On the evening of December 23, in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, several heavily armed individuals opened fire at a public bus, then boarded the bus and shot the passengers at close range. At least 16 people died at the scene, and by December 26, the death toll had reached 28—including seven children—with another 17 people wounded. Nearly all the dead were hit by between three and five bullets each, in the head, face and upper body. The assailants used AK-47 and M-16 semi-automatic rifles, and apparently a handgun.
Police arrested a suspect, an alleged member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, armed with a pistol and traveling nearby in a vehicle where police found AK-47 and M-16 ammunition. As of December 26, a total of three suspects had been arrested. Authorities suggest the attack was carried out by the Mara Salvatrucha gang, motivated by anger at the government's anti-gang measures and by competition with another major gang, "La 18." (Tiempo (Honduras) 12/24/04; Diario Hoy (La Plata, Argentina) 12/26/04 from unspecified wire services; La República (Lima) 12/26/04 from Internet and wire services)
Before fleeing the scene of the attack, the assailants left a message, written on pieces of red posterboard, resting on the hood of the bus, held in place by two rocks. The lengthy, slang-filled message railed against Congress president Porfirio Lobo Sosa, referred to as a "mafioso drug trafficker"; Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, a "homosexual"; and President Ricardo Maduro—mentioned only once—who "steps in shit." The message threatened to kill anyone who supports Lobo, and to shoot at any vehicle which bears Lobo's campaign posters or insignias, "as with this bus." Lobo is seeking the candidacy of the ruling National Party for the November 2005 presidential elections. The message also criticized Alvarez's failed security measures, asking him: "Where are the chepos [police agents] you promised the people [you would put] on every bus?"
The message warned that "for those who don't believe in us there are going to be more deaths before the end of the year, let's see if Pepe [Lobo] or Oscar Alvarez can prevent all these massacres that are coming; now Pepe Lobo is going to come out again asking for the death penalty but who is going to be sentenced if he's the guilty one. Honduran people that's all for now, and eat tamales because you could be the next victims." The sign's message, with spelling errors and lacking in punctuation, was reproduced—apparently verbatim
—in the daily Tiempo newspaper, though no news outlet seemed to carry photographs of it.
The message was signed by the "Movimiento Popular de Liberación Sinchonero," a misspelling of the Cinchonero Popular Liberation Movement, a leftist rebel group which has long been inactive. (Tiempo 12/24/04) [The Cinchoneros' last known armed action was a bomb attack on April 18, 1991, against the headquarters of the National Party in San Pedro Sula, which caused damages but no injuries—see Update #65. The Cinchoneros were also blamed for the kidnapping in April 1994 of José Adolfo Alvarado Lara, a National Party deputy from Copán, who was freed unharmed (or rescued) within two days—see Updates #220, 221. Alvarado remains a deputy in Copán and is running for reelection in 2005. (La Prensa (Honduras) 10/21/04)]
On December 24, President Maduro said he did not believe the Cinchoneros were responsible for the bus attack. Alvarez also dismissed as "unlikely" that the Cinchoneros were to blame, since "those things remained in the past." (EFE 12/24/04)
Late on December 22 in San Pedro Sula, three men wearing police uniforms shot to death former National Party deputy Ricardo Antonio Peña in his home. Peña was a deputy for Ocotepeque department from 1998 to 2002; he was arrested in Panama in 2003 on heroin trafficking charges but escaped from prison and was sought by Interpol. (La Prensa (Panama) 12/24/04 from ANSA; EFE 12/23/04).
