Some 300 indigenous people and campesinos from the Honduran provinces of Intibucá, Comayagua and Santa Bárbara protested on May 11 in front of the U.S. embassy in Tegucigalpa to demand that DR-CAFTA not be ratified. "For the right to health, education and work, no to the TLC [free trade treaty]," read a banner held by the protesters in front of the embassy, which was surrounded by riot police. The demonstration was timed to coincide with a series of protests in the U.S. against DR-CAFTA. According to Salvador Zúniga of the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the protesters reject the "servile" role played by the Central American presidents who were meeting in the U.S. to promote DR-CAFTA. "These presidents are offering the riches of the Central American peoples on a silver platter, and in the case of the president of Honduras, asking that an anti-national and anti-Honduran treaty be ratified which will only bring more unemployment and poverty," Zúniga said. (Tiempo (Honduras) 5/12/05; AP 5/11/05).