Latin America

Meeting of Latin American EI member organisations in Costa Rica

Leaders of EI member organisations in Latin America met in San José from 20-22 September to deepen the campaign against education privatisation across the region. Under the theme, “Educar, no lucrar” (Educating, not profiting), union leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay shared their national experiences and national campaign plans.

EI’s Angelo Gavrielatos and Mar Candela also attended the meeting.

Global Response Campaign meeting in Peru

EI’s member organisation in Peru, the Sindicato Único de Trabajadores por la Educación del Perú(SUTEP), met from 25-27 September to plan a new campaign in defence of public education. The meeting comes against a backdrop of rapidly expanding privatisation of education in the country.

Committing to the goals of the Global Response Campaign, SUTEP General Secretary Alfredo Velasquez condemned the privatisation of education in Peru and urged parents’ and students’ movements to join his union’s campaign. Research commissioned by EI into the privatisation of education in Peru will be released in February 2018.

ANDE National Congress in Costa Rica

From 24-25 October, in San José, EI’s Gabriela Sancho and Simón Avilés joined the Asociación Nacional de Educadores(ANDE) in Costa Rica for their National Congress.

Launch of research on privatisation in education in Uruguay

From 24-28 October, EI’sCombertty Rodriguez and Gabriel Castro travelled to Montevideo, where they met with Angelo Gavrielatos and Mar Candela to launch research into the privatisation of education in Uruguay.

The Federación Nacional de Profesores de Enseñanza Secundaria(FENAPES) and the Federación Uruguaya de Magisterio - Trabajadores de Educación Primaria(FUM-TEP) mobilised significant media coverage around the research and attention from different actors, such as union members, the national parliament’s Education and Culture Committee, and the general public.