Article
Assailants Kill 28 in Honduras Bus Attack
Fri Dec 24, 1:15 PM ET
World - AP Latin America
By FREDDY CUEVAS, Associated Press Writer
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Assailants claiming to be members of a revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty ambushed a bus filled with people bringing home Christmas gifts and killed at least 28 people, including six children, in an escalation of the battle between gangs and Honduras' government.
The bus with more than 50 people aboard, most of them women and children, was driving through a heavily populated neighborhood in the northern city of Chamelecon on Thursday evening when a car of gunmen cut in front of it and forced it to stop, police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres said.
The assailants jumped out of the car and began shooting, while attackers in a second car fired from behind and then alongside the bus, he said.
Sixteen of the victims were killed aboard the bus while 12 others, including two children and 10 women, died after being taken to a public hospital in the nearby city of San Pedro Sula, Torres said. More than a dozen others were injured. Many of the passengers were coming home with bags filled with gifts and food for Christmas, Torres said.
The driver of the bus, Guillermo Salgado, died in the attack. His body was found slumped over the steering wheel. The attack took place in the San Isidro district of the city, 125 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
Police arrested a suspect driving a car similar to one identified by witnesses as having been at the site of the attack. The suspect is an alleged member of violent gangs that have terrorized residents, mostly in the poor neighborhoods of Honduras' major cities.
The suspect was carrying a .38-caliber pistol and several automatic weapons, Torres said.
The assailants left a large piece of paper taped to the windshield of the bus with a message saying they represented a revolutionary group that opposes the death penalty. The message contained "vulgar words" against President Ricardo Maduro, Congress President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, Torres said.
The note warned "people should take advantage of this Christmas, because the next one will be worse," Torres said.
The attack came amid an escalating fight between gangs and the government. Two days earlier, Alvarez announced authorities had uncovered plans by drug traffickers and criminals to assassinate the Honduran president and his family.
"The reports establish that drug traffickers and organized crime have given the gang members the necessary information for them to carry out the attack against the president ... and that worries us," Alvarez said at the time.
Honduran gangs claim more than 100,000 members and control poor neighborhoods in major cities, where they are known for extorting "protection" money from residents.
Maduro has waged a zero-tolerance campaign against gang activity. At his bidding, Congress approved a law in August 2003 that sentences gang members to up to 12 years in prison. Gangs have responded with gruesome attacks, including the beheading and dismembering of victims, whose bodies have been left in public places.
Maduro said Monday he was increasing security for himself and his family. After Thursday's attack, he offered his sympathy to the families of the victims and said he would fly to San Pedro Sula to meet with them.
"My government won't tolerate the kind of massacre that has the objective of threatening and scaring the people. ... We are reacting with force," he said.
Earlier this year, Alvarez claimed al-Qaida was trying to recruit gang members to carry out terror attacks, but U.S. and other Central American officials have said there is no evidence to support that.
Lobo Sosa is one of four candidates who will compete in February to determine the ruling National Party's presidential candidate for November elections. Lobo has suggested instituting the death penalty for severe crimes such as murder, rape and kidnapping. Honduras abolished the death penalty in the 1950s.
"What happened tonight is a barbaric and cowardly act unlike very few we have seen in Honduras' history," Maduro said in an address broadcast nationally on radio and television stations Thursday. "It is an attack against all Hondurans."
The president said joint police-military operations had been launched to find the attackers. The government was offering a $50,000 reward for information that would lead to their capture.
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