Guatemalan Teachers Block Main Roads
Thousands of Guatemalan teachers blocked on Wednesday the country´s main roads to demand salary rises and to stop the neoliberal policies devoted to privatize the sector.

Traffic to the west and the Mexican border was totally interrupted by a cut on the Inter American highway.

The teachers also blocked the way to the Pacific and the Atlantic, in roads that lead to the border with El Salvador and Honduras, and other road sections.

National Teaching Assembly leader Joviel Acevedo told press on Wednesday the protests would continue until the government meets the commitments assumed in March.

The teachers are demanding funds for elementary and middle school snacks, and school material and properties.

They are also demanding a 12-percent salary rise and prompt monthly payments for hired teachers.

They also rejected a neoliberal educational reform boosted by the authorities, the objective of which is privatizing education.

The Education Ministry began write reports against the protest leaders.

They have planned to continue the talks between the teachers and the Education ministry in the coming hours, with Cardenal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño and Human Rights Attorney Sergio Morales as mediators.

The strike covers most of the 17,400 state schools in the country, according to reports by spokespersons of the National Teaching Assembly.