Honduran police use tear gas, water cannon to break up protest that blocked avenue

Source: Associated Press

Honduran police use tear gas, water cannon to break up protest that blocked avenue
By Associated Press, Monday, March 28, 10:15 PM

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduran police using tear gas and water cannons dispersed a group of protesters who blocked a main avenue in the capital to demand the return of ousted former President Manuel Zelaya from exile.

The protests led by teachers are entering their third week in Honduras, where Zeyala was ousted in a 2009 coup. The teachers are demanding Zelaya be allowed to return from exile in the Dominican Republic.

They are also protesting a six-month delay in salary payments and a proposal to give local communities more control over the country’s highly centralized school system. The government says the protesters want to destabilize the country.

Students and striking health care workers were also at the protest Monday, said police spokesman Wilmer Suazo.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/honduran-police-use-tear-gas-water-cannon-to-break-up-protest-that-blocked-avenue/2011/03/28/AFsWlPqB_story.html

:shrug:

Striking staff warned after teacher killed
Sunday 20 Mar, 2011

The president of Honduras has ordered protesting school teachers back to work after clashes with police that left one teacher dead and two injured.

The tutors are demanding better conditions and the return of ousted former President Manuel Zelaya.

Assistant principal Ilse Velasquez, 59, died from head injuries, Escuela Hospital spokeswoman Lilia Leiva said. Velasquez worked at a school in Tegucigalpa.

Pro-Zelaya radio station Radio Globo said Velasquez was struck in the face by a tear gas grenade then hit by a police vehicle spraying water at protesters.

http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=103545&page=localnews&title=Striking%20staff%20warned%20after%20teacher%20killed

The three-week-old strike's main objectives are for teachers to paid salaries they have not received for several months and against proposed legislation in the Congress that would privatize some portions of government-financed education.

The strike's main purpose has NOT been to demand the return of Zelaya. That happened in 2009 after Zelaya was toppled by rightwing golpistas who were tolerated by Hillary/Obama.

As for lobo saying the teachers want to "destablize" his government -- if they do, this will go down in history as the first coup d' etat by kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers !!!

They tried to sneak in SOME of the facts behind a bogus entry into the story, putting the Zelaya thing out front to diminish the struggle the teachers have been enduring since the coup, and the first teachers started ending up murdered, some tortured.

Sad, sad situation when the only story coming out in English at the time I posted this one was this pathetic drivel. I searched for others, and they didn't exist.

They didn't even touch on the plan to privatize schools, or the many teachers already thrown into jail for the protest staying there with no access to visits from family members. Simply slanted the whole thing to appear a bunch of leftie union guys are creating problems for the country.

Jerks.

Honduran president threatens striking teachers
Sun Mar 27, 12:04 pm ET

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Sunday threatened to fire teachers if they continue a three-week-old strike that has aggravated divisions caused by a 2009 coup.

Teachers who fail to show up in classrooms Monday will be suspended without pay, according to the president's decree, which was read on radio and television stations. If teachers don't appear by April 4, they will be fired.

Lobo said he has the power to dissolve the teachers' unions for backing the strike.

The protesters oppose a proposed law that would give parents oversight of schools and they say the government owes six months of back pay to 6,000 teachers. They also demanding the return of leftist former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a 2009 coup backed by the nation's congress and courts.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110327/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_protests