Mexican police clash with teachers’ union protesters

MEXICO CITY — The long-simmering dispute between Mexico’s federal government and a radical arm of the country’s teachers’ union erupted into violence over the weekend, as riot police clashed with protesters in the southern state of Oaxaca, leaving at least six dead and more than 100 others wounded.

Teachers canceled classes in Oaxaca on Monday after the violence, at which protesters threw rocks and molotov cocktails and set vehicles ablaze. Witnesses reported that police fired into the crowds.

The violence marked the bloodiest moment in a conflict that has intensified during the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto. As part of Peña Nieto’s reform agenda, authorities overhauled the public education system, requiring mandatory testing for all teachers.

The National Coordinator of Education Workers, the dissident faction of the national teachers’ union, has fought those changes by holding repeated protests. Its members, particularly those from the most aggressive branch in Oaxaca, called Section 22, have blocked roads, burned buildings, seized oil-distribution facilities and tried to boycott last year’s midterm elections.

Recently, federal prosecutors accused union leaders of stealing public funds, prompting a new wave of roadblocks, bus stoppages and other civil unrest.

While violence was reported in different parts of Oaxaca on Sunday, the most intense clash occurred in the municipality of Nochixtlan, northwest of Oaxaca city.

EDUARDO VERDUGO/ASSOCIATED PRESS A protester walks with a Mexican flag Monday in Oaxaca state, near the town of Nochixtlan, Mexico. Mexican police say few teachers were involved in violence at a weekend highway protest in which six people died.