Montreal girls anxious to leave Honduras
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 | 3:25 PM ET Comments3Recommend1
CBC News

A group of high school girls from Montreal remained stuck in Honduras on Tuesday after a military coup there.

Twenty-one students, aged 16 and 17, and three teachers from Pensionnat du Saint-Nom-de-Marie — a private girls school in Outremont — flew to Honduras last Thursday to volunteer with a group called Mer et Monde. The girls were reportedly there to help build a new wing on a women's centre.

On Sunday, a military coup forced the Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya, into exile in Costa Rica, and incited clashes between protesters and riot police in front of the presidential palace in the capital, Tegucigalpa, on Monday.

Half of the girls were staying in a village in the countryside, the rest were at a guesthouse in the capital, near the presidential palace.

Diana Bronson’s daughter Samia was one of the girls in the village of San Mathias, two hours outside the capital. Bronson said it was somewhat frustrating being in Montreal, unable to do anything for her daughter.

“Obviously everybody is wondering what the right thing to do is... I just have to trust the people on the ground to make the right decisions.... it’s very hard for me sitting at my desk in Montreal to say what the best thing to do is, so I just hope the appropriate consultations are going on,” Bronson said Tuesday afternoon.

Joan Beauchamp, spokesperson for Saint-Nom-de-Marie, assured parents Tuesday afternoon the girls were in good hands.

“They are safe and sound. They are in a very different part of town of where some of the riots took [place]... We don’t know how the situation is going to evolve so definitely we’re taking no risk whatsoever with our students and their teachers.”

Beauchamp said the girls would be flown home on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. The group was supposed to be in Honduras for two weeks but their trip will likely be cut short after only five or six days.

On Tuesday, the department of foreign affairs was advising Canadians in Tegucigalpa to stay in their residences and respect a 6 p.m. curfew. They advised travellers to maintain a high level of caution in Honduras. They said Canadians there should avoid large crowds, as the situation remains very unpredictable.