Teacher protests continued in Honduras Monday, despite a threat from President Pepe Lobo that his government would begin suspending, without pay, those who did not return to their classrooms this week. AP reports that Honduran police used tear gas and water cannons to break up a demonstration on one of Tegucigalpa’s principal avenues yesterday. Teachers were joined by both students and members of the country’s 14,000-member health workers union for much of Monday’s demonstrations. In its Spanish-language coverage, AP says approx. 30% of healthcare facilities were affected by yesterday’s work stoppages, although it appears healthcare workers had at least temporarily ended their strike sometime late yesterday.
There’s talk in La Tribuna this morning of possible dialogue beginning between the country’s teachers union (FOMH) and the government, although it remains unclear what the result of that dialogue might be. For its part, the AP suggests the conflict could deepen in the coming days, rather than subside, after a call for a Wednesday general strike was made by the National Resistance (FNRP) over the weekend.
The protests, triggered by six months of unpaid wages to Honduran teachers, are now entering their third week. Demonstrators have are also voicing their opposition to a new education bill which would restructure the country’s public education system. Today’s reporting from the AP adds that the return of former president Manuel Zelaya, ousted in a June 2009 coup, was among the demands voiced during Monday demonstrations.
At a Monday news conference President Pepe Lobo did little to address the demands of protestors, instead insisting their goal was to “destabilize” his government. Lobo:
“All of this is part of an ideological strategy to provoke difficulties, especially now that there is the possibility of returning to the OAS at the next general assembly in June.”
In addition to suspending striking teachers without pay, Lobo argued over the weekend he could take steps to unilaterally dissolve the country’s teachers union, if protests continued.
There were also reports of demonstrations outside of the capital Monday. The FNRP says Miriam Mirando, leader of OFRANEH (Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras), was arrested – but later released – as protests blocked a road connecting San Pedro Sula with La Ceiba. San Pedro Sula’s Tiempo has more saying some schools remained closed Monday while others appear to have re-opened for at least part of the day.
Today’s bullet points:
· In Venezuela, the AP on Sunday reported that university protestors in Venezuela had ended their month-long hunger strike, maintaining that President Hugo Chavez’s government had met their demands. One of the leaders of the protests, Diego Scharifker, says Venezuela’s education minister promised demonstrators that the government would increase budgets for university scholarships, cafeterias, transportation and other student services. The apparent breakthrough came after four students sewed their mouths partially shut to, in the AP’s words, “dramatize the strike.”
· Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana, Cuba Monday – the beginning of a three-day visit to the island which will include talks with Raul Castro later today. The AP says he and his wife Rosalynn were greeted at the airport by Cuba’s Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, and Jonathan Farrar, the head of the US Interest Section in Havana. Also traveling with Carter, according to the Miami Herald, are Robert Pastor, the White House’s Cuba point man during Carter years; Jennifer McCoy, director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program; and John Hardman, president of the Carter Center. Former president Carter spent Monday meeting with some of the island’s most important religious figures– first leaders of Havana's Temple Beth Shalom and later Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the man who helped negotiate the release of the last 52 of 75 dissidents arrested in the “Black Spring” crackdown of 2003. A press conference is scheduled for sometime Wednesday. Freedom House’s Matthew Brady, in the Miami Herald, and Lilia Lopez at the Havana Note with optimistic opinions about the Carter visit.
· El País’s Javier Moreno runs a weekend interview with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Among the matters discussed: Calderon’s refusal to consider some sort of peace pact with organized crime, as well as Calderon’s feelings about the United States and its role in fueling violence with weapons and an appetite for drugs.
· Venezuela’s El Universal interviews former Costa Rican president Oscar Arias about the state of democracy in the region.
· In Argentina today, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will receive the University of La Plata’s Rodolfo Walsh prize for promoting popular communication and community media. The Financial Times reports, calling the decision a controversial one. Chavez begins a tour of the region in Argentina today.
· The Guardian reports on the business and education delegation the UK’s Liberal Democratic leader and current deputy PM, Nick Clegg will be leading to Mexico in the coming days. Later this week he’ll apparently be addressing the Mexican Senate – the first UK politician to do so and will be doing it in Spanish, no less.
· Bloomberg mentions a new free trade zone which in the works between Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. All four countries are expected to meet in Lima in early May to finalize the new arrangement.
· Reuters on emerging differences between the IMF and Brazil over the best way to keep inflation down. The IMF has called for Brazil, and others, to further rein in stimulus spending. For its part, Brazil, according to Reuters, has thus far used high interest rates, curbs on lending, and new barriers against the entrance of speculative capital, or “hot money,” as a means of reducing inflationary risk.
· With news that oil is back over $100/barrel, Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA announced ambitious plans to increase its oil production from 3.01 million barrels per day (bpd) to 5 million bpd by 2014.
· The Washington Post yesterday charged President Obama with NIMBY-ism for supporting Brazil’s offshore oil drilling plans last week.
· David Grann at The New Yorker revisits the bizarre Rodrigo Rosenberg case in Guatemala, almost two years later.
· And finally, IPS on the growing opposition to the US/Europe military strikes launched against Libya within much of Latin America. Those who have spoken out against the military operations in recent days include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, as well as the ALBA countries. Among those quoted is Uruguay’s Jose Mujica who told an Uruguayan newspaper this week that, “This attack implies a setback in the current international order. The remedy is much worse than the illness. This business of saving lives by bombing is an inexplicable contradiction.”
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