CNTE

The Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) is Mexico's dissident national teachers' union, formed in 1979 as an opposition current within the official SNTE union. It has historically mobilised in southern states — particularly Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacán, and Chiapas — but its actions regularly extend to Mexico City. The CNTE operates outside the corporatist framework that ties the SNTE to the ruling party and has a record of street occupations, work stoppages, and sustained encampments to press demands around pay, pensions, and education policy.

On the morning of 11 June 2026, the CNTE erected a tent encampment at the Zocalo — Mexico City's central square and the designated official FIFA fan zone for the World Cup opening day — demanding restoration of pensions under the 2007 ISSSTE programme and higher wages. Families of Mexico's more than 130,000 disappeared also gathered alongside the encampment, converting the site into a combined labour and human-rights protest.

President Claudia Sheinbaum offered 18 alternative free-viewing venues across the city in response, saying only 'Let's see how things develop with the teachers.' The occupation formed part of a broader wave: nineteen social movements had planned demonstrations during the opening week, using the global visibility of the World Cup to amplify unresolved domestic grievances.