Protesters torch US embassy doors in Honduras (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Several hooded demonstrators have set fire to the US Embassy in the capital of Honduras, as massive protests against education and healthcare privatization grip the Central American country.

Footage from the scene in Tegucigalpa showed pillars of thick black smoke rising above the American diplomatic mission, after several tires were set ablaze right in front of the embassy’s doors. The protesters chanted "American trash, American trash" as the entrance burned. 

Firefighters were immediately dispatched to the scene. Riots against government reforms seeking to privatize health and education services continued in the vicinity. The blaze has practically destroyed the entrance, without causing much damage to the solid concrete structure of the building.

Ahead of Friday’s protests against the the government of President Juan Orlando Hernandez, the US embassy issued a security alert instructing the family of American government employees to remain at home and monitor media updates.

Organizers of the protest blamed “infiltrators of the government” for the damage to the embassy, AFP reports. No casualties have been reported in the incident at the embassy. Police were absent from the vandalism scene and made no arrests.

The torching came just after news emerged that before his rise to power, Hernandez, an ally of the US government, had been the target of the US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) probe which was examining the president's alleged “large-scale drug-trafficking and money laundering activities” related to cocaine smuggling operations into the United States.

While it is not immediately clear why the protesters, led by health and education professionals, decided to target the American embassy, bilateral relation between the US and Honduras has been on the decline recently. After approximately 96,000 Honduran asylum seekers were caught at the US-Mexico border in just four months this year, the US government cut aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as a punishment for their failure to stop the so-called migrant caravans.

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