Christian groups in Mexico have taken to the streets in protest of their department of education with one group burning books they believed was laced with “Marxist-communist” indoctrination last week, according to a report.
Parents in Mexico from Christian organizations have taken to the streets in the thousands to oppose new textbooks from the Ministry of Public Education they deem to contain sexual and gender ideology content, according to Mexico News Daily. At least 12,000 people attended.
Aguascalientes is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico.
Parents also burned the books in question in Chiapas, a southern Mexican state bordering Guatemala.
Many of the residents of the town are Evangelical Christians.
“At the elementary school in Chiapas… parents in the community piled up boxes of the new textbooks, doused them with fuel and set them afire,” the outlet reported.
The textbooks from the Mexican education department has mobilized parents into activism.
Over 112,000 signatures were collected in a petition demanding the textbook’s distribution be stopped “because of sexualized and gender ideology content inserted without parental consultation.”
Mexican President López Obrador responded to the protest, claiming parents are “misinformed and manipulated” by a politicized agenda because they believe that the “virus of communism” is baked into the new, free textbooks.
“They have the right to demonstrate. We are free,” he said. The president acknowledged that the textbooks could be improved but maintained the outrage was due to “politicking.”
In response to accusations the books were laced with gender ideology indoctrination, the president denied the claims, stating, “They have been prepared by teachers and experts.”
