GandCT

Early last Saturday morning a tour bus carrying an American tour group was stopped and held up in the Costa Verde area of Lima on their way to their hotel from the airport. When the bandits boarded the bus, one woman was shot when she panicked and started screaming; she is in the hospital in very serious condition. A couple of other tourists were beaten. And, of course, everybody lost all their luggage, cameras, and valuables. Obviously, there was nothing the tourists could do to prevent this tragedy. It's a high-crime area and tourists are among the frequent victims. The police have since increased security on the route to the airport. But tourists need to be aware that Lima can be dangerous, and take careful notice of their surroundings.
We missed this incident by a couple of months, having stayed at the same hotel where this group was staying, and having become familiar with the Miraflores are of Lima.

cmcfong

Which hotel was that?

kathleen

GandCT, I've been trying to find out more about this robbery by pulling up Lima newspapers on line, but can't seem to locate anything about it. Where did you read or find out about this? Kathy

jczinn

Pretty distressing--we are going to Peru this summer. After much searching I found this report:

http://www.elcomercioperu.com.pe/Edi...ma0276814.html

Google translation--I'm sure someone can better translate the spanish, but this gives the gist of it--pretty much as the first poster portrayed:

They assault and they balean to tourists in the Green Coast
A woman received a shot in the abdomen and a man was struck in the head.

The American spouses Mary and John Edwards, like other five tourists also of the United States, commented con.estusiasmo the natural and cultural beauties that had known in Puno. He was the eight at night of Saturday and they were transferred by the Green Coast towards his hotel in Miraflores. They did not foretell that they were going to carry out a terrible adventure that was not planned in his tour: a bloody assault. Suddenly, the coaster which there were boarded in the airport Jorge Chávez restrained unexpectedly. Black a Sedán car without plate and with polarized glasses that came in opposite sense closed the passage to them near the Waikiki club. Three delinquents lowered of him grasping arms of long reach that began to shoot to frighten to the driver and the tourists. A shot reached in the abdomen to Mary Edwards (68), who fell to the ground. His husband John (65) tried to defend it, but an attacker struck it in the head with the handle of his weapon. After reducing to the travellers, the delinquents snatched their clocks, cameras and credit cards to them, and fled with unknown course. One calculates that the amount of the robbed thing surpasses USS25 thousands. The wounded was lead to the hospital Casimiro Ulloa. The woman was operated and she already is outside danger. His husband underwent moderate encefalocraneano traumatismo. The police is making the investigations of the case.

kathleen

Thanks jczinn, We too are going to Peru this year--May. I pulled up the site but will have to accept the translation from google that you posted and the report that from the first poster. Hopefully it's an incident that doesn't occur often. Kathy

GandCT

We are the ones who posted the original notice about last Saturday’s assault on a busload of American tourists en route from Jorge Chavez airport to a hotel. It appears that hoodlums sometimes follow taxis taking tourists from the airport, then cut them off and rob them at gunpoint. Saturday was the first time I have read about that happening to an entire busload of tourists. Our purpose in posting the warning was to let other Americans know the crime situation so they will remember to take appropriate precautions. Like the main victims of the assault, we are a married American couple in our 60s. The newspaper La Republica has not had anything about the shooting victim, Mary Edwards, for several days, so we assume that she is still in the hospital there. My wife and I both took Spanish in college, and have bought books and tapes to improve, plus read the newspapers online of places we visit. To avoid tying up our online computer, I download what I want to read and put it on my laptop, thus we still have the articles that reported the crime. I will post it here and, since it is in Spanish, will insert a few translations at key points. Since I am not sure how much space we have for each posting, I’ll make it a separate posting. Please do not blame the hotel in this instance, as the assault took place a good distance away, and had nothing to do with them. Also, as we mentioned, the police are increasing protection. We cannot add any security advice to the usual, except to pay close attention to what your guide advises. Personally, I would not go out after dark or alone. Going in groups is no guarantee of safety, but I think it helps.

GandCT

We have twice tried to post the Spanish article from La Republica, along with partial translation. One post never appeared; the other appeared briefly, then disappeared. I can only assume that somehow they are being stripped from this thread.
One point we did want to make: when the attackers are referred to as "delinquents," that means criminals, not juveniles, as we tend to use the term in the US.

gnrbernstein

If you posted something with a really long link, it usually won't take. It is a copyright violation to post the entire article so that may be why it keeps getting deleted as well.

You are better off posting the homepage link, then giving instructions on how to find the article.

~gnr~

GandCT

Thanks, gnr. The following link to La Republica shows today's update. It is in Spanish, though.
http://www.larepublica.com.pe/notici..._cs.jsp?pId=20

GandCT

Oops! forgot to give the homepage:
http://www.larepublica.com.pe/

gnrbernstein

Here's a good translation site:

http://www.freetranslation.com/web.htm

You put the URL of the page in and it will translate it for you.

Thanks again for the information. We visited Peru in 1996 when it had just started to be safe again. It's too bad things have reverted because it's a such a wonderful country with really nice people.

~gnr~

gnrbernstein

Hmm, it won't take that web address. You can copy and paste bits in though on the main page: www.freetranslation.com.

The article starts at

Delincuentes han perpetrado 147 asaltos y robos en la Costa Verde

~gnr~

CarlosSandoval

It's sad to hear these horrible stories about my country land. Keep in mind that this could've happened to anyone, it doesn't matter which hotel you were going to or what not. It's pretty unfortunate what has happened to those tourists and specially the lady who was shot and the gentleman who got beaten up. Although, they were able to give a lot of information to the law enforcement agents who are investigating this crime. Keep in mind that that government has responded almost inmediately, providing with more police security in the major routes to the airport. Since then, the law enforcement agencies have captured several individuals who were trying to rob or robbed other people, not only tourists are the victims, but also peruvian businessmen, local surfers, even offduty police officers.

I hope this doesn't stop you to visit Peru in the near future.

Safe travels!

C