Mexico began airlifting basic foods to subsidised shops in the southern state of Oaxaca Thursday in response to shortages following roadblocks set up by teachers protesting over education reforms, according to dpa. The Mexican Air Force will make eight flights between Thursday and Saturday to provide milk, corn, beans and other goods to government-subsidised stores that sell groceries at discounted prices to marginalized communities. Hector Ramirez Pablo Puga, director general of Liconsa, a government agency that provides milk to the poor, told Radio Formula the airlift would bring supplies from the central Mexican city of Puebla to the Pacific coastal city of Huatulco for local distribution. Teachers' unions protesting education reforms blocked the only road connecting Oaxaca's Pacific coast to the rest of the country more than a month ago. Some stores have run out of basic supplies and some 850,000 people have been affected, according to the Mexican government. Teachers, who have also blocked main roads in Chiapas, have demanded the government scrap a law that requires them to go through performance evaluations and also limits unions' powers to intervene on questions of education policy.
