National Popular Resistance Front mobilizes a multitude: general strike inevitable in Honduras.

A call issued by the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), mobilized a multitude for a three hour march which began at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional “Francisco Morazán” (UPNFM), and ended at the Legislative Assembly.

In a press conference before the march, Edgardo Casaña, of the Federation of Teachers Organizations (FOMH) accused the government of using tactics to stall and breakdown talks initiated to resolve the crisis in the educational system, the law to privatize education, the illegal retention of four billion lempiras from teachers and illegal hires.

He also questioned declarations by Porfirio Lobo in which the head of the current regime “attacked teachers rather than resolving the problem.”

The Secretary of the Unified Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), Israel Salinas, rejected the regimes proposal that salary increases for workers be made with bonds and called for meetings of workers organizations to prepare for a general strike.
Organizations, members of the FNRP, stand in solidarity with the demand of the Workers Union of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (Sitraunah), for the unconditional restitution of 124 workers who were “illegally fired” after a 100 day hunger strike.

Metal barriers and military blockades near the Marriott Hotel impeded marchers from reaching the Casa de Gobierno. The Legislative Assembly building was militarized. At least one hundred soldiers with protective masks behind metal shields were armed with barrels containing chemicals and crates of tear gas bombs – all visibly new.

The Sub Coordinator of the FNRP, Juan Barahona, condemned police and military repression with “live bullets’ which took place against protestors in Choloma, department of Cortés, resulting in several injuries. He exhorted members of the FNRP to keep organizing to convene the Constituent Assembly. He warned that repression, murders and torture will not stop the transformations in Honduras towards a new society based on the welfare of all people.

“We will not rest until we have a new Constituent Assembly and a new Constitution,” he concluded.

There were mobilizations in cities throughout the 18 departments of the country including; Tocoa, San Pedro Sula, Cortés, Atlántida, Lempira, Intibucá, Copán, Olancho.

The FNRP will organize another mobilization in all 18 departments of Honduras on September 15th

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