"eMeL" wrote in message news:...
> "Steve" wrote in message
> news:vj81gh7qf0c587@corp.supernews.com...
> > Primarily. There have been a rash of kidnappings by the gangs but definitly
> > directed at people who have money to pay ... though paying doesn't always
> > save the life of the peron kidnapped. I fear that eventually this will turn
> > toward tourists,
>
> It already has. A Ticabus (an express bus line running from Panama to Mexico) bus
> was attacked & robbed 3-4 weeks ago in Honduras on a main highway (panamericana if
> you should ask...) with one person killed (happened to be a tourist.)
>
> > but at the moment I belive its the Honduran middle/upper
> > class that has to worry.
>
> Unfortunately neither Guatemala nor Honduras are stable at the moment and violence
> there is pretty random and most certainly not only "gang member on gang member" or
> "rob the middle/upper class" type. You know, people of "means" live here in their
> private fortresses but you, Joe Tourist, has no fortress and nobody to stand for you,
> not even the cops...
>
> On the average you stand a better chance to lose your life and/or wallet in London or
> Atlanta, but it's getting worse over here, too.
>
> ><
Here's the entire article on the holdup of the bus in Honduras.
"Bus bandits kill
Tica passenger
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff
Passengers who were on a Tica Bus from Guatemala City to San José said
that a gang of bandits tried to stick up the bus when it was passing
through Honduras.
A Costa Rican died when the bandits fired blindly into the large,
luxury vehicle Saturday and hit him in the heart. He was identified as
Jorge Monge Pineda, 33.
The holdup happened on the InterAmerican Highway. The bus arrived in
San José Sunday.
Bus holdups are a fact of life in Latin America. For months
investigators tried to catch a gang that was sticking up buses on the
San José to Alajuela route, mostly at night. An off-duty investigator
finally shot it out with robbers and killed one.
Within the last two years, bandits have stuck up several buses filled
with shoppers bound for the Golfito freeport. A bus full of tourists
was stopped and passengers robbed just a half hour after they cleared
customs at Juan Santamaría Airport. "
If you note in the last paragraph, Costa Rica, a country whose
population is relatively well off by Latin American standards and has
a very stable government, has it's own share of violent crime directed
at tourists. In addition, just before I left Washington state to move
to Honduras, we had a "freeway sniper" who was taking pot shots at
passing cars. My only experience with crime in Honduras happened to be
car theft. The car was stolen from a park and ride near the Seattle
airport while I was out of the country.
Sandi |