Gunmen kill 23 on bus in Honduras
Unknown gunmen opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras late yesterday, killing at least 23 passengers and wounding 16 others, apparently many women and children, police said.
The shooting took place at 7.40pm local time (1.40am Irish time) in the northern Atlantic city of Chamelecon, 125 miles north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, said police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres.
Police in the nearby industrial city of San Pedro Sula had arrested one suspect, believed to be a member of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang, who was driving a vehicle similar to that identified by witnesses as having participated in the attack.
Authorities seized a .38-calibre pistol and several automatic weapons from the suspect, and had begun interrogating him, Torres said.
The gunmen left a large piece of paper taped to the bus’s front windshield with a message saying they represented a revolutionary group that opposes the death penalty.
The message contained “vulgar words” against congressional President Porfirio Lobo Sosa and Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, Torres said.
The attack came just two days after Alvarez announced that authorities had uncovered plans by drug traffickers and local criminals to assassinate Maduro and his family, as well as himself.
Lobo Sosa is one of four candidates who will compete in a primary on February 20 to determine the ruling National Party’s presidential candidate for the November 2005 election.
Lobo has suggested instituting the death penalty for severe crimes such as murder, rape and kidnapping.
The police spokesman said authorities did not yet know how many people were aboard the bus all together, but that the majority of the passengers were women and children.
Sixteen of the victims died aboard the bus while the seven others died after being taken to a public hospital in San Pedro Sula, Torres said. The sex and ages of the victims were not released.
The gangs Mara Salvatrucha and MS-18 claim more than 100,000 members in Honduras. The gangs control poor neighbourhoods in the country’s major cities, where they are known for extorting “protection” money from residents as well as committing robberies, homicides and other crimes.
Honduran President Ricardo Maduro has waged a zero-tolerance campaign against the bands, and at his bidding Congress approved a law in August 2003 that sentences gang members to up to 12 years in prison.
Gang members have responded with gruesome violent attacks, including the beheading and dismembering of victims whose bodies have been left in public places, accompanied by notes threatening the president.
