Not new news, leaves out the brutal police attacks on teachers, and implies the teachers are to blame for the police actions, but the last line nails it. Turns out it was well below 50%; more like 600,000 voters total in the November elections legitimated through fraud and deceit by what I've now learned is being called among the small liberal U.S. high-level circle of policy people who know that Honduras exists el shannonazo. The sad thing is that because of the election Lobo has no legitimacy, not on the left, nor on the right, and both State Department and Congressional actors (who claim to be at odds with each other) are propping him up like any number of its other ruling puppets without a mandate around the world, not acknowledging the depth of their failed strategy and/or the fact that more of the same (i.e., supporting the delegitimized Truth Commission & government of "reconciliation and unity") is only making it worse.

Honduran Police Break Up Teachers’ Road-Blocking Protest

TEGUCIGALPA – Honduran police dispersed hundreds of teachers who had blocked two roads in this capital to pressure the government to pay more than $200 million in past-due contributions to a pension and benefits fund.

The police used tear gas to clear out the striking teachers, who impeded the flow of traffic for three hours Friday on the east side of the city.

At least five demonstrators were arrested during the police operation, law-enforcement officials said.

The dispersed teachers took refuge at the state-run National Pedagogical University, which is located near the protest site.

Teachers have been on strike for three weeks to spur President Porfirio Lobo’s government to reinstate workers fired by the National Autonomous University and pay the 4.6 billion lempiras ($242 million) the state owes the teachers’ pension and benefit fund.

The government has been in arrears to the fund since 2007.

Talks since last week between teachers’ representatives and a government commission have not led to any concrete agreements, although some progress has been made, sources from both sides said.

However, the educators say the negotiations will not continue until those detained on Friday are released.

Another of the teachers’ demands is the dismissal of several government officials, including Education Minister Alejando Ventura, who reiterated Friday that roughly 2,600 teachers will not receive salaries for the time away from work during the strike.

On Wednesday, thousands of Honduran workers marched in Tegucigalpa to demand an increase in the minimum wage and show solidarity with the teachers.

The minimum wage, currently 5,500 lempiras ($290) a month, was supposed to go up in April, but the hike was put off due to complaints from the business sector, the secretary of the CUTH labor federation, Israel Salinas, reminded reporters covering the protest.

Joining CUTH members for the march in Tegucigalpa were elements of the National Popular Resistance Front, a group formed after the June 2009 ouster of President Mel Zelaya as he prepared to hold a non-binding referendum on convening a constitutional convention

A leader of the resistance front, Juan Barahona, and CUTH chief Salinas said Wednesday’s protests were part of a growing movement toward a national general strike against the government of Lobo, who won the presidency last November in elections overseen by the coup regime.

Turnout was below 50 percent.