Latin American and Caribbean Educators in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

The following statement by a large coalition of Latin American and Caribbean educators was first published at Otras Voces en Educación, an independent site dedicated to developing critical theory for educational change. Translated by No Borders News.

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Stop the repression against the Black community!

End racism in the United States!

Latin American and Caribbean teachers and educators raise our voices in outrage against the ongoing attacks and murders suffered by the Black community and other minorities residing in the United States. Our peoples are the product of a forced miscegenation carried out during the colonial period and to this day we suffer racialization by a conservative and white supremacist elite.

As teachers who work with our children and adolescents every day, we look on in astonishment as, in the midst of a global economic crisis hitting the poor, our brothers and sisters are killed in the United States, as was the case with the cruel murder of George Floyd on May 20. His death adds to a long list of state crimes against the Black community in the United States. This fact has detonated the anger of the American people.

We share, we believe in, and we will amplify our brothers and sisters’ demands. The teachers and professors of Puerto Rico call for a halt to the repression, adding our voices to those of the North American working class that has unanimously responded by calling for an end to these abuses and outrages. We join with all those who have actively taken to the streets to demand the cessation of institutional violence and disparities in the exercise of justice.

We cannot ignore the fact that Black people and minorities have paid the highest price in terms of lives lost for the failure to effectively confront the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, these very communities are suffering most acutely from the impoverishment and misery forced on the North American working class by the neoliberal economic system. Several generations of Puerto Ricans living in the United States diaspora have experienced violent racist discrimination and intolerance firsthand.

We insist that the demands the North American people are today putting forward in the streets of their main cities be addressed through effective responses to put an end to racial, economic, and judicial disparities. Real actions must be taken to overcome the false racial premises that prevail today.

We demand that the numberous manifestations of racism be eradicated, including:

*Racial “jokes” and derogatory and demeaning racial attitudes.

*A system that “naturally” assigns the lowest-paying and lowest-status positions to those who come from marginalized sectors.

*The “coincidence” between racial background and the absence of government support for adequate schools, health facilities, and employment opportunities.

We embrace the aspirations of our brothers and sisters who are fighting for respect today.

We demand a just society, free from discrimination, inequality, and exploitation in the United States, Latin America, and around the world.

Signed by the following organizations and individuals,

Mercedes Martínez (Secretaria General de la Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico), Pedro Hernández (Secretario General, Comité Ejecutivo de la sección 9 Democrática SNTE-CNTE, México), Luis Edgardo Salazar Bolaños (Secretario General de FECODE, Colombia), Luis Bonilla-Molina (Observatorio Internacional de Reformas Educativas y Políticas Docentes. OIREPOD), Wendy Méndez (CoDevelopment Canadá), Alfredo Velásquez (SUTEP, Perú), Claudia Baigorria (Secretaria Adjunta, CTA-Autónoma, Argentina) Luis Tiscornia (Federación Nacional de Docentes Investigadores y Creadores Universitaries CONADU Histórica, Argentina), Ángel Rodríguez Rivera (Presidente de la Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios, APPU, Puerto Rico), Unión Nacional de Educadores (UNE, Ecuador), Fernando Lázaro/Fernando Santana (Cooperativa de Educadores e Investigadores Populares Histórica, CEIP-H, Argentina), Francisco Torres (secretario gremial de la Federación Nacional Docente, FND-CTA-A y coordinador de Alternativa Docente, ANCLA/MST Argentina), Verónica del CID (Red Mesoamericana de Educación Popular Alforja), Fernando Abrego (Secretario General de ASOPROF, Panamá), Luz Palomino (Centro internacional de Investigaciones Otras Voces en Educación, CII-OVE, miembro de CLACSO), Comité Ejecutivo del Foro Por el Derecho a la Educación (Chile), David Lobâo (Coordinador General del Sindicato Nacional de Servidores Federales de la Educación Básica, Profesional y Tecnológica, Brasil), Unión de Educadores y Trabajadores de la Educación de Puerto Rico, Gustavo Cortés Montiel (Secretario General del sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto de Educación Media Superior de la Ciudad de México, SITRAIEMS, México), Denis Solís (APSE, Costa Rica), César Valdovinos (Centro Internacional de Pensamiento crítico Eduardo del Río, RIUS, México), Yesid González/Carlos Munevar(Red de Maestros y maestras clasista la ROJA, Colombia), Laura García Tuñón (Encuentro entre Docentes y Educadores Populares, ENDYEP, Argentina), Eduardo González (Movimiento por la Unidad Docente, Chile), Richard Araujo (APEOESP, Sindicato dos Profesores da Rede Oficial do Ensino do Estado de Sao Paulo),  Rose Mary Hernández (Foro Venezolano por el derecho a la Educación, FOVEDE, Venezuela), Lev Velásquez (Centro Sindical de Investigación e Innovación Educativa, CSIIE, Michoacán, México), Elisabete Búrigo (Sindicato Nacional de Docentes de la enseñanza Superior, ANDES, Brasil), Vanesa Gagliardi (Comisión directiva de ADEMYS, Argentina), Andrea Lanzette (SUTEBA Multicolor Lanús y Comisión directiva de la CTA-A de Lanús, Argentina), Facundo Fernández (Comisión Directiva AMSAFE Rosario, Argentina), Bessy Berrios (Primer Colegio Profesional Hondureño de Maestros, PRICPHMA),FND/CTA-A (Federación Nacional Docente, Argentina), Anibal Navarrete (Departamento Pedagógico del Regional Bio Bio del Colegio de Profesores, Chile), COAD (Asociación Gremial de Docentes e Investigadores de la Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina), Lourdes de Urbáez (Sociedad Venezolana de Educación Comparada, SVEC, Venezuela),  Luis Sánchez (Secretario General de AEVE, Panamá), Diógenes Sánchez (Coalición Panameña por el derecho a la Educación, Panamá), Marco Raúl Mejía (Planeta Paz, Expedición Pedagógica, Colombia), Luis Bueno (Presidente del Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoría Sindical, CILAS, México), Sandra Lario (Colectivo de Educadores desde el Sur, Argentina), Jorge Cardelli (Se, Interior de la Federación Nacional docente), Sindicato Docente de Chaco (Argentina), Zuleika Matamoros (Movimiento Pedagógico de Base, Venezuela), José Hidalgo Restrepo (Movimiento de Integración Democrática, MID, Colombia), UTEM (Unión de Trabajadores de la educación de Misiones, Argentina), Yorgina Alvarado Díaz (SEC, Costa Rica), SITEP (Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Educación Pampeana, Argentina), APTEA (Asociación Tucumana de Profesores y Educadores de Adultos, Argentina), Carolina Jiménez (Investigadora del Centro de Pensamiento y Diálogo Nacional, Colombia), Daniel Libreros (Docente Universidad Nacional de Colombia), José Cambra (Profesor de la Universidad de Panamá).