Tegucigalpa – At least a dozen teachers and an unspecified number of army soldiers – including two officers – were injured when thousands of striking educators clashed with police and army troops Wednesday on the south side of this capital, union officials said.
The teachers took to the streets again Wednesday in their ongoing protest demanding a salary hike.
At least a dozen of the strikers were injured – reportedly, none of them seriously – when they clashed with police and soldiers after pushing past two barriers the security forces had placed on the city’s ring road.
The demonstrators – some of whom were armed with sticks – threw rocks and other objects, including tear gas canisters, at the police and army troops.
Honduran Defense Minister Aristides Mejia said at a press conference that the injured soldiers included a colonel identified only by his surname of Inestroza, an unidentified lieutenant colonel and numerous soldiers of lesser ranks. He did not specify precisely how many troops had been injured, but he added that they had all been taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment.
Mejia said that the protesters “have been increasing (their) violence, have been illegally taking over streets (and) have tried to take over the presidential residence, in the face of which we’ve been forced to deploy large contingents to protect it.”
Up until now, the teachers’ street protests – which were begun on Aug. 1 – had been carried out without incident, but on Wednesday the police, supported by army units, used tear gas to try and stop a march by the strikers, protest leaders said.
The incident came on the day that talks between the government and the teachers had been halted temporarily. The negotiations were temporarily stopped Wednesday morning so that the teachers could present the government’s pay proposal to their rank and file, and they are scheduled to resume on Thursday.
The teachers say that some 40,000 educators throughout the country have been in the capital since Aug. 1 and are prepared to stay in the city indefinitely if the government does not respond positively to their demands.
The strikers warned that if they do not get a favorable response from the government, they will broaden their protest with the help and participation of other workers’ organizations around the country.
