While authorities refused to recognize the MRM, its capacity to convene became increasingly effective and, on April 30 teachers took the offices of the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) (Ministry of Education), forcing the government to negotiate.
In August, in a parallel congress, teachers in Mexico City elected Othón as their legitimate representative, but with this gesture of trade union autonomy the government's position was hardening.
The struggles had their origins in economic demands, but their desire for union democracy had much wider implications, and shook the structures of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional PRI (Or in English: The Institutional Revolutionary Party).
He eventually returned to Alcozauca, his native village in Guerrero, and toured the region of Montaña, listening to and advising those who were organized there.
He died of kidney disease on December 4, 2008 in the city of Tlapa de Comonfort, Guerrero at the age of 84.