Danger in beautiful places 3

March 8, 2013

Wow! On Monday – 4 days ago – there was an armed robbery here, in the main street in a building that back onto my apartment block! Lunchtime diners were tucking into their food when two armed men burst in demanding money, watches, jewellery, cameras and anything else they could get their hands on. They ripped items off anyone they felt were too slow in responding and ran off up the road.

What is alarming, as well as the fact it was in broad daylight in a busy high street, was that it is a restaurant we regularly use for weekly volunteer lunches as it is cheap and cheerful. In fact most of the clientèle favour it because it is cheap, so the robbery was probably not that profitable. General opinion is that the robbers were not local, well not from our town, but more likely from the large city (almost a million inhabitants) some 10 kms distant, which used to have a lawless reputation, but had cleaned up its act recently.

Another small cloud hanging over my stay here, but not yet enough to completely dampen my spirits.

Update: March 15.

It turns out the story was not quite as dramatic as we were told - a case of it being "enhanced" to make a better story. Apparently a female customer had placed her purse on the edge of the table, and an opportunist thief (singular!) grabbed it and tried to make off with it. He was stopped by other diners and the purse returned, but managed to break loose and make good his escape!

Danger in beautiful places 2

February 2013

Peru has had a few years of relative political stability, and with that has also come a period where they have to some extent managed to crack-down on crime, making the country a safer place. There are still hotspots, particularly in remote border areas where they are fighting drug trafficking, (apparently things are getting tougher in some neighbouring countries so they are looking at Peru as a softer option!) and tourists are always being told to be vigilant in South America. Any large city the world over has an element of danger, as there is always a vast difference between the haves and have-not, poverty is extreme and life is cheap – there is no organised welfare system like many developed countries, so if you are unemployed you are often homeless and food-less, and robbery and mugging is often a result of desperation.

The recent rape near Trujillo, in broad daylight, was a worrying incident, but one alone doesn't necessarily indicate a trend back into lawlessness. However this week we had the following story about car robberies in Lima taking place in broad daylight in heavy traffic. Taxi drivers are increasingly becoming a target for attacks as the criminals believe that people travelling by taxi must be wealthy and have something of value worth stealing, and the drivers are also carrying money themselves from their fares.

As appears to be the case so often in South America “the police know who is responsible” but seem unable to actually catch them! There are always rumours going round that the police are being paid to turn a blind eye, or that they are not prepared to risk their lives chasing desperate criminals, but it is more probable that lack of funding means they are over-stretched and do not have sufficient resources. I really hope that these are isolated incidents, as I do like Peru – the people are very friendly, the cost of living is reasonable (by Western standards!), and the way of life suits me at this time in my life.

Danger in beautiful places

February 2013

Last week, around 8 miles from where I am now living, 2 young Finnish girls on holiday were robbed at gunpoint by 5 armed men, two wearing masks. Not content with taking their money, cameras and phones, one of the attackers then decided to rape one of the girls. This happened in broad daylight, at around 1.00pm, about a mile from the archaeological site they had just visited, and one which is visited by thousands of tourists every year.

The girls were accompanied by two local boys, but had ignored the cardinal rule when travelling in South America – do not stray away from the main routes. After leaving the ruins, for some reason they did not take a taxi (very cheap out here) or bus back to the city, but decided to walk some of the way – and ended up in a notoriously dangerous area where they fell victim to this horrific crime. Apparently the police have already arrested 7 suspects, and claimed that they knew there was a gang operating in the area. Local people are up in arms about these, and other, gangs terrorising the area, with the police seemingly unwilling to do much about it.

As I am volunteering at a local charity, along with about 20 other young people from all over the world, the reports concerned me greatly, but trying to find more information about it was difficult in the extreme. Searching international media on the internet revealed nothing, and only two local newspapers seemed to be running the story, and in very little detail (one even claiming initially the girls were German), so I began wondering if there had been a deliberate news blackout to protect the extremely lucrative tourism industry here. I guess that I will never know, but what is abundantly clear is that South America, while beautiful and extremely inviting to travellers from all over the world, can be, and is, also a very dangerous place.