CNTE
El Financiero, May 28th, 2025
The Mexico we know was built by the winners of the civil wars we call the Mexican Revolution. Although those who triumphed during the armed phase were the Sonorans, they made the mistake of turning on one another, handing over the spoils to a subordinate group that, during the fifteen years of Sonoran dominance, managed to build regional bases of support. The governors of Michoacán, Puebla, Veracruz, Tabasco, San Luis Potosí, and the State of Mexico distributed land in exchange for political support and promoted labor organization when the first of them rose to power.
From there, Mexico was transformed through a corporatist system in which everyone had a place in exchange for subordination. Following the path laid out by the last Sonoran leader in the Grito de Guadalajara, they built an educational system to “take hold of children’s minds.” That was the mission of education: to teach Mexicans from an early age to know their place, to indoctrinate them with the mythical history that legitimized those who had seized power, and to provide minimal tools for them to join the workforce—but always in a subordinate role. That is why, I believe, Mexico achieved competitive average scores on the PISA test, but not when looking at the “excellence” groups.
The result of that educational system is a population capable of participating in production—as long as the tasks don’t require too many skills. It can sustain an assembly-based industry, but not much beyond that.
But that educational system was also part of the union structure. Unlike industrial unions, which lost ground as the economy opened up to the world (and as services became more important), unions whose employer is the government have been able to survive and grow. A union leader tends to outlast the cabinet secretary who serves as his counterpart. There are no quality metrics, nor instruments to achieve quality, resulting in an organization that exists to extract rents from the government—that is, from taxpayers.
That is the SNTE (National Union of Education Workers), which gained independence from the government during the democratic transition and became a power broker over the next two decades. Within it, a radical group that emerged in the 1960s became the Coordinadora—the CNTE (National Coordination of Education Workers)—which took control of union sections in Oaxaca, Chiapas, Michoacán, and Tabasco, although it has occasionally managed to expand its client base. This group, in addition to looting the state like the SNTE does, has the objective of promoting socialist revolution. As part of a prolonged people's war, they don’t just extract resources—they seek to impose their ideology. It’s no surprise that students in those states consistently receive the lowest scores on evaluations.
Because of the power of the SNTE, any serious education reform had to begin by organizing the administration and the union. That wasn’t easy—and even less so without public support to promote and implement it. Like the other structural reforms, education reform generated backlash from those who lost out, and its advocates were unable to build an equally strong force in support.
Those harmed by the reforms—crony capitalists and union leaders—backed the candidate who assured them he would dismantle the reforms. You know the rest. The CNTE was part of that process, received its payment, and has now returned to its traditional behavior.
For thirty years, they advanced with their now-vanished ally, looting the government and holding the public hostage. Now they’re back, adding to the chaos. The original excuse was a pension reform. The real motive—only the disappeared one knows.