Honduras: Bus Drivers pay war tax, or else

AFP yahoo.com reported…Jose’s scars are a constant reminder of the day gang members set him on fire for failing to pay their “war tax” — a daily nightmare for bus drivers in Honduras.

Jose says he was never warned he had to pay the “tax,” imposed on bus and taxi drivers, small-business owners and ordinary residents by the gangs that have carved up much of Central America and made it one of the most violent regions in the world.

He was driving down Armed Forces Avenue on the west side of Tegucigalpa, the capital, when four young men hijacked his bus, unloaded the passengers at gunpoint and doused it in gasoline. Read Article