Dont' Be a Ladron

Whenever I used to think of someone being burned alive, I would think of the Tibetan monk who poured gasoline over himself in the street and lit himself on fire in protest of the Chinese government. I don't know that much about him, but the picture's famous and I've seen it a couple of times in textbooks or photo collections.

Apparently these sort of things are not quite as rare in Guatemala.

Last week somewhere in the Wild Wild West of Guatemala (in this case the far north) four criminals who were about to walk out of jail scot-free were snatched by the local villagers. According to our host dad, up in that part of Guate the handful of policemen are easy to corrupt. It's quite common to be caught red-handed committing a violent crime and through bribery, walk away without any punishment. 

These villagers decided the best way to set an example of these 4 criminals would be to burn them. So they did.

The human-torch theme gets crazier. A few days later two Mayan women were caught pickpocketing tourists in the local market. Because all the locals recognize how much of the Antigua economy is from tourism dollars, they were pretty ticked off and decided to punish the women--by burning them. 

Fortunately the every-present Antigua police intervened, but it was a close call according to our host family. Keep in mind that Antigua is regarded as the safest and most law-abiding place in Guatemala. Undoubtedly these women paid the right folks and are now back on the streets, so we're watching our pockets and not carrying any matches.