HomeNewsBrief'Guatemalan Extortion Ring' Kills 3 Transport Workers
BRIEF

'Guatemalan Extortion Ring' Kills 3 Transport Workers

EXTORTION / 8 AUG 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

Three bus company employees in Guatemala City were killed by alleged gang members running extortion rackets, highlighting the dangers gangs pose to transport workers throughout the region.

The three men were killed in two separate incidents on July 25. Bus drivers Julio Rivera Lucero and Eder Ramirez were gunned down in the south of the capital by suspected gang members while Juan Jose Godinez, an employee of an intercity bus company, was shot by two men on a motorcycle, reported EFE.

Rivera reportedly organized a recent protest against the inaction of authorities against gangs extorting transit workers in Guatemala City.

According to EFE, the head of Guatemala's anti-extortion task force, created in January, announced that 158 people have been arrested on suspicion of extortion this year.

InSight Crime Analysis

A 2011 InSight Crime investigation highlighted the danger Guatemala's transit workers face from gangs trying to extort them. Between 2007 and 2011, some 500 bus drivers were killed in the country, meaning that they have one of the more dangerous professions in the world. In a number of cases these extorting rings were operated from prisons by incarcerated gang bosses. It is estimated that the racket can earn them thousands of dollars a week.

In June, Guatemalan authorities arrested seven people alleged to have extorted $500,000 over the past four years from Guatemala City bus drivers.

The phenomenon is not confined to Guatemala. Transit workers in El Salvador last year organized a strike to demand a crackdown on extortion rackets operating in the city of San Salvador, while the Honduran government launched special operations in March against the extortion of bus drivers.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

EXTORTION / 30 MAR 2022

For restauranteurs in Mexico's coastal state of Quintana Roo, daily extortion fees are unavoidable. Competing cartels lean on the industry…

ELITES AND CRIME / 21 JUN 2023

Guatemala's elections see the participation of political power blocs who have created a system to protect their interests.

EXTORTION / 6 SEP 2023

Venezuelan extortion gangs are using Instagram to threaten victims or broadcast videos of their murders.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…