|
|
|
Last Updated: Aug 19, 2008 - 12:53:57 PM |
On August 5, nearly 100,000 workers coming from civic organizations,
unions, and professional groups throughout Honduras initiated a strike
against the country’s public and private sectors. The protesters
promoted a twelve-item list of demands for the government to consider,
including the eradication of the 2003 Framework Act on Drinkable Water
and Basic Sanitation, an increased respect for trade unions and
workers’ rights, and suspension of the construction of dams.
Specifically, the strikers hailed from trade union organizations,
farmer’s groups, teachers’ guilds, and religious bodies. By mid-day,
seven bridges had been closed in Tegucigalpa and Comayagüela and the
strikers had set up roadblocks around Carías Soberanía, Mallol, and La
Isla.
Plans for the August 5 strike were made public on July 12, as part of
an effort to raise awareness about environmental issues and citizens
rights. Since the announcement was first made, Honduras has experienced
multiple protests that have manifested an increased level of
dissatisfaction with the policies of President Manuel Zelaya. A July
poll by CID-Gallup published in the Tegucigalpa daily La Prensa,
indicated that at the start of the month, Zelaya’s approval rating was
just 34 percent, down four points since February 2008. Two days after
the initial strike declaration, Honduran primary and secondary school
teachers joined their middle school counterparts in pursuing backpay,
benefits and retirement provisions. After a ten-day protest forced
nearly one and a half million students to remain at home, Zelaya signed
an agreement resulting in concessions that eventually ended the
conflict. Shortly after that, Honduras was once again plagued by
discontent as hundreds of truck drivers protested recently increased
highway tariff rates. The disaffected trade operators disrupted traffic
between the north and center parts of the country by blocking the major
highways.
With Zelaya at the helm, Honduras is undergoing a period of
unprecedented internal change. On July 30, Zelaya announced that,
pending congressional approval, Honduras would become a full member of
the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). The initiative,
launched by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in response to the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), seeks greater economic and
diplomatic collaboration in the region, while still trying to achieve a
degree of autonomy from the United State, Honduras’ projected inclusion
in ALBA ignited controversy in Honduras and has been criticized by
members of the opposition and the Zelaya-led Partido Liberal, as well
as by Roberto Micheletti, president of the congress. In March, Congress
ratified Zelaya’s bid to join Petrocaribe, the Venezuelan-based
soft-loan oil initiative. In addition, on August 2, the Cuban
Ambassador to Honduras, Juan Carlos Hernández, declared that he was
waiting for “the right moment” to sign the document that would restart
diplomatic talks over their respective conflicting Caribbean boundary
claims. Honduras’ increased collaboration with Latin America’s
preeminent leftist regimes coincides with the souring of relations with
the United States following a recent nasty diplomatic row between
Zelaya and U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Charles A. Ford.
Although Zelaya appears to be embracing the region’s left
diplomatically, his recent fiscal policies remain congruent with his
past neoliberal tendencies. By sending a confusing message to the
nation, Hondurans are not certain where their president is leading
them. The aforementioned 2003 Framework Act on Drinkable Water and
Basic Sanitation, one of the instigating factors of the strike, gave
control of water services over to municipalities, which then sold the
resource to private parties. On June 17, the World Bank approved the
Honduran Rural Competitiveness Project, allocating $51.2 million to
enhance rural development and encourage alliances with domestic
commercial partners.
With contradictory ideological shifts observed in Zelaya’s policies,
where can Hondurans turn? The recent strike featured crippling
roadblocks that represent the degree of civil unrest throughout the
nation and the negative consequences of national instability. Zelaya
needs to remedy such doubts by committing himself to consistent
policies proving to his people that their welfare is the government’s
utmost priority.
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|