Ceiba (not "Cieba") is a municipality on the eastern coast of the island. It used to be home of a now-defunct US Naval Base. When the base closed some years ago, the economy of the surrounding area suffered accordingly. It would be reasonable to expect an economic downturn to bump crime rates, however, this particular crime appears to be unrelated to economic hardship but rather be the doing of a perverted mind. Judging from today's article in El Nuevo Dia, one gets the impression the accused killer either was a serial rapist, or was on his way to becoming one. This despicable crime was one of opportunity (the guy attempted to abduct a teenage schoolgirl earlier that very same morning, but she managed to escape), not one aimed at American tourists.

To be fair, most homicides in PR are related to drug trafficking. You simply don't hear of tourists being murdered in San Juan - or anywhere else in the island for that matter. (Now, if you visit and go around looking for drugs, you are likely to run into some seriously shady characters...)

This news story was as surprising as it was disturbing, but one has to be careful not to conclude the actions were aimed at a tourist, American or otherwise. It was a random crime committed by an opportunistic piece of human garbage, and it could have happened anywhere.
Source(s):
http://www.elnuevodia.com/diario/noticia/puertoricohoy/noticias/me_dio_mied...


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