Angry teachers paralyze Mexico City with protests

Mark Stevenson:

This sprawling metropolis of honking cars and 22 million harried people has been brought to its knees, not by an earthquake or its ominous smoking volcanoes, but rather a small contingent of angry school teachers.

Some 10,000 educators protesting a government reform program have in the span of a week disrupted international air travel, forced the cancellation of two major soccer matches, rerouted the planned route of the marathon and jammed up already traffic-choked freeways.

The disruptions have shown how little it takes to push a city that is snarled on a good day over the edge.

Taxi drivers are so desperate they are refusing fares to certain frequently blocked parts of the city, and residents have turned to urban survival skills - driving the wrong way down streets, using rental bikes, clambering over fences and piling into the back of police pickups to get to their destinations.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at August 29, 2013 12:30 AM
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