The bloody massacre of bus passengers Thursday in Honduras represents a new level of violence associated with criminal gangs in that country.

President Ricardo Maduro said Tuesday that a violent gang is responsible for the attack that left 28 persons dead. Police blamed the Salvatrucha for the attack and arrested one man who was a presumed member.

The significance of the attack is that hostile elements inside Honduras are trying to effect political change by using terror. The gangs are said to be unhappy with the hard line the Maduro government has taken against crime. That description is based on the contents of a note the three killers left on the bus after the attack.

Criminal street gangs which are common in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are reported to be recruiting to the south. Police officials in Costa Rica have held a number of seminars on the maras or gangs.

In addition, they have taken a hard line against certain locally organized gangs, mainly in Pavas.

Maduro ordered army troops into the street to protect key structures after the attack. The militarization of everyday life is similar to what has happened in Colombia.

In that country, too, terror tactics have become an art form with bombings, assassinations and kidnappings. U.S. and Colombian officials say that one-time rebels have simply become international drug dealers and that a war once fought for political aims is now being fought to protect the drug business.

Gunmen opened fire on the public bus as it traveled through San Pedro Sula. The bus was full of shoppers on their way home with Christmas gifts, children and workers headed home from their jobs. 

The gunmen simply riddled the bus with bullets, some from automatic weapons. 
 

Limón area woman
found floating in sea

Workmen found the body of a 23-year-old Limón area woman Tuesday. She was floating in the sea.

Investigators identified her as Grettel Brawon Briones, the wife of a fisherman at Playa de Piuta. The woman had been shot twice in the back of the neck and once in the side of the head. 

Her husband said that he arrived home from fishing to find his wife missing and the house showing signs of a search. The woman leaves two children, 2 and 4.

Meanwhile, in San Antonio de Escazú, the body of Rafael  Ángel Salas Miranda, 44, was found about 7 a.m. Tuesday just 100 meters from the Escuela Benjamín Núñez. He suffred a blow on the head, either from an attack or from a fall, investigators said. An autopsy will attempt to determine the manner and cause of death.
 
 

No break for A.M. Costa Rica 

The news does not stop, and our readers come first. 

So A.M. Costa Rica will publish every day this week. Christmas and New Year’s are the two days a year 
that this newspaper does not publish. But this year the 
two holidays fall on Saturday, a day when A.M. Costa Rica does not publish. 

We also are aware that persons all over the world rely on us for breaking news, such as the early Christmas Day 
earthquake last year.
 
 

A.M. Costa Rica Consultantes Río Colorado S.A. James J. Brodell........................editor Saray Ramírez Vindas...associate editor Avenida 11 bis, Barrio Otoya, San José  Voice: (506) 223-1327 FAX: (506) 223-1190  In Costa Rica:                            From elsewhere:      A.M. Costa Rica                           Consultantes Río Colo.      Apartado 12909-1000                  SB 11      San José, Costa Rica                     P.O. Box 025292      (506) 223-1327                          Miami, FL 33102-5292

EVANSTON, Ill. — Researchers at Northwestern University have discovered a molecular mechanism — a tiny protein attacking nerve cells — that could explain why the brain damage in early Alzheimer’s disease results in memory loss and not other symptoms such as loss of balance or tremors.

The research team, led by William L. Klein, professor of neurobiology and physiology, found that toxic proteins, called "amyloid ß-derived diffusible ligands" from the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease specifically attack and disrupt synapses, the nerve cell sites responsible for information processing and memory formation.

These results, which show that only particular neurons and synapses are targeted by the neurotoxins, were published in the Journal of Neuroscience. An understanding of how these proteins disrupt synapses without killing neurons could lead to the development of new therapeutic drugs capable of reversing memory loss in patients who are treated early, in addition to preventing or delaying the disease.

Why is the damage so specific to memory? It seems that the proteins bind to some synapses and not others, a very specific attack, said Klein. 

Last year Klein and his colleagues were the first to discover and report the presence of the amyloid protein in humans. They found up to 70 times more of the toxic proteins in the brain tissue of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease compared to that of normal individuals.

In the current study, the research team used both protein obtained from human brain tissue and some synthesized in the laboratory. Experiments showed that regardless of origin the substance showed the same pattern of binding to synapses on specific neurons. 

The clinical data strongly support a recent theory in which the protein accumulates at the beginning of Alzheimer’s disease and blocks memory function by a process predicted to be reversible.