Honduras Students Resume Mobilization, Say Deal Not Respected

Honduran students were back on the streets Wednesday after suspending their mobilizations for a week, as they argue that university authorities have failed to implement their part of the deal in dropping criminal charges against protesting students.

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The University Student Movement, also known as MEU, held a national mobilization at 4 p.m. local time in the facilities of the National Autonomous University of Honduras, or UNAH.

Despite a judge finally deciding to release a total of 25 students on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, 60 students are still awaiting their sentence.

The students suspended their occupation of university facilities following an agreement reached with UNAH administrators on July 21, but officials failed to drop charges against their fellow student protesters, MEU student leaders said.

"Members of the Conscious Student collective who are have not had their charges dropped as promised by university authorities."

The students, representing campuses across the country, were arrested during the violent police eviction on July 1 and charged for their occupation of university buildings.

Students seized classrooms at the UNAH campus in Tegucigalpa in early June to ramp up their protests against the privatization of public education and a lack of student representation in decision-making.

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Protests also erupted at other UNAH locations, including on the campus of the country's second-largest city of San Pedro Sula.

The conflict reached a fever pitch when police evicted students from the campus on July 1, a day after the rector announced plans to cancel the next academic term across several faculties in light of lost class time because of the protests. MEU slammed the announcement as arbitrary, arguing that the rector did not have the power to make such a decision.

Local media have largely framed the protests as a rejection of changes to academic regulations, including a higher minimum grade required to pass, that some students fear will impact their ability to graduate.

But the student movement has made it clear that their occupation is more broadly about the defense of public education in the face of creeping fees and a lack of democratic involvement of the students body in policy decisions.