Hostage situation in Monteverde
 

There's been an ongoing hostage situation since Tuesday afternoon at the Banco Nacional in the center of Santa Elena. It's estimated that seven people have been killed, among them three of the hostage takers, and several more wounded. Many of the details still seem sketchy at this point, as is often the case in terrible situations such as these.

The Tico Times account as of its deadline Tuesday night:

www.ticotimes.net/daily.htm

La Nación's account is the most up to date, but it's in Spanish and it's necessary to register to read the full story:

www.nacion.com

Thanks, Jeff--it's been on my mind all day. I read about it early this morning--what a shame. And for those who are visitors in the Monteverde area right now--how traumatic. We can all hope it will be resolved very soon, if it hasn't yet. Thanks for the latest.

Just read it all on Tico Times and also on Costa Rica AM.

Man we all hope and pray no tourist gets killed...so far the news is that only three of the robbers have been killed, but that news is already old.

I will be trying to stay updated as much as one can .

I have friends in Costa Rica but there is no use e-mailing them as they might not know anymore than the reporter know right now.

In my own City tomorrow is a major Memorial Service, the Prime Minister and the Govenor General are attending as well as many police officers from the USA , because last week a lone crazed gunman shot and killed four RCMP officers in a small town 60 miles from my City.

Yes sir , there are wackos all over a guess.

All we can do is hope no innocent people get killed.

Percy

Wow, I am going to Monteverde in about a week. How common is this and just how dangerous is Arenal, Monteverde, and Manuel Antonio?

We of course pray that this current crisis gets resolved quickly without further injuries or loss of life.

I do not believe this is a common thing in Costa Rica , it is obviously terrible .... and would be definitely disconcerting for those near Monteverde , and people about to visit .... Hi Percy , our flags are all at half mast here in Montreal area , very sad news all around , prayers with all involved . Faith .

The situation ended about 7:30 tonight with the last of the five hostage takers surrendering. But the final death toll stands at nine. The Canadian Embassy confirmed that one of the injured was a Canadian tourist who was airlifted to San Jose and underwent emergency surgery.

Dariow, I agree with Faithie that this type of occurence is very rare in Costa Rica, and certainly is rare in a place like Monteverde. It's still horrible that it happened, but I wouldn't let it affect my trip.

Hi fathie

Yes it is a pretty tragic event that occured last Thursday.

I am sure that you ,like me, is seeing a lot of this on your National TV.

There will be a lot of Police people here tomorrow(they are already here for tomorrow's big Memorial.)

All the hotels are booked and the nearby towns are booked solid also, they expect over 8000 police here for tomorrow.

To dariow:

No this type of bank robbery and hostage taking is not common to Costa Rica.
In fact it is not common to any place really.
I cannot remember when the last time was that we heard about a bank robbery and hostage taking and a police stand-off.

Okay , okay, in the movies,but Al Pacino really did not rob that bank.!!!

I am trying to make light of a serious situation.

Percy

Glad to hear it is finally over . It is completely un-nerving , my sister and boyfriend leave in a couple of weeks . .. Horrible to hear a Canadian tourist was caught in the middle ( anyone for that matter of course ). We just need to keep things in perspective , and also look at the details as more come out . Faith

Yes, this was horrible. We are just heartsick about the whole thing. I was in touch with my friends up there for most of the day. Everyone was very stressed and anxious.

Santa Elena is a small town, where everybody knows everybody else. No one knew who was in the bank or exactly what was going on.

The Monteverde area is such a peaceful community. This is an area that is all about the nature reserves, community co-ops, alternative schools, and tranquility. We enjoy it because it is so peaceful and simple. It is a tiny little town, and a Quaker community. It has always been a great spot to relax and recharge.

I guess we are a little more jaded in the States. We see bank robberies on the TV all the time. No one there had ever experienced anything like this

From what the (Internet) news has been saying, this was a Nicaraguan gang that had been responsible for several other bank robberies. In retrospect, the Monteverde bank must have seemed like an easy target. It is a small branch and during high season, there are lots of tourist dollars flowing through it.

When the security guards saw these men approaching, they opened fire and killed two of them. The others were able to enter the bank. One was badly wounded and died shortly after. What they thought was going to be an easy robbery, had quickly escalated into a hostage situation.

Four local people and the bank manager died in the initial engagement. A policeman also died lthe next day when the police stormed the building and freed some of the hostages.

Life goes on, and I know that Monteverde will recover. But they lost some of their innocence yesterday. This was a huge tragedy.

Best to all,

Pat Hewitt
Costa Rica Travel Exchange
Costa Rica Concierge

Thank You very much for the update , a report like yours helps to keep things in perspective . Faith

Thanks for the information Pat.

I also was thinking about you , because for you this really hits close to home.

Hopefully this will not ever happen again .

Percy

When I am in Monteverde next week, I will stop by the bank and pay my respect and offer condolences on behalf of our group and Americans who love the Tico people.

Very tragic.

Many Costa Ricans we have met over the past few years expressed concern over the Nicaraguan situation.

I just got back home to Toronto yesterday from visiting Costa Rica for the past 2 weeks. I met up with my twin sister, who lives in Dallas to celebrate our birthday (Tuesday March 8). We started in San Jose, went to Arenal and decided to do the Monteverde Cloud Forest for our birthday. After a wonderful day of canopy tours and zip lining, we waited for our bus at 3:10 pm. We got on the bus and was about to depart but we got off that bus cause we met some Italians that we did the tours with and decided to take the next bus. We got on the next bus and as we’re driving down the remote mountain, it started pouring rain, which is very unusual since it’s dry season. We were sitting next to bus driver, who suddenly pulls off the road (and for those who have driven on these roads know how scary that is) and he started shaking and crying. He only spoke Spanish but one of the Italians was able to explain that there was a bank robbery that just happened around the corner and his brother worked at the bank, he was a security guard. So for the next 30-40 minutes we drove around aimlessly trying to find a safe way back to our hotels. Every street was blocked and since we started on the top of the mountain and were driving down toward the “downtown” we could see everything, the police barricades, helicopter, ambulances, dead bodies and news media. It was chaotic. The bus driver was very strong and through his tears and the pouring rain, was able to find a way to drop everyone off at their hotels. My sister and I were the last ones he dropped off and since we sat next to him, we reached over and said everything will be alright. Although he didn’t understand us, he grabbed my arm. He started crying uncontrollably. We returned to our rooms and every tv channel was reporting the robbery. We headed to an internet café and the 2 teenage girls working there locked the doors and were terrified. Our hotel and this café were less than 2 km away from Banco Nacional and everyone was shaken up. The girls were telling us everything they knew and were crying, they had boyfriends and uncles working in the bank. They told us that there was a 7 month pregnant woman in the bank and she lost her baby. The robbers wouldn’t let her leave and she died. Everyone seemed to know everyone. And we couldn’t believe how graphic the news footage were. The bus driver’s brother was shown on television, bleeding from a gunshot wound and running out of the bank and getting shot from behind. Luckily, according to the news reports, he was recovering from 2 gunshot wounds. The next day they showed security tapes from within the bank. It was a very unforgettable experience for us, an unforgettable birthday and we were so thankful we got off the first bus. Things could have been worse. That night the Italians drove to our hotel (they were staying right downtown in Santa Elana) and we drove around the entire mountain looking for places to eat etc. We were able to grab a nice dinner but most places closed by 10:00. We found this one bar that was still opened and we grabbed some beers there. We talked to the locals, everyone was glued to their television sets. The rest of our vacation was just as strange. The next day we went to Manuel Antonio (and the hostage situation was still going on) and the hour we arrived, there was a drowning. There was an old man lying on the beach, covered by a white sheet. We also saw a huge drug bust on the beach. We saw a motorcycle collided into a car and we saw a huge brawl on our last night there. I think it was all about timing and perhaps rare events just follow us. Most our vacations involve world tragedies (last year’s Spain bombing, 9/11, German derailment, Hurricane Andrew etc..). Monteverde was a devastating one to witness. This small peaceful town was not prepared for something like this. Apparently it was something these guys were planning for months and knew exactly when to hit the bank. The roads are so difficult to drive that they had the helicopter ready. And police from San Jose apparently followed them. When I read the news now, all the stats and stories have changed. But the bottom line is that this was a devastating tragedy to the people of this town but they will be okay and they will move on.

Oh, and I just wanted to add that even during and after witnessing these events we both felt safe (except for certain areas of San Jose). And I didn't go swimming at Manuel Antonio Beach. But apparently all these things are rare and I wouldn't worry if you're planning a trip to CR. Just travel smart.

Thank you for giving us this firsthand view of the situation in Monteverde. It was such a tragic event and one that I am sure will be on the minds of those that live there and those like yourself that witnessed it, for years to come.

Your vivid description of the events that took place, create such a vivid image. Monteverde is a truly extrodinary place, it is just so sad that this happened.

As for the rest of your trip - you really do follow trouble!

Wow !!!! Thank You for taking the time to tell us of your expeirence . Truly a terrible ,terrible thing . Faith

We just got back from a 10-day trip to CR and I will be posting my trip report soon (promise!) but we too were in Monteverde during the hostage situation.

On Tuesday afternoon around 4pm we were heading back from the Cloud Forest to our hotel, the Arco Iris (conveniently located in town up the hill, apparently right behind the Banco National). We had not heard about what happened and took a wrong turn and ended heading the back way into town. We saw all these cars stopped along the road and people were watching town with binoculars but we did not think much of it. We tried to get to town but were turned around by the police. We headed back up the road and asked people what was going on. We quickly found out about the hostage situation and someone pointed out the dead bodies lying on the ground. It was pretty disturbing.

Believing the situation to be over soon, we tried to go around the other way into town and were allowed to drive right into our hotel driveway. A lot of the other hotel guests were hanging out outside the hotel. Everyone was pretty freaked out because most people had been in their cabins when the shooting at the bank began. Not knowing what to do, we decided to go back to our cabin to get cleaned up. A few minutes later, we heard gunshots and soon after the owner came by to tell us that the police said it was not safe to stay in our cabin. We were not allowed to leave the hotel premises at all that night so about 20 of us ended up sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the restaurant with the hotel security guard keeping watch.

The next morning we spent several hours lying down on the ground on mattresses behind tables waiting for the police to raid the bank. The police finally gave us permission to leave at around noon but we had to go through the neighboring property and through some bushes. Eight of us left at noon and apparently it’s good that we left when we did because they stopped letting people out again shortly after that. We spent the rest of the day doing activities around the area so it really did not impact our vacation plans too much. By the time we got back in the evening, the ordeal was over.

We met a lot of wonderful people during the hostage situation, from guests of the hotel to Monteverde residents. The locals were very concerned once they heard about where we had spent the night. I couldn’t believe how concerned they were about us when many of them knew people who were inside the bank. Tourism is the lifeblood of this area and they were concerned about the impact from this tragedy.

I hope that this incident does not deter people from visiting the Monteverde area or other parts of Costa Rica. We always felt very safe and well taken care of. This area is too beautiful too miss and this honestly could have happened anywhere at any time.

Reports like yours are very important . It will help people with their Fears , questions , un-certainties etc. Thank You for the post .

Bringing this to the top because of a request ,and to help keep some issues in perspective .