AP News, February 21st, 2007
A three-judge tribunal on Tuesday found two members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang guilty of killing 28 people in a shooting attack on a passenger bus, and acquitted two other men in the case.
The Dec. 23, 2004 attack targeted a bus filled with 56 workers and Christmas shoppers _ most of whom were women and children. It took place outside the northern city of San Pedro Sula, about 125 miles north of the capital.
Juan Carlos Miralda, who was accused of masterminding of the attack, and Darwin Alexis Ramirez also were convicted of illegal weapons possession and membership in a gang, which is a crime in Honduras.
Prosecutors said they would ask that the men get 560 years in prison when they are sentenced next month _ about 20 years each on the 28 counts of homicide. But prosecutors acknowledged that by law, the country's maximum total prison sentence is 30 years.
"Scientific evidence, witness testimony and ballistic evidence demonstrated these two participated in the act," said Special Prosecutor Benjamin Lavaire, adding "more people were involved in the massacre, and for that reason we are continuing our investigations."
In a message left on the bus's windshield, the gunmen claimed they were part of a previously unknown revolutionary group opposed to the death penalty, one of the main campaign issues in the 2006 presidential campaign. Executions were stopped in the 1950s.
The Mara Salvatrucha and rival Mara 18 gangs, comprising about 100,000 members all together, control poor neighborhoods in Honduras' principal cities using violence, threats and extortion.
