Acapulco Teachers Strike to Protest Extortion

Acapulco, Mexico (ANTARA/AFP) - Around 600 teachers in Mexico's Pacific resort city of Acapulco went on strike this week after being subjected to extortion, local authorities said Thursday. Teachers in four areas of the port city, which has been rocked by gangland-style violence in recent years, received anonymous letters seeking half their salaries in return for personal security, said Julio Bernal, the city's top education official. Teachers in around 80 of Acapulco's 140 schools were taking part in the action, authorities said. Acapulco's teachers received several hundred threatening letters in recent weeks, said a secondary school teacher who declined to be named. "We're in a state of psychosis because we haven't seen some of our colleagues and we don't know if they've been the victims of something or if they're in hiding," she said. The head of education for Guerrero state, where Acapulco lies, asked the teachers to return to work while an investigation was underway. The legendary resort city of Acapulco, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) southwest of Mexico City, is one of the worst hit areas in a wave of drug-related violence across Mexico.