Police have concluded a bus massacre of 28 passengers on December 23, 2004 was the brazen work of a notorious Central American gang, Mara Salvatrucha . Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres said that at least one member of MS, namely Juan Carlos Miralda, and possibly 13 had been arrested and charged with homicide. Miralda was carrying a gun and ammunition for the weapons used in the attack, AK-47s and M-16s. He is believed to be the mastermind of the attack. Authorities seek 23 additional maras from the cities of Choluteca, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, Juticalpa, and Tegucigalpa. Chief of Police Investigations Napoleon Nazar said, ?Two dozen gang members participated in the massacre?some participated directly, and others did so indirectly. Our investigations indicate that at least seven gang members carried out the attack, while the others planned it and provided weapons and logistical support.? He indicated the gang met on December 13 and 21 in Comayogua to plan and collect weaponry. A second shooting in the same town the same day has yet to be linked to MS. A similar attack against a bus, also believed to have been the work of maras, occurred in August 2003.

Gunmen, representing the leftist Cinchonero People?s Liberation Movement, left a behind note opposing the reintroduction of the Honduran death penalty and threatening various politicians who advocated the move. This group, however, has been defunct since the 1980s, so the claim, which had various spelling mistakes and poor usage of Spanish, largely has been discounted.