During 2024 there were 240 assaults in buses of collective transport in the metropolitan area. The data leave the registration made by the pilots themselves of different routes that circulate in Guatemala City, and that collects the Ombudsman’s Office of the users of public transport of the Prosecutor’s Office of Human Rights (PDH).
The five points where more assaults were reported last year in the metropolitan area are La Castellana Avenue, Pamplona, Boulevard Liberation, Obelisco and El Trébolin that order. The largest number of cases were given in the Buses of the Express Mixco service, and mainly on routes 22, 11a, 42, 40 and 10.
The robberies happen at all times, but the record shows that these criminal groups operate more frequently From 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon.
In the count it turns out that March (39 cases), September (34), January (28), December (26), October (21) and June (20) are the months in which more assaults occur in buses that circulate in the city.
How they operate
The assailants usually act in small groups, and They go up to the bus as if they were passengers, pay, sit at strategic points, some in the middle, others covering the approach and exit doors.
In specific places of the route, one rises, walks forward and scratches a gun or draws a white weapon, and immediately says: “This is an assault”, words with which he intimidates the pilot and passengers, while his companions strip people of their belongings, they can attack those who resist.
The assault happens in a matter of minutes and during the route of a couple of blocks the evildoers descend from the truck, They cross the street and address another unit that takes them back to the point where they went up to the first bus, to repeat the practice. Thus operate, according to the testimonies of the pilots of different routes and that has heard Édgar Guerra, defender of the users of public transport of the PDH.
In May last year, 15 robberies were recorded. That month, on Mother’s Day, inside a bus that circulated on the Liberation Boulevard, near the La Castellana bridge in zone 8, a man threatened passengers with a knife and stripped them of their belongings. In the event two people were injured and several with nervous breakdown.
The truck was crossed by covering the passage of the other vehicles, which caused chaos in the transit, according to the report of the Municipal Traffic Police of Guatemala of May 10, 2024. The assailants were captured by the National Civil Police (PNC).
Another way in which they operate is that they take advantage of the agglomerations inside the buses to remove from the pockets or backpacks of the passengers value objects, such as mobile phones and wallets, according to the PNC.
Vulnerable routes
According to war, public transport assaults is an “uncontrollable” issue, and must be addressed from the root, because “in the last two decades the effects and not causes have been treated.”
Points out that the criminals committed by these robberies They are related to gangs. The same says the PNC. These groups are territorial, so the routes and sections are usually distributed to commit crimes.
“They are assaulting buses of those routes because they know they are more vulnerable,” says the defender of the PDH, and that the pilots have asked the authorities to operate with peace of mind.
Roger Escalante, Emixtra manager, mentions that 85 percent of the assaults on the Buses of the Express Mixco Transportation Service have occurred in the Guatemala City Sectorand it is because criminals have detected that there is no immediate response from the authorities to stop these facts.
He mentions that, due to the increase in buses, since last January agents of the Municipal Police and the Municipal Mixco Traffic Police give accompaniment within the units and throughout the route on the most affected routes.
“Security is being provided mainly in the Express Roosevelt, it is where the assaults are being most registered, from zone 1 of Mixco for the Obelisk and for the terminal, in zones 10 and 4 of the city of Guatemala,” says Escalente, and that they carry out patrols by the Mixco municipal forces in the Roosevelt and San Juan shoes criminals
He adds that the request was made to the Ministry of the Interior to strengthen security in the capital sector.
For its part, the PNC indicates that they carry out patrols in motorized units at the points where there is a history of collective transport assaults, and that in the buse stops passenger registration stalls have been implemented to prevent these facts. Police stations 13 and 14 are responsible for performing surveillance on the clover, boulevard Liberation, Obelisk and other nearby points.