Guanajuato, Mexico -- The Jig is Up!

DATE: 8/FEB/2010

ETN bus assault

The jig is up is what the passengers of the luxury bus line, ETN, must have thought when four armed men robbed the passengers of an ETN bus line coming from Mexico City on the Mexico-Queretaro highway.

According to passengers, the bus made a small stop directly before a toll booth to pick up five additional passengers. Four of them were the armed robbers who took seats scattered throughout the bus.

One of the assailants took his position at the back of the bus near across from the bathrooms. From there, the assault began 15 minutes after the thieves boarded the bus.

One passenger, apparently selected at random, was beaten though not robbed. Money only was taken and luggage was left intact in the baggage storage areas beneath the bus.

Twenty minutes after the attack began, the robbers left the bus.

Once the passengers made to Leon, Guanajuato they tried making a complaint with the bus company but the one responsible for taking the report was not there. There is no indication in the newspaper story that the police were ever contacted. (Source)

(As a side note, there was an Italian tourist on the bus with a Mexican female companion. Can you imagine what this man's impression of Mexico is now and what he will tell his friends and family back in Italy when he returns?)

Mexico has terrific bus service, and ETN is the renown "Top-of-the-Line" luxury bus that we always try taking when traveling. The comfort on these buses is impeccable.

As I blogged in the Fall of 2008, on our way back from Zacatecas, we had a near miss event with what sounded strangely similar to this story only they, the suspects, were the drivers of a minor bus line, and tried to convince us to get off the bus and wait on the side of the road for what, I wrote, would surely have been a robbery or worse. We narrowly avoided a disaster.

That experience made me wonder then, and is reinforced now, if the crime rate was going to spread to the bus system?

It is sad, really. Mexico is slower than a seven year itch when it comes to acting to save what will surely turn out to destroy tourism travel in this country.

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Resources

1. THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO
2. A WALK THROUGH MEXICO'S CROWN JEWEL - A Guanajuato Travelogue
3. ROCKET SPANISH
4. LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY

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