Honduran president Porfirio ("Pepe") Lobo Sosa announced on Aug. 30 that he had signed an agreement with the education workers' unions ending a 26-day strike by some 55,000 teachers. The job action was marked by militant demonstrations by the teachers and by repression by the police. The strikers were to return to work on Aug. 31.

The government appeared to have met the principal demands of the six unions in the Federation of Teachers Organizations of Honduras (FOMH), which wanted the government to make overdue payments worth as much as 3.7 billion lempiras (about $194 million) to the National Institute of Teachers' Social Security (Inprema), the teachers' pensions fund. Lobo, who took office on Jan. 27, said his government was accepting "as its own the debts contracted by previous administrations, 2007, 2008 and 2009, with the teachers' unions," referring to the 2006-2009 administration of former president José Manuel ("Mel") Zelaya Rosales and to the de facto regime that replaced Zelaya after he was overthrown by a military coup in June 2009.

The teachers failed to win a demand for the removal of Education Minister Alejandro Ventura. (EFE, Aug. 30, via Terra.com)

From Weekly News Update on the Americas, Sept. 5.

See our last post on Honduras.