Posted on 12/23/2004 8:52:01 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
Gunmen opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras late Thursday, killing at least 23 passengers and wounding 16 others, police said.
The shooting took place in the northern Atlantic city of Chamelecon, 125 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, said police spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres.
“It was an unbelievable massacre,” he said in a telephone interview. “We don’t know yet who did it.”
The bus was driving through the heavily populated neighborhood of San Isidro when a car carrying an unknown number of armed attackers cut in front of it and other assailants fired from behind the bus, Torres said. He said officials did not yet know how many people were aboard the bus.
Honduras’ La Prensa newspaper reported on its Web site that the attackers left a written message alluding to the leader of the country’s congress, Rep. Porfirio Lobo.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Oh, I see. Killing 23 innocent on a public bus is just crime gang stuff. For a second there, I thought this was a terrorist act. I guess there is a big difference. Thanks for clearing that up.
Depends on how well their economy does I guess. Central America is in the grips of a huge crime wave problem.
Not ideological in scope.
Evil vermin, scum, and slime are all over the globe. They must be squashed like that which they are.
Braver than I am. Yea, armed private guards everywhere in Central America these days - at super markets, etc.
Bad day for Honduras. 23 people is a lot for a single attack.
I think that may be debatable knowing the caliber of some people down there. Terror against law and order may be worse that religious terror. Regardless, this was a brutal terrorist act, not much different that sawing ones head off for ransom or as a means to negotiate against an occupying force.
Like Columbia's narco terrorists.
When I lived in El Salvador, Honduras seemed like such a nice sleepy and tranquil place -- but that was in the days of the guerrilla war in El Salvador. The "Peace Process" dismantled El Salvador's Policia de Hacienda, The Guardia Nacional, and the Policia Nacional. So the "Peace Dividend" was eaten up by a rise in common crime. Honduras has always had heavily armed guards at its banks and drug stores and so forth.
I've been all over Honduras from Rus Rus in the Mosquitia to Danli/Los Trojas, the capital, Copan Ruinas, Tela, La Ceiba, Trujillo, and the Bay Islands. I always felt safe there.
It is such a shocking crime. Such photos as the one you linked were more typical of Colombia than Honduras.
Honduras was the poorest American country statistically after Haiti in the 80s but its murder rate was lower than its less-impoverished Central American neighbors with the exception of Costa Rica. BTW Costa Rica had the lowest murder rate and the least restrictive gun laws of any Central American country. The recent crime spike in Costa Rica is due to the large pool of recent immigrants from Nicaragua --- hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans are in Costa Rica.
Any speculation on what's behind this? It seems oddly pointless. This many people? For what?
I don't know. It's an odd choice of a target. Evil exists and seems to be gaining on us.
"In the note, the killers present themselves as a revolutionary group that opposes the death penalty"
Good Grief!..Monsters and madmen at work!
May God comfort those who mourn these senseless murders.
Sounds vaguely like the methods used by the religion of peace.
At least the people of Honduras know that these people are thugs and murderers. It is sad that this happened, I don't think anybody in Honduras will listen to what these lunatics have to say now. In some countries, like the Sudan, the people fail to recognize murderers for what they are.
Crime has no ideology. When war is waged crimes are not crimes if done to the enemy (that rule applies to all people).
Apparently not all of them.
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