GUATEMALA: 5 US STUDENTS RAPED IN BUS AMBUSH UPDATE

Описание: (19 Jan 1998) Spanish/Nat

Guatemalan security forces arrested two suspects and were hunting down five others on Monday after five American college students were raped in an ambush of their bus.

The rapes and robbery of students and faculty from St. Mary's College in Maryland provoked outrage in the U-S and calls in Guatemala to end surging lawlessness.

Interior Minister Rodolfo Mendoza has vowed to obtain justice in the case - President Clinton has said he's confident Guatemalan authorities are responding appropriately.

The bus the college students and staff were travelling in was forced off an isolated highway on Friday afternoon.

The driver was told to drive into a break in sugar cane fields by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks, police said.

According to the driver, the gunmen then they forced everyone off the bus and seized luggage, money and other items.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Everybody got down, and there was only the woman guide who sat down in the bus with me, the others were asked to move forward and get back on the bus and one girl was raped."
SUPER CAPTION: Victor Anibal Lopez, bus driver

The attackers raped one girl in the bus - the other four met a similar fate when they were taken into the canefield.

Apparently, the gunmen became frustrated that there wasn't more cash to take.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"And in the sugar cane fields, the bus was in the cane fields, and I was wondering what they were doing. There we all had to get out, they made us lie on the ground and the girls, like that, as I have said, they raped them, one in the bus and the other four in the sugar cane fields."
SUPER CAPTION: Victor Anibal Lopez, bus driver

The students, 12 women and one man, were returning to Guatemala City after an educational tour of historic and cultural sites.

They were accompanied by two male faculty members and a female administrator from St. Mary's College, a public, liberal arts school, 70 miles southeast of Washington.

Guatemalan police were told about the attack on Friday - they have come under severe criticism for remaining silent until U-S reporters released details on Sunday.

A Guatemalan anti-crime group has called for the resignation of Rodolfo Mendoza, Guatemala's Minister for the Interior.

He has rejected calls for his resignation and announced on Monday two suspects had been arrested and had provided the names of their accomplices.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"With luck, they have interrogated one person who was on the road and witnessed the bus being intercepted by the bandits and alerted the authorities Santa Lucia Cotzulmalguapa immediately and this lead to an operation being mounted very quickly, an immediate search which resulted on the same day the capture of the first of the two have now been captured in relation to this incident."
SUPER CAPTION: Rodolfo Mendoza, Guatemalan Interior Minister

Guatemala has seen a surge of common crime since the government and leftist rebels signed a peace accord in December 1996.

Kidnappings and robberies have become common, frequently targeting the wealthy and foreigners.

Such crimes have provided revenue for common criminals who have taken up arms even as leftist rebels and have laid theirs down.

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