Tegucigalpa, Sep 7 (EFE).- Hundreds of Honduran workers, students and members of the National Popular Resistance Front gathered here Tuesday to demand a 15 percent rise in the minimum wage, the return of ousted former President Mel Zelaya and a constitutional convention.
The demonstrators moved to the center of Tegucigalpa in two marches that departed from university campuses.
A leader of the resistance front, Carlos Reyes, told Efe that "thousands of other" demonstrators held work stoppages and blocked stretches of highway in important cities in the country's 18 provinces.
Some of the protesters in Tegucigalpa broke windows at two television stations and at the headquarters of the Human Rights Commissioner.
In addition, they tore down a Honduran flag that had been put in place last week by municipal authorities at the start of the festivals commemorating the country's independence.
The blue-and-white national flag was replaced on the flagpole by the red-and-black banner of the National Popular Resistance Front, which also bears an image of independence hero Francisco Morazan.
The front arose after the June 28, 2009, coup that toppled Zelaya, who was on the verge of holding a non-binding referendum on overhauling the constitution imposed on the country in the early 1980s by a military regime.
The former head of state, now living in exile in the Dominican Republic, has been seeking assurances that he won't be arrested if he returns to Honduras.
Honduran workers, according to union leader Israel Salinas, are demanding a pay hike of 15 percent, a reduction in their original demand for a 30 percent increase, while the country's main employers association is only offering 5 percent.
Salinas told reporters on Tuesday that President Porfirio Lobo must decide on the size of the salary increase, which should have been approved in April.
Labor Minister Felicito Avila, meanwhile, told reporters that the minimum pay raise could be set by Sept. 13.
The current minimum monthly salary in Honduras is about 5,500 lempiras ($289).
