Eleven MSU students were briefly kidnapped and robbed at gunpoint on a Guatemalan highway during a spring break trip last week, four of the students involved said Thursday.
The students, a tour guide and two bus company employees were near the end of a three-hour drive when several armed men approached their tour bus and boarded it with guns, said Alex Cummings, Mikaelyn Law, Zahkia Smith and Jennifer Tzeng, four students on the bus at the time. The students were not harmed.
The tour bus driver was told to drive several miles into a rural field, where the group members were forced off the bus and tied up before the men took money, electronics and other items from them, the four students said.
Nobody was hurt during the robbery, they said.
Cummings is an advertising senior and The State News’ advertising manager, Law is a nursing senior, Smith is a journalism junior and Tzeng is a linguistics senior.
The students were in Guatemala as part of a spring break trip organized by Encountour, a New York-based travel group that arranges trips for college students to Latin America. The trip was not affiliated or endorsed by MSU.
During the first half of the week, the students traveled through central Guatemala and stopped for a few days to work in the rural community of Nueva Alianza, where they helped develop the area’s tourism industry through manual labor, the four students said.
In the late morning of March 13, the group left for popular tourist destination Lake Atitlan, about a three-hour drive from Nueva Alianza.
With about a half an hour remaining in the drive, the convoy stopped on a well-known stretch in the road that appears to be slanted downhill, but cars in neutral roll back up the hill — an optical illusion, the students said.
As the bus rolled along the road, one or two trucks carrying several men with guns pulled up alongside, the students said. Cummings estimated there were six or seven men in the truck, while Smith and Tzeng said they saw four men. Law said she didn’t see the number of men getting out of the truck.
A few of the robbers entered the bus and shouted directives in Spanish as the tour group’s guide translated. The robbers ordered the students to close their eyes as the bus was driven into a field, they said.
Members of the tour convoy later were led out of the bus and tied up with shoelaces and rope from the bus, the four students said. The men were forced to lie on their stomachs with their hands tied behind their backs, while the women were allowed to sit up with their hands tied in front of them, Law and Smith said.
The captives were given water and towels to shield them from the sun and were moved into the shade during the robbery.
“I don’t know why they were so friendly. I thought the whole time they were going to kill us,” Smith said. “But they moved us into the shade to keep us from getting hot, and one of the guys used a pet name for one of the girls.”
For about an hour, the robbers patted down the tour members one-by-one and rummaged through bags on the bus, the four students said. Tzeng said a few females reported being molested after being patted down.
They stole Cummings’ camera, multitool, hat and cell phone. Law had her camera, iPod, watch, water bottle and cell phone, which was provided by Encountour, stolen. Smith’s cell phone, video camera, digital camera and New York Yankees baseball cap were taken. Tzeng’s camera, cell phone, watch, sunglasses, water bottle and about $300 were stolen.
The robbers didn’t take any passports, the students said.
Before the robbers left, they directed the tour group not to move for two hours, the students said. Tzeng said she didn’t hear the direction.
The tour bus was stuck on a rock and unable to be moved, so the group waited about an hour and a half for another Encountour bus to drive from Antigua to pick them up, the four students said.
The convoy returned to Antigua, where most of the students stayed until Sunday, when their flights were scheduled to leave, three of the students said. A couple of group members left early, Smith said.
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Smith, Law and Tzeng said they received an e-mail from Encountour that indicated the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala and the Guatemalan National Police have been notified of the robbery. Encountour officials were unable to be reached for comment Thursday.
U.S. Department of State spokesman Karl Duckworth, who was unable to comment on the incident because of privacy issues, said the incident likely will fall under Guatemalan police jurisdiction.
“In major events when foreign governments ask for assistance, that’s done on a case-by-case basis,” Duckworth said.
University spokesman Terry Denbow said the university is offering counseling to the MSU students.
Law said despite her experience last week, she would encourage other students to travel abroad.
“I wouldn’t let that stand in the way of exploring different cultures,” Law said.
Smith said she researched Encountour and travel safety in Guatemala, but never expected to be the victim of a crime while there.
“Since we weren’t going to Mexico or Cabo (San Lucas) with the kidnappings and drug dealings, we thought that we would be OK in Guatemala,” she said.
