International Student Movement

Massive Protests in Honduras against the Privatization of Education - 1 activist killed!

This is how it started on August 5:

After four weeks secondary students continue to occupy schools across Honduras to protest what they say is an effort to privatize much of the public education system. Nahúm Alexander Guerra, a student at the Pompilio Ortega Agricultural School in Macuelizo in the northwestern department of Santa Bárbara, was killed the night of Aug. 22 as he stood by the door of the school, which the students had occupied. An unidentified man yelled "strikers," and shot the teenager in the chest and in the arm. (El Tiempo, San Pedro Sula, Aug. 23)

17 years old Nahúm Guerra

Just as this homicide was perpetrated by “unknown individuals”, the ex-governor of the State of Florida, Jeb Bush, was making a speech at the Regional Conference on Central America: “Quality Education and Social Development: the challenge for governments and citizens of Central America”, promoted by the Business Council of Latin America (CEAL, in Spanish).

About a thousand secondary students, along with parents and teachers, protested in and around Tegucigalpa on August 15 against the proposed General Law of Education. In the village of Germania, south of the capital, the protesters blocked cars trying to use a major highway leading to El Salvador and Nicaragua. There was a confrontation with the police at another site, the Avenida de las Fuerzas Armada in the east of the city; agents hurled tear gas grenades and arrested some 20 students, although the students were apparently released later. Police blocked a protest near the presidential palace, where President Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa was meeting with teachers' representatives about the proposed law. The students are defending free, public education, which benefits two million young people, said Orlando Mejia, secretary of the First Professional Teachers Association. The protesters are demanding the annulment of a law known as the "municipalization law" which would leave millions of children and young people without the right to a secular, free and compulsory education, and which would lover the quality of education by removing professionals.
The National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), the main alliance of Honduran social movements, called on its members to join the student demonstrations and denounced the "savage repression" of the movement by the police.

Students have occupied some 150 public schools throughout the country over the past four weeks, and people are starting to compare the protests to the student movement in Chile, which has paralyzed the educational system there for nearly three months. According to the students, the new Honduran legislation, intended to replace a 1966 law, would end government support for education after the ninth year or when the student turns 15, forcing students to pay to finish their secondary education. Teachers unions have also opposed the government's education reform proposals; they went on strike for much of March and April:

In case people who are in touch with activists in Honduras read this, please get in touch with - it would be great to network on the global level and coordinate the "Global Weeks of Action for Education" this November together.

Sources: insidecostarica.com + ww4report.com + amerika21.de (German)