Honduras: National demonstration calling for an end to repression
Several thousand people marched in Tegucigalpa to demand an end to the escalation of repression and against the neoliberal policies that affect the poor.
The National Front for Popular Resistance (FNRP), a broad alliance of progressive social and political forces that emerged hours after the military coup of June 28, convened the march, which began at the National Pedagogical University, and after touring several avenues of the capital, ended in a rally against the National Autonomous University (UNAH).
The university is occupied by its workers since 23 February, when they began a strike demanding the signing of a new collective agreement that includes wage increases. In a speech, the general coordinator of the Front, Juan Barahona, demanded the release of 15 university union leaders, who were arrested today on charges of sedition and usurpation of power.
Barahona called for an end to the government’s privatization plans of UNAH, state enterprises.
The march was also against the wave of murders in a month, most recently, the case of Professor Jose Manuel Flores, who was killed by three masked men, who shot him in the back while teaching at San Jose Institute of Pedregal, Tegucigalpa. The crime, probably politically motivated, caused revulsion among the militants of the resistance. The teacher was a member of FNRP.
The murder of Flores adds to three journalists killed in a month. The death of one of them, Nahum Parker, news director of Channel 5 of Aguán, received 30 shots causing “deep concern” in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Palacios had publicly expressed his rejection to the coup. He was threatened days before his murder when he was conducting an investigation in Aguán, where two villagers were also killed.
Barahona announced that during next April, the protests will intensify to require the convening of a national constituent assembly to reshape the nation.
“We will continue in the struggle to vindicate our rights as dignified people, stressed in this regard Rafael Alegria, one of the FNRP leaders and peasant leader.
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