By Nancy Caouette
MEXICO CITY
Thousands of teachers and school employees from Guerrero state blocked the road leading to Acapulco international airport on Tuesday, forcing dozens of passengers to walk at least a mile to catch their flights.
Members of CETEG, the largest state teachers union, marched in Acapulco to demand salary payment for support staff who have not been paid for weeks, according to the union.
The teachers said they also walked for 43 missing students who disappeared five months ago in the city of Iguala, also in Guerrero state.
The school employees, who came from the state’s seven districts, said they wanted to meet with authorities, adding they will “use more radical actions” if their demands are not met.
Luis Miranda, a union spokesman, told a local radio station that its group could interrupt the Mexican Open, an international tennis tournament that began Monday. It could also disturb operations at Acapulco international airport if government representatives do not meet with the union.
At least 1,000 police officers from the state were deployed to quell the protest.
About 130 miles (211 kilometers) north of Acapulco, relatives and classmates of the missing students also marched Tuesday in Iguala, where the 43 boys, students of the teacher training college of Ayotzinapa, disappeared Sept. 26.
The protest was also an opportunity for the relatives to draw media attention on the day Mexico’s government celebrates the nation’s flag, first adopted in Iguala in 1821 after the country’s Independence War.
Another march is planned in Mexico City next Thursday to protest the students disappearance. The march is scheduled to end in front of Los Pinos, the presidential residence.
Only one of the 43 missing students have been identified. A team of Austrian experts from Innsbruck University is processing DNA from ashes found near Iguala, that the government says are the students' remains.
