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The National Agricultural
Institute Workers’ Union (SITRAINA), an IUF affiliate, is participating actively
in the resistance against the coup. Contacted by Sirel, its president, Manuel de
Jesús Sosa, cleared up rumors and provided first-hand information on the current
situation in Tegucigalpa.
-We received
information that two SITRAINA (National Agricultural Institute Workers’ Union)
activists had been seized by the police. Can you confirm this?
-There are
workers throughout the country mobilizing to restore democracy and reinstate
President Manuel Zelaya in office. Right now two of our unionists who had
traveled with a group of workers to El Paraíso, on the border with Nicaragua,
were stopped near Danlí by the police, who tried to seize them. They were able
to escape and took refuge in the home of some friends. They’re virtually being
held hostage, as they can’t leave the house and the police and the army won’t
let them return to the capital or continue on their way to El Paraíso, where
there are many people completely isolated, trapped between two military posts,
without food, shelter or medical care.
-Where are you
now?
-Right now
we’re on our way to Tegucigalpa, where we have occupied our National
Agricultural Institute, and nobody is going to work. The Union of Beverage and
Related Industry Workers (STIBYS) is also blocking several avenues near
its headquarters, which was targeted yesterday in an attack. The whole city is
paralyzed, with many other sites occupied and streets blocked.
-How are people
holding up and what do they expect will happen in the next few days?
-Morale is very
high, not just among us, but among all Hondurans, who are massively resisting
the coup. And the de facto government has realized that despite its threats and
killings, we’re not giving in. Some of our unionists have reached the border and
crossed over to support President Zelaya in Nicaragua. Here,
people are protecting Radio Globo* and Canal 36, because they’re
the only press media that are reporting truthfully; the rest are all lying and
denying what the Honduran people are being subjected to. The country is under a
state of siege, but what we’re also seeing is a peaceful insurrection. No
country can be governed without the people. This coup cannot be allowed to
succeed because it would be devastating not only for us but for every country of
Latin America.
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