Honduran Violence Against Striking Teachers and Students

Honduras is in the midst of a month long general strike. The strike, spearheaded by teachers and the National Front of Popular Resistance, is protesting government repression, attacks on teachers, privatization of the public education system, and the skyrocketing cost of living. However, virtually all of Honduran society is now in resistance, including the Garifuna (Afro-Indian), peasant and indigenous communities. In March, President Lobo threatened to fire striking teachers, and has since carried out the threat on 300 of them. Several striking teachers have been killed by the police, while three high school students were killed last week in Tegucigalpa. The police routinely attack protesters with clubs, tear gas, and rubber bullets.

According to Democracy Now, the violence throughout the country has been escalating, with March being one of the deadliest on record. There has been an average of 25 women murdered each week, and over 40 murders of gays and lesbians. The homicide rate is now among the highest in the world, and four times that of Mexico, even with its epidemic of drug violence. This should be no surprise since Honduras (along with much of Central American) has grown in importance to drug traffickers, not only for its importance to smuggling, but as a place for Mexican drug lords to hide out from their government.

There are several connections between drug violence and repression of teachers and the rest of Honduran civil society. First, the same police and military that are repressing Hondurans during their protests and organizing are complicit in the drug trade.  A second connection is the President himself, Porfirio Lobo, who is in power only because the elected president, Manuel Zelaya, was ousted in a U.S. supported coup. Democracy Now reported that Lobo has just been offered $200 million from the U.S. government for the police and military to use in the drug war. However, there will be no oversight to ensure that the money and weapons are actually used to fight drug trafficking and not against civilians.

Honduran Teachers Strike

Honduras After the Coup (by codepinkhq)

Three weeks into a teacher’s strike, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo is threatening to fire all teachers and dissolve their unions. The Associate Press reported that teachers who fail to show up to work today will be suspended without pay, according to the president's decree. If they don't show up to work by April 4, they will be fired. The unions rejected Lobo’s ultimatum. Teachers want back pay for the past 6 months and a return of President Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed in a U.S.-backed coup in 2009. They also oppose attempts to privatize public education and to give the Catholic Church more control over public education.

Hospital workers have vowed to join the strike, while Zelaya supporters and the People's National Resistance Front are calling for a general strike on Wednesday. There was another general strike in February, which Lobo ruled illegal and has used as justification for not paying the teachers.

The teachers have been a key force within the Front, while the recent strike is only the latest in a series of protests dating back to the coup. One teacher, Ilse Ivana Velasquez was killed by police during these protests, according to the Argentina Independent, while several people have recently been killed by police at demonstrations in support of Zelaya’s return. Numerous people have also been assassinated and disappeared since Zelaya’s ouster.

Lobo’s attempts to crush the teachers’ unions should be seen as part of the broader attempt to legitimize the coup government and liquidate its opposition. While this movement includes a broad coalition of Hondurans, including peasants, unionists, nurses, writers and GLBT activists, the teachers have continued to be one of the strongest contingents, going out on strike the day after the coup and striking regularly since then.

The attempt to privatize education in Honduras has an interesting link with Ed Deform in the U.S.: Vander Ark/Ratcliff, a private equity fund (Learn Capital) that invests in digital learning companies. Ratcliff was named in a Wikileaks document as one of the PR hit men hired by the Honduran coup government to help them attack their opposition, including the teachers.