Thugs

Thugs

San Martin does not have a police department.  A few years ago the local constable was trying to extort money.  The local vigilante committee (whom will never be known as they would suffer reprisal)  beat him to death and then publicly burned his body.  The entire department packed up and left town.  Their absence in the town has gone unnoticed.  Life goes on fine except that everyone pays 2 Q more than they did in the past when going on the bus to Chiltatenango.  The extra 2Q is the extortion payment .  Extortion is a way of life in Guatamala from the Top to the bottom.  The transportation system is the most obvious in that when the protection money is not paid buses are fired upon at random and innocent people are killed or wounded.  Anyone who shows any profit is a target, hence the suspicious and secretive nature of all business people.  People can only live in fear so long and then they rebel.  Buses are regularly stopped and the people on the bus robbed of whatever valuables they have.   One individual was tired of it and bringing his own gun on board,  when the bandits came to his seat he opened fire.  In the melee that followed 4 were dead.   Going to the authorities almost garuntees  reprisal.  The military is impotent and all their checkpoints are known.  I actually drove with someone with expired plates expired passport and expired visa and after checking his documents they waved him thru?  Gangs run rampant in the capital.  Guatamal has the highest per capita murder rate in the world.  98% go unsolved probably 98% are never investigated.  The implications would lead to someone in the government on the take.  This extortion is the dark side of capitalism.   The greed to have more and get it easily by fear.  Some I talked to maintain that the majority of those in the gangs and extortion rings are deportees from the U.S. having had a taste of what is not possible for them here in their own country.  Educated by the violence and  materialism  in the states.  It is an easy step to make.  In any case a country of very kind and gentle people is now run in a state of fear.  So,  is the underlying problem poverty?  Mark tells me that the do gooders,  the NGO´s  (non government organizations) and the government ones ie the peace corp  take back much more than they give down here.  The Guats get a new coat of paint or a well, or some medical treatment but the volunteers go home with a new outlook on life based on witnessing poverty and seeing how  they are happy none the less.   I do not know what the answer is but it needs to come soon.  I do know being the father of a policeman in the United States that I am truly thankfull for the our system of checks and balances that  keeps this thing from getting out of control (it does however happen in the U.S. on a small scale) .  This is one blog I did not want to write but when one of our new friends sister went to the capital for some auto work she was abducted by a gang, probably raped and then stabbed 14 times to death and left with her stripped down vehicle.  She left behind a husband and 3 children.   Lord have mercy

rl