Kidnap/robbery in Cayo has residents in fear

The western part of the country is fast earning a reputation for danger. For the second time in one week, a group of armed bandits have wreaked havoc in Cayo, leaving the community in shock and law enforcement authorities scratching their collective heads. Around four o’clock on Saturday afternoon, Cayo businessman Juan Chuc was kidnapped from his store in San Ignacio Town. According to police, two Hispanic men in plain clothes walked into Chuc’s store on the Bullet Tree Road brandishing handguns and demanding money. Chuc’s wife, police say, handed over two thousand eight hundred dollars in cash after which Chuc was forced into a waiting car and taken for a drive on the road to the village of Bullet Tree Falls. Fortunately for Chuc, the kidnappers’ plan backfired when the driver of the car lost control of the vehicle and overturned, allowing the prisoner to escape. A search of the surrounding villages failed to turn up either the kidnappers or the stolen loot, which also included two gold chains belonging to Chuc. Police, however, have recovered a loaded point thirty-eight revolver from the crashed car. They have detained thirty-one year old San Ignacio resident, Orestes Cho, for questioning, both in connection with the failed kidnapping and as an alleged victim. According to Cho, whose car was used as the get-away vehicle, he picked up three men near the bus stop not far from Chuc’s store and that shortly after he did, the men tied him up and took control of the car. Officer in charge of the San Ignacio police, Edward Wade, told News Five that the increase in this type of violence in the area is cause for concern and that patrols by both the police and B.D.F. are being stepped up to try and catch the criminals. Wade says that at this time, there is no evidence to link Saturday afternoon’s busted kidnapping and robbery to the assault on three Mennonite sisters last Monday night. Wade says that so far, his investigation is indicating that the kidnappers are from across the western border and is appealing to people in Cayo to report any “suspicious or irregular” movement of non-residents in their community to the police.