Police Remove Protesting Teachers in Historic Heart of Mexico City Mark Stevenson and Adriana Gomez Licon - Associated Press
go to original September 13, 2013

A protest by striking teachers in Mexico City has been ended by riot police using tear gas and water cannons. The demonstrators had been calling for changes to be made to recently introduced education laws. Teachers in Mexico often hold strikes and sit ins to win pay raises and benefits. Al Jazeera's Adam Raney reports from Mexico city. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

MEXICO CITY — Thousands of striking teachers briefly seized control of the historic heart of Mexico City on Friday, blockading the Zocalo plaza armed with metal pipes and wooden clubs. Minutes after a late-afternoon government deadline, riot police started pushing into the area, firing tear gas and ducking hurled rocks in a confrontation culminating weeks of protests against an education reform.

The teachers used steel grates and plastic traffic dividers to block the streets leading into the Zocalo, home to the Metropolitan Cathedral, Templo Mayor and National Palace, some of the city's best-known tourist attractions. Hundreds of Mexico City and federal riot police massed on the other sides of the barriers, then swarmed into the square past the famed Aztec temple, chasing down and arresting protesters.

Mexico's government had promised that Independence Day celebrations, including the traditional presidential shout of independence from a balcony overlooking the square, would take place in Zocalo Sunday and Monday.

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