Clashes in Tegucigalpa right now

[rabs]

7:24 Eastern time

Just tuned in to Radio Globo. Police firing tear gas at crowd near university. Tear gas being fired inside campus.

Huge demonstration against gorilettis today. It was breaking up when police moved in. Radio mentions Cobra soldiers and Cobra police.

http://www.radioglobohonduras.com/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Thanks. No doubt it got very rough in there with the Cobra people assisting on campus.

I have read that in Latin America the police are NEVER allowed on the grounds of any university, but clearly those rules governing officials' decisions about using them are only meant to apply to the chumps who get elected. A real man simply gets his friends to pay off top military officers who tell their men to take over, then you make your OWN rules.

Nice work if you can get it, right?

Thanks for this heads-up. Hope the students and other dissidents will not be harmed.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Curfew imposed in Honduras after attacks on US chains

Curfew imposed in Honduras after attacks on US chains
Posted : Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:02:40 GMT
Author : DPA

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - The authorities in Honduras have imposed a night-time curfew following a series of attacks on US-owned stores and restaurants. Honduran politics have been in turmoil since President Manuel Zelaya was forced out of the country in a coup on June 28. Some supporters who want him to return to power blame the United States for acting against Zelaya and for blocking his return.

After a demonstration turned violent late Tuesday, militant groups attacked a series of restaurants owned by US companies, pelting them with stones and smashing in doors and windows. One restaurant was set ablaze by a Molotov cocktail.

Local press reports said there were no injuries. However, a bus was also set ablaze.

Student supporters of Zelaya had attacked a series of restaurants owned by US chains a few weeks ago.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/281100,curfew-imposed-in-honduras-after-attacks-on-us-chains.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Zelaya's supporters swarm capital in protest

Zelaya's supporters swarm capital in protest
2009-08-12 16:28 BJT

TEGUCIGALPA, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya converged on the capital Tegucigalpa on Tuesday to demand his restitution as president of the country.

Since Aug. 5, Zelaya's supporters have been flocking to Tegucigalpa from different parts of the country, converging on the government hall in the east of the city and the Central Park. They plan on continuing their march in the major streets of the capital.

The demonstrators, headed by leaders of the National Front of Resistance and Zelaya's family, said they would continue their protest until Zelaya was restored to power.

Zelaya's wife Xiomara Castro told reporters that she would travel to San Pedro Sula, a city north of Tegucigalpa, to show support for demonstrations there.

Meanwhile, Israel Salinas, a leader of the pro-Zelaya camp, said in a statement that the protest would continue and that they would not accept the results of the November elections if they are called by the post-coup government.

http://english.cctv.com.nyud.net:8090/20090812/images/1250065505022_1250065505022_r.jpg

Smoke rises from a burning restaurant after supporters of ousted
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya set it on fire in Tegucigalpa,
capital of Honduras, Aug. 11, 2009.

http://english.cctv.com.nyud.net:8090/20090812/images/1250065540241_1250065540241_r.jpg http://english.cctv.com.nyud.net:8090/20090812/images/1250065665185_1250065665185_r.jpg http://english.cctv.com.nyud.net:8090/20090812/images/1250065703701_1250065703701_r.jpg http://english.cctv.com/20090812/106981.shtml

[rabs]

5. Keep an open mind on the violence in Tegu. yesterday

Noted the articles (with no attribution to anyone except the golpista media) are saying it was caused by supporters of the resistance.

Last night and this morning on Radio Globo several callers have said it was NOT participants in the marches, but thugs hired by the gorilettis to MAKE IT APPEAR that it was the resistance.

One caller said she had seen hooded men who were not part of the marches attack and burn a Burger King. Another caller just said the violence was caused by police and army reservists dressed as civilians who had arrived as the demonstration was ending and had begun throwing rocks towards police. Note the military-style haircuts of the two men in front of the burned-out bus.

Callers are reporting that some police are confiscating cell phones and other personal belongings at highway checkpoints. One man said eight cameras had been taken from reporters and private citizens.

So under the gorilettis, some of the police are now officially the criminals.

Last night the Radio Globo staff stayed in the studio because of threats. Also there were callers who said hooded police were outside the main university campus where numerous resistance marchers had taken refuge for the night. Some of those marchers had been on the road for several days, walking toward Tegucigalpa.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Honduras: unions start open-ended strike

Honduras: unions start open-ended strike

Submitted by WW4 Report on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 03:15. On Aug. 6 the three main Honduran labor federations held a march in Tegucigalpa marking the start of an open-ended general strike against the de facto government formed when a June 28 coup removed president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales from office. The strike was timed to coincide with eight coordinated marches by grassroots organizations that began on Aug. 5 with the goal of bringing tens of thousands of coup opponents from around the country to Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the second largest city, on Aug. 11. A delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS) is scheduled to visit Honduras that day for discussions with de facto officials and others.

The three union groups—the Unitary Confederation of Honduran Workers (CUTH), the General Workers Central (CGT) and the Confederation of Honduran Workers (CTH)—issued a joint communiqué on Aug. 6 with the strike's four demands: "the reestablishment of the democratic institutional order," Zelaya's return to office, the formation of a Constituent National Assembly to write a new constitution, and an "end to the repression against the Honduran people." The strikers also demanded that "all the governments of the world, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, and USAID withdraw all official support and freeze loans and projects for this coup government." The unions specifically called on the US government to "cancel the bank accounts and visas of all those persons involved in the coup, to freeze planned aid, and to withdraw diplomatic representation."

The unions ended the Aug. 6 march with a rally outside the US embassy. "Forty days after the coup d'état, no one's surrendering here," chanted the crowd, estimated at 2,000 by the Spanish wire service EFE and at 10,000 by the Brazilian activist news service Adital.

The march included the 19 members of a solidarity delegation visiting Honduras from Aug. 5 to Aug. 8. The delegation, with unionists from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Spain, was organized by international labor federations and the Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas (CSA), a year-old Brazil-based organization that says it has 65 national affiliates in 29 countries, representing more than 50 million workers in the hemisphere.

More:
http://www.ww4report.com/node/7680