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As reported in
this space, Ecuador, like many third world countries
experiencing vast and visible chasms between the lifestyles of their
richest and poorest
citizens, is experiencing a dramatic increase in street crime, robberies
and assaults. With often inadequate and underpaid police protection
endemic, in many cases citizens take matters into their own hands,
both in terms of prevention of and response to crime.
The following story is from the Ecuadorian city of Esmereldas, on the
northern coast, near the border with Colombia. Esmereldas is know for its
emerald mines, beautiful beaches, African-American population and Caribbean
culture.
The incident started out as one of the innumerable petty crimes perpetrated
on the hard-working populace every day; a gang of 5 small-time hoodlums
tried to shake down a provincial bus carrying people back from the capital-
but then things went horribly wrong. A 62-year old ex-policeman pulled
out
a gun
and,
in an act of foolhardy bravery, took on the 4
delinquents in the middle of the crowded bus. In the ensuing gunfight
a 30-year-old school teacher was killed and one of the robbers, cornered
by the enraged passengers, was doused in gasoline and burned alive.
Bus Passengers Burn an Alleged Assailant
The passengers of a city bus yesterday burned alive an assailant who
allegedly, together with 4 other suspects, assaulted the bus and shot
a schoolteacher, who later died, and a retired policeman who were passengers
on the bus.
The incident occurred at 1:30 in the afternoon, in the area of El
Mirador ( The Lookout), while the vehicle was on its route from Quito
to Esmeraldas.
Manuel Guachamin, a rural schoolteacher who was a passenger on the
bus, said the attackers got up from their seats, shot their guns into
the
roof of the bus, and after threats seized all of the valuable from the
other passengers.
He also said that one of the robber shot a retired policeman, Gerimias
Ortiz Carabali, 65, and then killed a school teacher, Jeaneth Orozco Canezas,
30, who was returning to her house in Esmeraldas after teaching classes
in the Saint Elvira School.
Guachamin reported that the ex-policeman pulled out his own gun and
confronted the robbers, managing to wound at least four of them, at which
point they decided to flee the scene.
He added that the enraged passengers, about 30 people, raced after
the thieves and managed to catch one of them. This suspect was surrounded
by the passengers and residents of the zone, doused in gasoline, and burned
alive in the middle of the highway. The police arrived approximately half
an hour later. They sent the wounded to hospitals in Esmeraldas
and Quininde and organized a search for the escaped suspects, without
success.
from El Universo (daily paper in Guayaquil, Ecuador).
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