Eight hundred million pesos. That’s the not insignificant sum the CNTE obtained after several weeks of pressuring the Federal Government and millions of citizens through blockades, tollbooth takeovers, airport occupations, fuel theft and distribution, as well as attacks against citizens and journalists.
The CNTE could very well be, and perhaps should be, considered a cartel. Its conduct during these weeks was that of an organization using illegal methods of pressure to obtain financial gain. Criminals playing at being the heirs of Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa.
Their demands, which they initially claimed were “non-negotiable,” ended up having a price. And that price was 800 million pesos; a figure any criminal organization would be eager to obtain in just 19 days.
I ask: what Mexican business owner, what avocado producer, what farmer or merchant has reported being extorted for 800 million pesos by any criminal group? That’s why I maintain that the CNTE, through pressure and blackmail, obtained an amount that no Mexican cartel has managed to seize in a single act in many years.
We said it from the beginning. From the moment they blocked the first street. From the moment they stole and gave away the first liter of gasoline. What was happening was extortion at the expense of the citizenry, disguised as a “social struggle.”
In the end, it was never about the abominable ISSSTE Law. Nor about the education of thousands of Mexican children. Much less about the rank-and-file teachers.
As is almost always the case, it all came down to money for a select few.
Eight hundred million pesos
It seems that in Mexico, it no longer matters who is right, but who has the power to paralyze a republic… lamentable.
Source: mexicodailypost
