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With teachers’ support,  students occupy schools in response to proposed reforms

[Translations of four articles from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula and El Heraldo of Tegucigalpa, for August 6, 7, 8 and 9. See originals here, here, here and here.]

Diario Tiempo, August 9

Police continue removing students from occupied schools

Tegucigalpa – Hundreds of Honduran police on Tuesday removed groups of high-school students who were occupying some ten schools in different departments of the country in opposition to what they consider a proposal for privatizing education, a police source reports.

“We have recovered eight institutions so that children in the capital can go to class,” declared police commissioner and coordinator of the operation, René Maradiaga, in an interview broadcast on ABC. “We have detained 48 people,” who were taken to police headquarters in the capital. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for July 31. See original here and related article here.]

By Divina Alvarenga

I, Yolanda Divina Alvarenga Isaula, identification card number 0107-1962-00810, Honduran by birth and by love, state for the record that I condemn the three branches of the Honduran government for putting the homeland up for sale. I want history to record my position against placing our rivers, our land, our air and our natural resources at the disposal of the capitalist market, the businesses and the businessmen.

The political class, all members of the legally registered parties, the Nacional, the Liberal, Democracia Cristiana, Innovación y Unidad and Unificación Democrática, have passed laws and regulations damaging to the interests of the people and the homeland, the last of them, approved on July 29, 2011, called “Estatuto Constitucional de las Regiones Especiales de Desarrollo (RED – Special Development Regions)” or model cities. (more…)

Revistazo photo

[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for July 18. See original here.]

By Germán Reyes

They were excluded from society. They dreamed of improving their lives and with no other choice than to leave the country, they lifted to their shoulders old back packs holding mostly remembrances of their loved ones. Now, although society does not recognize them, they are the heroes of Honduras’ economic equilibrium.

They are the more than one million migrants who, fleeing from poverty, took to the road with no heed for the danger, even of losing their lives. Labeled as illegal, they defied the imperialist authorities and, after much sacrifice, arrived in the United States. Their remittances, beyond being a help for their families, are basic to the national economy. (more…)

Divisions and questions about process persist

[Translation of an article from Revistazo of Tegucigalpa for June 26. See original here and related articles here. An excellent interview with Bertha Cáceres of the Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras is here. Father and son Jaime and Yany Rosenthal, mentioned in the article, are members of a prominent Honduran family with ties to the Partido Liberal. Both opposed the coup. Yany Rosenthal, at one time editor of the newspaper Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula, was minister of the presidency in the Zelaya administration.]

Amid questioning, doubts, divergent opinions and the possible withdrawal of some of the groups making it up, an assembly of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular has created the Frente Amplio [Broad Front] as the political arm of the movement, through which it intends to participate in the elections of 2013.

With delegates from the 18 departments of the country attending the assembly, after little deliberation and participation, including speeches by union leaders and others, the coordinator of the FNRP, Manuel Zelaya Rosales, and the sub-coordinator, Juan Barahona, offered a proposal which, in the opinions of many, was conceived beforehand and lacked consultation with the bases of the movement. (more…)

Back in his country, the former president talks about the challenges of building unity on the left and about the disputes within his base

[Translation of an interview from Brasil de Fato of São Paulo, Brazil, for June 24. See original here and related articles here.]

by Sílvia Álvarez

Tegucigalpa – At 59 years of age, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya is a man in search of his identity. “I still feel like a stranger; it is not easy to live outside your country, you lose your origins,” he declares when we ask how he has spent his first days back in Honduras after 17 months in exile in the Dominican Republic. The former president is back in his home, from which he was taken, still in his pyjamas, on the morning of June 28, 2009, in a civilian-military coup d’état. The gate is better guarded now, but the house has the same rustic furniture as before, together with framed photographs of his family. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for June 16. See original here and a number of related articles here. The “Cuarta Urna,” or “Fourth Ballot Box,” referred to in the article would have added to the general election ballot the question of whether to hold a referendum allowing citizens to decide whether to convoke a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution. Proponents of the coup d’état against Zelaya claimed the attempted referendum was unconstitutional and provided grounds for removing the president from office.]

Tegucigalpa – Former President of the Republic and coordinator of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) Manuel Zelaya Rosales yesterday denounced a violation of the Cartagena Accord in the form of a judicial rulings against former Minister of the Presidency Enrique Flores Lanza.

Penal court judge Claudio Aguilar sentenced the former minister to house arrest and imposed a fine of 27 million lempiras for alleged misappropriation of funds, which were to be used presumably for promotion of the Cuarta Urna.

Zelaya announced that next Monday, when Flores Lanza is to return to court, he will lead a demonstration to the capital city’s courts, located in the La Granja neighborhood, in support of the former member of his cabinet.

He declared that what happened to Flores Lanza “reflects badly and bodes ill for the hopes and efforts President Porfirio Lobo Sosa has shown for a politial reconciliation among Hondurans and attests to the lack of coherence of the Honduran government, which signed an accord that was ratified by the OAS and is being violated 15 days later.”

Zelaya, whose return to the country was a product of the accord in question, emphasized that on the day of the rulings against the former minister “violation of the Cartagena de Indias Accord began, an international agreement that allowed Honduras to return to the Organization of American States, but that has begun to be violated, disrespected and not fulfilled.”

“We protest directly this violation and we demand the fulfillment of the accord. Citizen Enrique Flores Lanza, a former minister and a member of the political committee of the Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular, returned to the country peacefully to appear before the court voluntarity on the basis of the presumption of innocence,” he declared…

Human rights group charges Honduras has not met minimal conditions for rejoining OAS

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto of San Salvador, El Salvador, for June 13. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

by Juan José Dalton

San Salvador – The return of Honduras to the bosom of the Organization of American States (OAS) was the pebble in the shoe for its 41st General Assembly, which ended in San Salvador on June 7 and which had as its principal theme public security, which concerns the Central American region in particular, categorized by international experts, and even by the United States military, as a more deadly region than even Iraq or Afghanistan. (more…)

[Translation of an artricle from TeleSur of Venezuela for May 31. See original here and related article here.]

The Frente Nacional de Resistencia Popular (FNRP) of Honduras announced on Monday that it opposes the immediate readmission of the country into the Organization of American States (OAS) because, although the return of Manuel Zelaya is an advance toward the restoration of democracy, it does not demonstrate compliance with all the guarantees in the national conciliation accord signed in Cartagena, Colombia.

This was confirmed on Monday by Juan Barahona, spokesman for the FNRP, who, in an exclusive interview with TeleSur stated, “Honduras should not return to the OAS yet” because not all of the conditions agreed to have been met. (more…)

Thirty-six killed so far during Lobo administration

[Translation of an article from Revistazo.com of Tegucigalpa for May 26. See original here and related articles here, here and here.]

By Germán Reyes

In a press conference held in Tegucigalpa, leaders of campesino organizations of the Aguán Valley charge that as a result of systematic violence and the repression of human rights, 36 campesinos have been assassinated in the area so far during the present administration.

They declare that despite the fact that the administration of Porfirio Lobo Sosa has spent almost two years seeking reintegration into the Organization of American States, in the past two months alone six more campesinos have lost their lives through violence and they expressed fear of a resurgence of repression once international organizations cease observing the country. (more…)

An interview with Hugo Martínez

[Abridged translation of an interview from ContraPunto of San Salvador for May 23. See original here and related articles here and here.]

By Fernando de Dios and Magdalena Flores

San Salvador – It was learned on Sunday that the current president of Honduras, Porfirio Lobo, and former President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown in a coup d’état on June 28, 2009, had reached an agreement for the latter’s return to his country and, consequently, for the reintegration of Honduras into the Organization of American States (OAS).

The decision, backed by a mediation process initiated by the presidents of Venezuela and Colombia, Hugo Chávez and Juan Manuel Santos, was recognized by the Minister of Foreign Relations of El Salvador in a statement in which he indicates that “the conditions established by the accord pave the way as well for the return of Honduras to the Organization of American States (OAS), a step El Salvador, along with other countries of the region, has advocated.” (more…)

[Translation of an article from ContraPunto of San Salvador, El Salvador, for May 18. See original here and related article here.]

San Salvador – Some 20 human rights organizations with international stature have requested that Honduras’ suspension from the Organization of American States (OAS) be continued because of flaws in Honduran state institutions and respect for human rights, a statement from the Centro para la Justicia y el Derecho Internacional (CEJIL) says.

CEJIL states that “the recommendation was made in a letter sent on May 16 to the 35 ambassadors of the permanent missions of the OAS member countries, in which they are reminded that the Honduran state still has serious flaws in its democratic institutions, the rule of law and human rights. (more…)

[Translation of an article from Diario Tiempo of San Pedro Sula for May 18. See original here and related article here, here and here.]

Tegucigalpa – President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Colombian Foreign Minister María Angela Holguín met yesterday to fine-tune details of the accord permitting the reintegration of Honduras into the Organization of American States (OAS) and the return to the country of former President Manuel Zelaya.

The Colombian diplomat arrived in the country by surprise to meet for some six hours with President Lobo, members of the Truth Commission, Foreign Minister Mario Canahuati and other state officials to deal with reintegration into the OAS and Zelaya’s return. (more…)