Protesting Teachers Clashed With Police 4 Dead

A state official said a police officer died in the clashes.

According to Isabel Garcia, a member of the union's political commission, three people supporting the protests were killed. She did not confirm whether they were teachers.

In total four people are dead in southern Mexico after protesting teachers clashed with police over education reforms.

Reports say that police fired on protesters who had blockaded roads and burned vehicles in the municipality of Nochixtlan in southern Oaxaca state.

Federal police described the protests as the most aggressive seen in the region, saying that protesters even took a police officer hostage. 

In the municipality of San Pablo Huitzo, authorities said the violence lasted for hours, and in the western state of Michoacan, shopping malls and train lines were blocked and bus services had to be cancelled.

Protesters burned federal police buildings in Oaxaca City and police had to remove people who were blocking a major road in Tehuantepec.

The National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) union is fighting the imposition of mandatory teacher testing, which is part of a series of government reforms. 

It is also angry about the arrest of union leaders.

Federal prosecutors say they set up an illegal financial network to pay for protests and line their own pockets, using this between 2013 and 2015, as they effectively controlled the payroll of Oaxaca's teachers.