GUATEMALA: A bus that bursts into flames kills five passengers and injures dozens

Record ID: 356719

  • Title: GUATEMALA: A bus that bursts into flames kills five passengers and injures dozens
  • Date: 5th January 2011
  • Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (JANUARY 04, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) GUDY RIVERA, A CONGRESSMAN FROM THE OPPOSITION PATRIOTIC PARTY, SAYING: "The government has to act forcibly, above all with prevention tactics. There is a report from bus drivers. These acts should be stopped and those responsible should be taken to prison. We live in a small country where ever
  • Embargoed: 20th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Guatemala, Guatemala
  • Country: Guatemala
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VFMJSL2MAJ3ELKTIEILM8APK
  • Story Text: A bus fire caused by an explosion on a bus in Guatemala City killed five people and injured over a dozen in the most recent wave of attacks on the capital's public transport system.
    Authorities said a home-made bomb caused the bus to burst into flames. At least two of the fatal victims were toddlers.
    Interior Ministry spokesman, Nery Morales, said the government would hunt down for those responsible.
    "On behalf of authorities, we lament this type of violence. Investigations are being carried out together with the attorney general's office. We are following some leads where we hope to find those responsible for this terrible act."
    Attacks on buses by street gangs are common in Guatemala City after bus drivers and fare collectors fail to pay extortionists.
    Gangs attacked dozens of bus employees last year. Usually the attackers pull up to rickety city buses on motorcycles and open fire, or climb aboard and shoot the drivers.
    Buses often crash after the shootings and passengers are killed or injured in the mayhem. Some bus companies have staged transit strikes in protest.
    With more than 6,000 murders in 2008 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 from 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.
    Gudy Rivera, a congressman from the opposition Patriotic Party, said the government needs to take security more seriously in order to combat the gangs.
    "The government has to act forcibly, above all with prevention tactics. There is a report from bus drivers. These acts should be stopped and those responsible should be taken to prison. We live in a small country where everyone knows who those responsible are. Those who carry out the crimes, which gangs are involved, who the extorting gang members are. This is not new in Guatemala," he said.
    President Alvaro Colom has 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.
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