15 days of salary are deducted from 12 Libre deputies due to riots in Congress

The board directive of the National Congress made effective this Tuesday, April 14, an unprecedented financial sanction against 12 parliamentarians from the Freedom and Refoundation Party (Libre) party, following the riots and incidents recorded last Thursday, April 9.

The measure, which consists of the deduction of 15 days of salary, was applied after legislators carried out a serious disturbance of order during the session in which the formal complaint of impeachment against electoral officials was presented.

​The president of the Legislature, Tomás Zambrano, was emphatic in pointing out that the behavior of the congressmen was duly documented in the minutes of the session, which empowered the Secretariat to proceed with the administrative sanction.

According to Zambrano, the resolution of the plenary session that orders these deductions has been law in force since its publication in the official newspaper La Gaceta, and its application seeks to set a precedent regarding respect for the solemnity of Parliament.

“I would hope that this does not happen again, that it is the first and last time that this sanction is applied; this deduction will reach public educational centers that have made requests in the National Congress,” said Zambrano.

​For his part, the Secretary of Congress, Carlos Ledezma, was in charge of reading resolution number 10-2026, which details the names of those sanctioned based on the constitutional and legal powers of the Legislative Branch.

The list of the 12 affected deputies includes José Fabricio Carvajal Sandoval, Marco Ramiro Lobo Rosales, Sergio Arturo Castellano Perdomo, Kritza Gerling Pérez Gallegos, Clara Marisabel López Pérez and Edgar Antonio Casaña Mejía.

Likewise, the sanction falls on the parliamentarians Nidia Gissela Castillo Funes, Germán Oswaldo Altamirano Díaz, Rita María Zuniga Membreño, Ronald Edgardo Panchame Urquía, Daniel Armando Rivera and Javier Adolfo Miralda Villalobos.

Ledezma notified that the list will be immediately sent to the payer of the National Congress so that the corresponding debit of the payroll for the current month can be made, complying with article 2 of the resolution of the plenary session 02-2026.

“The deputies are sanctioned with the deduction of 15 days of salary for having incurred in acts that constitute a serious alteration of the parliamentary order during the session held on Thursday, April 9,” Ledezma explained during the official reading.

​The response from the Libre bench was immediate, led by deputy Fabricio Sandoval, who questioned the legality of the sanction and called the president of Congress a “liar.”

Sandoval argued that, according to the Constitution of the Republic, there is a rigorous procedure for creating laws and that a plenary resolution does not have that legal character, accusing the board of trying to impose a “muzzle” on the opposition through economic reprisals.

​The opposition parliamentarian recalled that these types of resolutions have been used in the past for questionable decisions, such as the non-renewal of the Maccih in 2019.

Despite the deduction of his salaries, Sandoval assured that his party will not be intimidated and that they will continue with legislative insurrection measures or protests whenever they consider that the interests of the Honduran people are violated.

​”You make the salary deductions you want because your servant and this bench are not here for salary, we are here for the defense of the people; what will never be deducted is the will and the fight,” Sandoval stated.

The congressional authorities reiterated that the funds collected from these fines will not return to the general coffers of the Legislature, but will be channeled in a transparent manner towards the improvement of the infrastructure of public schools that currently have deficiencies.

This measure seeks to transform an act of parliamentary indiscipline into a tangible benefit for the country’s educational sector, although the political tension between the majority groups seems far from dissipating.