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.

There was a claim that no tourist had been killed in Puerto Rico since the 1950s. However, this is the 2nd murder of a tourist in 1 year.

This may only be two instances. Some might dismiss that as random. However, Where there were "zero" murders (supposedly) for 60 years, it looks like a new era of anyone is fair game could be in play.

We need to watch the crime stats closely. The current economic conditions and the growing drug trade are an explosive mix.

I am not sure how often crime statistics are released since I had trouble finding any for 2008. According to the US Department of Justice, Puerto Rico "homicide rates typically rank among the highest in the United States, and law enforcement officials report that most of these homicides are related to drug trafficking."

More information about specific crimes, murder, rape, domestic violence, robbery, is included in the links below.

I completely agree with ‘roubaix06’. I was born, raised and live in Puerto Rico, and as fair and respectful as I have to be with this tragedy I must agree that this type of crimes are basically the first time in this country. Ours, as any other country in this world, is not a perfect place or paradise, or free of sick individuals that commit these atrocious crimes, but it would be an error to believe that this is the norm. We suffer from crime as any place in the world, but not to a point where you can’t have a happy and safe life, where you can’t go jogging freely or just have a good quality of life as any other civilized place in this world.