20 angry men
A story from Honduras that slipped my mind.
The north coast of Honduras seems to be pretty active for tourism development leading to land speculation on many fronts. Driving from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba we stopped at a small village, Barra Vieja, on the beach. A huge amount of fill had been brought in or moved around to form a raised area that earth moving equipment had flattened out. We learned later this would be some big hotel.
A few minutes away a row of thatched houses stretched down the beach. A few people sat under the sun shelter in the distance. We walked around a few of the huts, talked with folks hanging out.
Back in the van we drove further into the village. Very suddenly a large group of men appeared from a village that previously was sleepy and empty. They made motions like they wanted us to stop which we didn't until one guy with a bicycle stood directly in front of us in the road. About twenty men surrounded the van when it stopped.
Things were pretty stressful for a while as we talked with them. One guy with watery eyes scanned the inside of the van while talking, trying to get a sense of who were were and what we had inside. They let us go after a few minutes and we turned around immediately. We left unscathed though scared.
The north coast is usually Garifuna people. This group was definitely not Garifuna. We think these guys were setting up houses to be able to claim ownership of the beach if it comes up for sale. Drug running is another very high possibility.
The north coast of Honduras seems to be pretty active for tourism development leading to land speculation on many fronts. Driving from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba we stopped at a small village, Barra Vieja, on the beach. A huge amount of fill had been brought in or moved around to form a raised area that earth moving equipment had flattened out. We learned later this would be some big hotel.
A few minutes away a row of thatched houses stretched down the beach. A few people sat under the sun shelter in the distance. We walked around a few of the huts, talked with folks hanging out.
Back in the van we drove further into the village. Very suddenly a large group of men appeared from a village that previously was sleepy and empty. They made motions like they wanted us to stop which we didn't until one guy with a bicycle stood directly in front of us in the road. About twenty men surrounded the van when it stopped.
Things were pretty stressful for a while as we talked with them. One guy with watery eyes scanned the inside of the van while talking, trying to get a sense of who were were and what we had inside. They let us go after a few minutes and we turned around immediately. We left unscathed though scared.
The north coast is usually Garifuna people. This group was definitely not Garifuna. We think these guys were setting up houses to be able to claim ownership of the beach if it comes up for sale. Drug running is another very high possibility.
posted by Michael at 9:29 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds fairly intimidating. Did you ever get any clues as to what might have been going on?
Yah, it was intimidating. We think either land speculation or drugs, probably both. They were protecting their turf.
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