The National Front against the coup in Honduras announces a nationwide strike

The Honduran social movements are continuing to resist against the coup d’état, for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow the popular
leadership announced mobilisations, road blockings and strike at national level to demand the putschists to give up power.

Once again today the 15th of July 2009, the starting point of the social movements was the Pedagogic University Francisco Morazán that by the way was taken over by the student front from this organization; later on,  the protest moved towards the Institute of the Woman, because at the time the press conference was taking place, during the marching route, it was informed, that a group of feminist colleagues are maintaining this institution takeover since the 13th of July 2009 and they are in opposition to the nomination of the new director. They have been attacked and beaten by members of the national police who introduced under a  strong military force the newly nominated director of the Institute Mrs María Martha Díaz, repudiated by the feminist movements; because this woman years ago was an activist of the feminist movements and they intervened in order for her not to be imprisoned, because of various accusations done at the time, but it seems that this woman forgot all the support she received from her colleagues and now she is on the same side as the putschists and she is attacking her colleagues from the struggle.

The National Front Against the coup d’état at the press conference today at 11am at the time, while they were marching to the National
Women’s Institute and later on to the National Congress of the Republic in the centre of Tegucigalpa expressed as follows:

• We thank the peoples of Latin America and especially the social movements that are accompanying us in this struggle for their support.
• The putschists moved to the stage, where there are wearing We thank the peoples of Latin America and especially the social movements that are accompanying us in this struggle for their support.The putschists moved to the stage, where there are wearing a disguise of normality in order to make national and international community believe that everything is alright in the country, when the reality is murders, persecutions to social leaders etc.
• From all the coup d’état that happened around the world, 90% of them finished in dictatorships, Honduras is not an exception, and the fascists who took the power using the arms are following this path.
• We demand the establishment of a Constitutional National Assembly to promote a society with participatory democracy.

 
At the same time, the national youth front against the coup d’état which gathers   young students organised and not organised read a
statement as follows:

• We repudiate the social and individual Human Rights violations and the repression suffered by the Honduran people.
• We denounce the reactivation of the death squads led by the now assessor to the presidential coup government Billy Joya Amendola, the main responsible for those people arrested and disappeared during the eighties.
• We condemn the expulsion of some international media from the national territory.
• We university and secondary education students added our support to the strike. We will occupy from today the Pedagogic Institute Francisco Morazán and later on the National Autonomous University of Honduras and later on other secondary education schools.
• We made a call for the organised and not organised youth to be integrated in this unit space in order to build a fighting trench to be used to re-establish the democratic order.

For tomorrow, Thursday, and the day after tomorrow, Friday, the social movements have planned a national strike, the trade unions and
the peasants organizations are making a call for the peasant groups to leave their communities and to support the takeover of the streets either in Tegucigalpa or to be organised in their owns departments. In the case of Tegucigalpa the construction workers, peasant farmers, teachers, trade unionists and the rest of organizations will maintain the road blocking which goes to the north up by the level of the Durazno post and the rest access roads to the capital will be taken by the rest of the social movements, Zelaya supporters, the liberal youth, who are part of this front of resistance against the coup d’état.

With the popular power!

We will win!

By Mabel Marquez (Press officer Vía Campesina in Honduras)