Riding the S & S railroad (safety and security)

December 13^th, 2011

            Alright so this blog has been a long time coming, I have been trying to keep this subject under wraps mostly because I did not want the people back home to worry any. Before I start I just want to take the time to say to everyone out please do not worry about me I am very safe, I have been given some great training from the Peace Corps on how to keep safe and my site is extremely safe. With that being said, the security situation here in Honduras is well….bad to say the least. Last week 2 journalists got killed assassinated while driving in their car in the capital city, as they were driving someone came up on a motorcycle and just shot them. Before that, another important person (I am not exactly sure why he was important but I know that he was…) got assassinated after he said on the national news that the President of the country and the rest of the government knows who the drug lords are, they have all their names, but they are not doing anything about it. Well a few days after he said that on national tv guess what happened? He was killed; something seems fishy here if I am not mistaken. Now the government seems to acknowledge that they have a real security issue here on their hands and have put into effect Operation Relampago which basically says that the Honduran army now has policing power and even with this policing power the three above stated murders took place. So it is not very hard to see that Honduras has a security issue on their hands. Also quick side note, the above stories may not be exactly right in their details since I am relaying what I heard in Spanish and due to not be fluent in Spanish may have missed or got some details incorrect if you have better information let me know. On top of all this new crazy activity, San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa (the supposedly industrial capital of Honduras and the capital of Honduras respectably) has two of the highest murder rates in all of the world. I have heard numerous different numbers and claims but basically Honduras as a whole is one of the most dangerous countries in the world that is not currently in war that is if you listen to the numbers and what people say.

            Alright so what does all this have to do with me and the peace corps, after all I am nowhere near those two big cities where it seems like everything is going down. While that is true and my site is very safe there are times when I have to put myself in a riskier situation and that mostly comes about when I am traveling around Honduras. One of the main crimes in Honduras (besides murder) is bus assaults and put simply this is when some armed men board a bus full of passengers and basically make all of the passengers give up anything valuable. These bus assaults seem to take place mostly around San Pedro and in the late afternoon or night time. There is a general thought that most of these bus assaults are results of the bus driver or company not paying their so called “war tax” to the gangs in the area, basically extortion, and for this reason they attack the buses. There are however safe bus options that do of course cost more but when it comes to safety you cannot put a cost on your life.

            Now that you know a bit about the background of the security issues here in Honduras, this past Sunday (maybe two Sundays ago, can’t remember) we received an email saying that a volunteer had been injured in a bus assault leaving San Pedro en route to her site and that it took place at noon. That was all we received at the time, a little bit later on we learned (most of us through an article from one of the newspapers) that the volunteer had in fact been shot in the leg after the gunman boarded the bus and one of the passengers was also carrying a gun, the guy did not want to be robbed so he opened fire causing a firefight in which the volunteer got shot in the leg. The volunteer thankfully is alright and currently in the hospital recovering. So with all that being said, it seems that Peace Corps Honduras need to put some real thought into whether or not we as volunteers are safe in Honduras. As stated above, I feel very safe in site at least during the day, at night I am always in my house and also feel safe. However when I am traveling around and most of the volunteers that I have talked to also feel the same way, it just does not seem all that safe and you constantly have to be 100% aware of everything going on around you.

            Of course there is a lot of chisme (rumors) that are going around with this incident and what is going to happen because of it. I have heard lots of different rumors and can honestly say that I have no idea what might happen, I do however have faith in Peace Corps Honduras and all of the people at the top that are making decisions to make the right choice in keeping me and the rest of the volunteers safe. I will try to keep everyone posted on what else I hear but please just know that I have heard that it is a possibility that PCH might be shutdown, as for what that means for me and the rest of the volunteers I have no idea. Seeing as how I have no control over anything that is going on though I am going to just try my best to keep going along with my work here in site and of course I am going to remain vigilant as to my own personal security, it is just what we have to do.