The former director of Educational Materials of the Mexican Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), Marx Arriaga, who was dismissed from his post, was met with shouts and boos at the airport in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, as he returned to his job as a teacher.
Marx Arriaga left his post on Tuesday, ending a four-day siege of his office in Mexico City. He refused to leave after being verbally notified of his dismissal last Friday, demanding an official document. Under pressure from SEP lawyers and police, he finally received the required document and signed it, stating: "This is the minimum a worker should receive."
Arriaga claimed his struggle was not for his position but against attempts to change the textbooks to a "neoliberal" model. He accused SEP head Mario Delgado of orchestrating his dismissal and appealed to President Claudia Sheinbaum. In response, Sheinbaum stated that the textbooks are not anyone's personal property and confirmed that Arriaga had been offered a position at a consulate abroad, which he declined.
Upon arriving in Ciudad Juárez, a group of protesters greeted Arriaga with slogans such as "Arriaga, get out!" and "The books are not yours!". In response, Arriaga accused Delgado of organizing the protest, calling him "a very skillful subject" and stating that his goal is "to change the textbooks to give the business sector an education for the formation of human capital, of crouching workers so that maquiladoras can be set up all over the country and have cheap labor."
"We will continue to fight for a different education, we are returning to our school," Arriaga concluded.
