Venenzula, August 13: Police in Honduras have attacked angry protestors who were demonstrating against the overthrow of the exiled Honduran leader, Manuel Zelaya.
Zelaya-loyalists in the capital Tegucigalpa staged a rally on Wednesday which ended in clashes with security forces, who used tear gas to disband the crowd.
Protesters threw stones at the police and cornered Vice-president of Congress, Ramon Velazquez, around his office where they assailed the authority.
“The police and soldiers rescued me from the assailants. They didn’t do me much harm,” Velazquez said upon release.
Around 100 demonstrators were arrested during Wednesday protests in different parts of the Honduran capital, including a college campus.
Opposition leaders have condemned police incursion into the academic centers and asked for an end to the state-sponsored “repression.”
Around 10,000 protesters have gathered in Tegucigalpa in order to continue several days of demonstrations against the coup government of Roberto Micheletti and to demand the reinstatement of the deposed Zelaya.
The Central American nation has been grappling with the political crisis since late June as Zelaya has been shoring up support to assume power again.
—–Agencies