Mexico police push striking teachers from square in violent clashes

Heavily armed riot police battled thousands of striking teachers Friday, forcing them out of a Mexico City square they had occupied for weeks over education reforms slated to become law on Tuesday.

The government had promised to clear the square -- where Mexican Independence Day celebrations were scheduled to take place -- and moved in three days ahead of the festivities on Friday. Activists reported thousands of police in the area and said they used excessive force to chase teachers from the square.

Teachers -- many of them veterans of battles with police in poor southern states -- armed themselves with metal pipes and wooden clubs and blocked off the Zocalo square with street grates and plastic traffic dividers.

Police swarmed the square shortly after 4 p.m., shooting tear gas from specially-equipped fire extinguishers, tossing sound bombs, and spraying water from armored trucks. Protesters hurled sticks and chunks of pavement broken from the streets.

Activists reported several injuries among protesters, and city officials reported 15 police hurt as protesters seized some plastic riot shields from officers.

Within half an hour, police had cleared the square and union organizers said they would reassemble away from the main plaza at the nearby Monument to the Revolution.

Small knots of teachers, self-described local anarchists and other supporters hurled bottles and rocks at police on some of the main avenues of downtown Mexico City.

According to local activist reports, the police planned to head to the monument to continue dispersing protesters.  

"The president isn't going to give the shout here. Here they are going to listen to the people," said protester and primary school teacher Cesar Perez, who teaches in the impoverished Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca.

The protests were led by the National Education Workers Coordination Committee (CNTE), the smaller of the country's two main teachers unions. The larger union has reportedly supported Pena Nieto's reforms.

The teachers argue that because they are from poor states and don't have the means to enact peaceful change, their main strength is the ability to shut schools and make life inconvenient in Mexico's economic, political and cultural heart.

Teachers have marched through the capital at least 15 times over the last two months against President Enrique Pena Nieto and his educational reforms, which reduce union power by hiring and promoting teachers based on standardized tests.

Scores of students and anarchists have joined the teachers in protests against the president's plan to overhaul the educational system.

Congress has already passed changes to the constitution to overhaul the education system. The changes include requiring teachers to undergo mandatory standardized performance tests to get jobs or promotions, and ending unions' power over hiring.

Many protesters have joined in parallel demonstrations against Pena Nieto's plans to allow private companies to explore and exploit Mexico's vast oil and gas reserves.

Leftist politician and 2012 presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called the oil reform the biggest theft "of all time" and a "robbery of the Mexican people," in an interview with Reuters last month, when tens of thousands of teachers and oil reform protesters clashed in the streets with riot police.

Pena Nieto won the 2012 presidential election with 38.2 percent of the vote. The president's approval ratings so far, around 50 percent, have been surprisingly low for a new president in Mexico -- where 70 or 80 percent popularity is not unusual.

Al Jazeera and wire services