- Title: HONDURAS: Pro-Zelaya protesters seize university and block streets
- Date: 20th July 2009
- Summary: TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS (JULY 16, 2009) (REUTERS- ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENT SHOUTING 'WE WANT CLASSES' OUTSIDE LOCKED UNIVERSITY GATES VARIOUS OF STUDENTS OUTSIDE UNIVERSITY (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) STUDENT, GABRIEL ALVARADO, SAYING: "People haven't left because they want classes, but a few people are manipulating them-- they're manipulating because many of
- Embargoed: 4th August 2009 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Honduras
- Country: Honduras
- Topics: Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA98T3U4NX48D2IEGI9GTDLAQC2
- Story Text: Supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya shut down a major university, blocked commercial highways and organized protests on Thursday (July 16) as they demanded his reinstatement ahead of weekend mediation talks.
Students seized the Autonomous University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa, locked the gate and prevented their classmates from entering.
Shouting "We want classes," angry students tried to break through the gate and force their way back into the buildings.
Gabriel Alvarado attends the university and he said the protesters inside the school claim to work there, but the students don't recognize them.
"Many of the people over there (guarding the gate) say they're (university) staff, but they're not staff because we know the people who work here," he said.
Alvarado said that the protesters are violating the other students' constitutional right to an education.
"They (the protesters who've taken over the university) aren't thinking that we want to get ahead and to help the country move forward... Political issues are political issues and education does not have anything to do with it that they are suppressing our rights. The constitution is clear and gives us the right to education," he said.
Honduras' long and detailed constitution has been at the forefront of the dispute between Zelaya, who sought to extend the constitution's one-term presidential term limit, and his opponents, who point out that the constitution forbids an official from proposing a change in the term limits.
The dispute has triggered Central America's worst crisis since the Cold War.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias will mediate talks on Saturday (July 18) between envoys representing Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, the interim president installed by Congress after the June 28 coup.
After an inconclusive initial round last week, the two sides are deadlocked with Zelaya demanding his immediate reinstatement and Micheletti ruling out Zelaya's return to office.
To counter renewed protests by Zelaya's backers, Micheletti's administration stepped up security across the country and reinstated a night curfew late on Wednesday.
Watched by armed soldiers and riot police, protesters shut off the northern and southern entrances to the hill-ringed capital Tegucigalpa for several hours, backing up trucks and other vehicles for miles (kilometres) in both directions.
Protester Raul Pinto said they had a message for Micheletti.
"We energetically call on this interim usurper president to tell him that the people of Honduras will not accept negotiations. He needs to leave. We want the reinstatement of the constitutional president elected by the Hondurans," Pinto said.
The activists later lifted the roadblocks, vowing to return in force on Friday to repeat the protests.
Zelaya, who says the coup was a power grab by rich political elites who oppose him, has said Saturday's talks are the last chance for the interim government to reinstate him immediately, before he pursues other strategies.
Arias told local radio in Costa Rica that he would try to broker a compromise, such as a national reconciliation government between the two sides or an amnesty. He also said neither Zelaya nor Micheletti had confirmed they would attend Saturday's talks. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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