Crimes and violence in Central America, so far.

First it’s good to tell that I’m not that qualified to write about crimes and violence in Central America. Things I’m about to write about are just small piece of the bigger picture. Consider this as my opinion or narrow minded version of the Dark Side. I’m going to tell you about the bad shit but I’m also trying to finnish the chapters by telling something positive. I want to try to write positive endings because even thought there is some really bad shit going down, Central America is still a great place to travel.

So…

Last night there were 5 of us on the porch of the hostel. I asked those who haven’t been robbed to lift up their hands. One hand rose. Friend from US was the only one, but he had been travelling the shortest time. Nobody really made a big deal about getting robbed. That kind of stuff just happens. Usually people loose only small amounts of money or valuables so it’s not that big of a deal. I’m going to ask you something: How much did you “loose” when you bought the new Ultra flat TV without edges to replace the perfectly good old TV? I know that statement is a low blow, but I don’t really care because the blow is meant to test if you can stand the tonality of this post.

First let’s start with Mexico. It’s a real Wild Wild West with beheadings and gang wars IF you happen to live next to the border with USA. Now why is north dangerous and rest of the country is just fine? You see North America buys all the drugs with big money. Greed leads to anger, angers leads to fighting, fighting leads to shooting, etc…The whole chain of events is made a lot easier with the guns that come from the Southern States of US. You need a rifle? No problem! You need a machine gun? NO PROBLEM! You really need some armor piercing bullets?! NO PROBLEMO! Good part of the problem up north are the gun laws of some lovely states in US. Automatic weapons are bought in US and then smuggled to Mexico. It doesn’t really help the problem that the drug laws in US are really tight and demand to get high on drugs is high. I can’t find a positive ending for this chapter. Change the damn gun and drug laws in US.

As we move down from the northern border of Mexico the problems start turning more into social and political challenges. No blood and violence there so it doesn’t really intrest anybody. I mean what’s the big deal about child labour, homeless people, corruption and military road blocks. Occasionally these things might ruin a perfectly good view. The again good views can be found all over Mexico.

Now we’re starting to get close to the border of Guatemala. Before going to Guatemala there is one more pain in the ass state. That is Chiapas. It’s probably the richest state of Mexico in natural resources. For some reason It is also the poorest when talking about locals and money left to the state. I’m not going to tell you about the history of the state too much. Other wise you would get bored and stop reading.

Long story short. In 1994 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) was too much for some of the indigenous people of Chiapas and they pulled out their guns. They call themselves the Zapatistas. Now Chipas is a police state within a police state. Make no mistake, Mexico is a police state in many ways and Chiapas is the epic center of all that. The country is kept in order with guns and threats. I’ve seen, heard and experiences stuff that I can’t write about because you would think I’ve gone crazy and Mexican government might think I’m trouble. Enough said. you might want to read some letters of sub commandante Marcos. He writes well.

Now of course the problems in the state of Chiapas didn’t start in 1994 but a lot earlier. United Fruit company, Conquistadors, money, greed, there is some key words to start untangling that mess. Nevertheless Chiapas is by far my favorite state in Mexico. It’s got awesome Maya ruins, waterfalls, great culture, zapatistas, military forces, good food, cheap accommodation, great people, mountains, jungle, YOU NAME IT!

It’s time to cross the border into Guatemala where around 150 people get lynched a year. This year the numbers were down a bit. Here is how it went down on some of the places I passed by:

A kids hair is shaved against his will. Father (a police officer) confronts the people with an uzi. The people torch him alive. Week after that happening we hiked to the city and everyone seemed a bit tense.

A man is arrested of a crime and put to a local police station. Locals aren’t happy and they go and get the person from jail and torch him alive. While their at it they burn 3 police pick-ups. Two days after the street looked normal to me.

A man does something bad and tries to get away with a car. He gets pulled over and is burned alive inside the car. The car looked black.

One of the main roads of the country is blocked by demonstration. School bus is used to block the road. Things get ugly and a driver gets shot to death. After waiting for 20 minutes in our bus we decide to walk through the road block. Things looked peaceful.

I didn’t know the real facts of those incidents and what really happened. I just know that someone got killed.

Guatemala City is supposed to be quite shitty place for tourists. That’s what I’ve heard at least. For once I believed what people where saying and decided not to get to know the city better. In Guatemala City bus drivers get shot because they don’t pay money to some criminal organizations. The killing rate is pretty much 1 driver per day.

You have to understand that none of these crimes are really dangerous to tourists. Usually “these people” kill each other. That’s an ugly way to put it but that is how it is. Tourists get robbed, not killed. Guatemala is definitely a country worth visiting. Awesome countryside and volcanos. Just remember the same universal rules that aplies to pretty much every country and city in the world you don’t know – don’t go out at night, especially if you are drunk or alone. Taxis are a nice invention, especially the official ones.

So now that we have covered briefly and superficially and totally unprofessionally the country of Guatemala and Mexico it’s time to move on. Next stop El Salvador. I’ve been here only for one week so I can’t tell that much. I’ve read that there is a lot of gang violence in this country. With the average of 10 murders a day, El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world. Hard to tell that while laying in a hammock and surfing on the beach…

So what is the reason for all this violence in El Salvador? Well, civil wars of the 30′s and 80′s and US sponsored military forces that pretty much killed and executed any person that looked indigenous, might be one answer. More resent problem is a gang called Mara Salvatrucha (M-18) which is considered to be the most dangerous gang in the Americas. It actually got started in US when Salvadoran refugees in L.A got beaten up by the Mexican gangs. US answer to these new gang violences was to export 20,000 of these illegal immigrants back to Central America. Well, it didn’t take long for these guys to start terrorizing their surroundings where ever they were shipped. Soon enough M-18 expanded to Colombia and Mexico, thanks to drug trafficking.

The Salvadoran government made a plan called Mano Duro (Operation Hard Hand) and when that didn’t work the next government came up with an even more cunning plan called Super Mano Duro (Operation Super Hard Hand). These days it means that the police can arrest anyone who wears certain type of clothes or has a tattoo. So after Guatemala, where police and military are shitting their pants (because of what they did at their own civil war) I’m back to a country with a police state. Nice. The positive thing of this chapter are the waves and friendly people that can be found all over El Salvador.

So there we were, 5 people telling robbing stories to each other. Someone told how a couple here was walking on the beach at night when men attacked them and raped the woman with a gun point. I guess we’ve gotten of easy. I got mucked by two guys in Mexico. One girl was robbed here at the beach just few days ago. One girl was robbed in a near by village while walking to an ATM at day time. One guy was robbed in Guatemala while climbing a volcano by a man with a machette. Next day he returned alone with his own machette and made it to the top without any problems. Now the guy from California looked a bit worried. The rest of us were just smiling.

Ps. The most dangerous thing while traveling is the traffic. If you get passed your fear of dying on a car accident you can pretty much travel where ever you feel like. I promise!