Violence without dialogue leads to a dead end: Toledo

By Ismael García and Sonia Sierra

Mexican painter Francisco Toledo regretted the crisis in Mexico and said that in the case of Oaxaca, politicians and teachers did not learn the lesson from the 2006 conflict: that violence without dialogue leads to a dead end.

"In this country the life of citizens is not respected, there is a mess, chaos, and we do not understand what is happening," Toledo said in an interview.

"The other (conflict) also cost lives, the city suffered, citizens too, we all had a bad time and we thought it would not happen again, but apparently that is where we are heading," he said about the roadblocks, clashes, deaths and injuries.

He volunteered to mediate between the Section 22 of the National Coordination of Education Workrs (CNTE) and federal and state authorities, "even though I did it in 2006 and it did not help much. Now the situation is different, I think it is time to avoid more damage."

The National Prize for Arts and Sciences, and recipient of Prince Claus and Right Livelihood awards, welcomed the initiative of reverend Alejandro Solalinde, among others, to create a mediation committee and hoped that this “calms things down."

Patronato Pro Defensa y Conservación del Patrimonio Cultural y Natural de Oaxaca (Pro-Oax), an organization founded by Toledo, said that the teachers' demands must be addressed immediately through dialogue.

"We do not agree with extreme measures such as roadblocks to demand dialogue with the federal government, but we also condemn the excessive use of force and the violation of constitutional guarantees of the inhabitants of Oaxaca by the Federal Police," Pro-Oax said in a statement.

Toledo added that his contribution to dialogue would be raising the subject of bilingual education in Mexico and Oaxaca, because many people, especially in the north of the country, in San Quintín, need a bilingual education.