Honduras Finds Itself on the Edge of a Social Explosion Once Again

Violence erupted in Honduras last week as military police removed ex-president Manuel Zelaya Rosales along with hundreds of protesters from congress chambers in Tegucigalpa.

On May 13, hundreds of police and military attacked protesters with teargas, pepper spray, and clubs after Liberty and Refoundation (LIBRE) politicians reportedly let leftists activists enter the building.

LIBRE emerged from the popular resistance movement against the coup that ousted Zelaya in 2009. Zelaya’s party had been protesting the lack of representation on the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) and the violence that has gripped the country.

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The clashes come less than four months after Juan Orlando Hernández became Honduras’ president.

During the clashes, Zelaya, accompanied by his wife, ex–presidential candidate Xiomara Castro, the legislators from LIBRE and hundreds of protesters — fled toward the legislative chamber.

The president of the National Congress, Mauricio Oliva, who belongs to the National Party, the political party that’s currently in power, gave orders to have the people removed.

Military police were deployed at the Honduran parliament building in Tegucigalpa on May 13.

At least 200 military police broke down the doors, as activists and legislators sang the national anthem.

Police threw tear gas canisters and proceeded to forcefully remove them, shoving them and hitting them with wooden batons.

At least seven people were injured, among them two deputies from LIBRE — Claudia Garmendia and Audelia Rodríguez, who were later hospitalized.

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Zelaya and Castro managed to get out of the chamber, escorted by activists and deputies.

“We have beasts governing Honduras. It has taken them 100 years to show us their fangs. I blame Juan Orlando [Hernández] for what is occurring. Here, to accuse is a crime, but what occurred today was a criminal act,” Zelaya said, referring to the current Honduran president as a “dictator in training.”

Legislator and former representative of the attorney general in Honduras, Jari Dixon, denounced that there is collusion between the two traditional parties — National Party and Liberal Party — to boycott any parliamentary initiative of LIBRE.

“The country continues to sink into poverty, delinquency and corruption, and everything will continue with total inertia. We are denied the right to speak on the House Floor, they dispose of our projects and now they repress us. There is a dictatorship here, disguised as a democracy,” Dixon said in a news conference.

Castro said that the situation becomes increasingly difficult by the day.

“We can’t continue like this. There must be a dialogue that allows a social pact amongst all the sectors. Hernández must take the first step,” Castro said.

For now, hundreds of residents are planning to station themselves for an indefinite period of time in front of National Congress.

They hope to bring attention to the violence that has impacted the country, especially Honduran youth.

In a recent report, Casa Alianza — an organization dedicated to the well being and protection of boys, girls, teenagers and youths — revealed that in Honduras, during the first three months of this year, 270 youths under the age of 23 have died under violent circumstances — that is an average of about 90 deaths per month.

Similarly, the Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) reports that in the same period, there have been 19 massacres, in which 68 citizens — most under the age of 30 — have lost their lives.

Protesters are also demanding the government halt all hydraulic mining concessions and the expulsion of the companies that are currently operating in the country, the approval of an integral agrarian reform, and an end to criminalization and femicide (or, the murder of women).