Some 25,000 people in Honduras' second city of San Pedro Sula joined a march against rising criminal violence Feb. 27. Dressed in white, the protesters marched in silence to press their demand that the government do more to improve public security, with banners reading "We want peace" and "respect life." The march was organized by the conservative National Democratic Alliance (ADN [2]). One incident that sparked the march was the slaying of the president-elect of the Association of Evangelical Pastors while walking his pet schnauzers Feb. 21. He was apparently shot by thieves who attempted to steal the dogs. It was the second slaying of an evangelical pastor in Honduras this year. (Worthy Christian News [3], Feb. 28; BBC News [4], EFE [5], La Prensa [6], San Pedro Sula, Feb. 27)
Also Feb. 27, leftist followers of ousted president Manuel Zelaya decided not to form a political party to take part in the 2013 elections, saying conditions are not in place for a democratic process. Some 1,500 delegates to the first general assembly of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP [7]) opted instead to pursue their drive for constitutional reform.
"The conditions are not right to go to an electoral process," Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro, said in a speech to the assembly in Tegucigalpa. "To do that would require that the coup-mongers leave power and are punished." Castro demanded that the current Honduran government allow Zelaya to "return without conditions." On the eve of the gathering, Zelaya himself issued a statement from exile, urging his supporters to "open as many fronts as possible, give no truce and show that we are invincible." (Canadian Press [8], Feb. 27)
See our last post on the struggle in Honduras [9].
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