Forest Fires Scorch Thousands of Acres in
Nicaragua
Gang-Related Bus Murders Rattle Guatemala
Capital
Impregilo Consortium on Panama Canal Short
List
Clandestine Cemetery Investigated in El
Salvador
Gang-Related Bus Murders Rattle Guatemala
Capital
By Sarah Grainger
Guatemala (Reuters) - Guatemalan
police have arrested a street gang leader on
suspicion of organizing the murders of
dozens of bus drivers, part of a wave of
attacks on the capital's public transport
system.
Police say 21-year-old Axel Ramirez, alias
"El Smaily" ("Smiley"), belongs to the "Mara
18" gang and ordered more than 20 shootings
of bus drivers and fare collectors for not
paying extortionists.
Ramirez, arrested on Thursday after a
shootout, had been released from prison in
December after serving about four years for
murdering a rival gang member.
"He was doing a lot of harm, not just
extorting our country but organizing murders
and generating terror wherever he lived,"
Interior Minister Salvador Gandara told
local radio.
Gangs have attacked more than 40 bus
employees this year. Usually the killers
pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles
and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the
drivers.
Some 135 bus drivers were slain last year,
50 percent more than in 2007 and more than
twice the number murdered in 2006.
Buses often crash after the shootings and
passengers are killed or injured in the
mayhem. Some bus companies have staged
transit strikes in protest.
A 2-month-old baby recently was killed by a
stray bullet when gunmen boarded a bus and
shot the driver. The same week, an
85-year-old man died in a similar incident.
With more than 6,000 murders last year in a
country of 13 million people, Guatemala is
one of Latin America's most violent
countries. Still scarred from a 1960-96
civil war, it is struggling to contain youth
gangs and drug cartels.
Gangs like the "Mara 18" and the rival "Mara
Salvatrucha" have thousands of members in
vast criminal networks spanning Los Angeles
to Central America. They live off extortion,
armed assault and drug dealing. Many are
adolescents.
Bus extortions in Guatemala City now
generate close to $10,000 a day, according
to the head of the bus owner's association,
and murders of drivers have exploded.
The government is phasing in a $35 million
program to replace cash fares with prepaid
plastic cards on buses.
This week President Alvaro Colom linked the
murders with increased drug smuggling into
Guatemala as Mexican cartels move south to
avoid an army crackdown at home and seek new
trafficking routes.
"The violence is planned and managed by
those with political and economic interests
who participate in organized crime and
international narco-trafficking," Colom
said. (Editing by Xavier Briand)
|
|
|
|
|
