• FEARS: Around 900 students affiliated to a rural teachers school in the western State of Michoacán (pop. 4.5 million) installed a blockade of crucial rail line raising fears of a replay of a similar protest in January that amounted to an economic loss of USD 104 million.
• DEMANDS: Born in 1922 as a legacy of the Mexican Revolution, the Tiripetío school caters to students vying to become educators for schools in rural areas; know for their high level of activism, the current students demand for the Government to provide job post to each of the 900 protestors.
• KEY LOCATION: Located between the State capital of Morelia and the town of Pátzcuaro, protests by the students from the Tiripetío rural teacher school have frustrated many industry captains that depends access to/from the Pacific Coast ports of Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo.
• IMPATIENCE: “What exactly needs to happen for government to act and do its job? Is it necessary to see a scenario like the beginning of the year where the whole country was collapsed and stopped by students”, Ricardo Bernal Vargas, president of Michoacán’s Industrialists Association (AIEMAC) said.
