Waving mostly red and black flags, and chanting slogans, the demonstrators left the bustling National Pedagogica University (east of the capital) along the “Fuerzas Armadas” (Armed Forces) Boulevard and ended at a rally at the end of Honduras’ Toncontin Airport (south).

According to organizers, about 50,000 people participated in an unprecedented gathering on the International Worker’s Day. The People’s National Resistance Front (FNRP) organized the event, with the demand for a Constituent Assembly as the main theme. The coalition also demanded, as they have for months, the return of former president Manuel Zelaya. Xiomara Castro, the wife of Zelaya, was cheered when she joined the walk on the Fuerzas Armadas boulevard.

After the walk in the morning, protesters gathered in what they call Isis Obed Plaza Murillo, named after a young man who was allegedly shot dead by police and the military during a demonstration on July 5th, when Zelaya attempted, but failed, to return to Honduras by air.

In the keynote address of the march, the coordinator of FNRP, Juan Barahona, demanded “a model to serve the people” and announced that “we will stick to the streets demanding a Constituent Assembly.”