latest protests were related to the most recent teaching reforms, Mexican newspapers said.
    Since assuming office in December 2018, Lopez Obrador has used his morning news conferences - which begin at 7 a.m. and can last over two hours - to set the political agenda and take critics to task.
    By midmorning, la mañanera, as the morning news conference is colloquially known, was trending on Twitter in Mexico.
    Most of the morning news conferences take place in Mexico City, but he sometimes conducts them while travelling around the country.
    "They have a right to protest. We will respect that," Lopez Obrador said, in reference to the teachers, his video message transmitted on a screen in the background of an empty lectern and the Mexican flag.
    "I will stay here as long as necessary."
    (Production: Jacob Garcia, Rodolfo Penaroja, Nina Lopez)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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