Jeff Dunsavage's Blog – September 2011 Archive (9)

Authorities in Mexico are investigating the apparent abduction of 17 young men who were riding in a bus en route to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Nuevo Leon state security council said. The bus left the central state of Guanajuato on Sept. 14 bound for the border town of Miguel Aleman. Armed…

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Sam Wesley, the Roatan, Honduras man accused of shooting Australian citizen Joe O'Donnell in the back during an argument over where he parked his bicycle, has been committed to stand trial. O'Donnell was shot in the back at point-blank range in front of several witnesses on August 19. Almost two months earlier, he got into a dispute with a local family when he parked…

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Since the Mexican government declared war on powerful drug cartels in 2006, social media has emerged as one of the main platforms for reporting about drug-related crime and corruption, filling a void left by professional journalists who were intimidated into silence. But for all its supposed advantages, including online anonymity, social media is hardly secure, as was demonstrated by the murder of two online critics earlier this week.

The mangled bodies of a man and a woman, both in…

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The family of slain Canadian architect Roger Walls hope to hear the fate of his accused killer by the end of September.

Walls was gunned down in Roatan, Honduras, in February 2009. Paralyzed from a gunshot to the neck, his family paid to have the 71-year-old airlifted back to Saskatoon. He died from complications to his injuries in April 2009.

The victim's brother, Vic Walls of Red Deer, Alta., says Julie Thompson, a Honduran woman, is charged with murder in the case for…

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Joe O'Donnell, the 41-year-old Australian shot in the back on the island of Roatan, Honduras, has spent the past month recovering from his injuries.The man accused of the shooting has been charged with attempted assassination, due to the pre-meditated nature of the attack -- but remains under "house arrest", and his court hearing has been postponed.

O'Donnell, who holds…

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The father of missing Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway is asking a court to declare his daughter dead, six years after she vanished during a graduation trip to Aruba, according to this Associated Press article. Mississippi insurance agent Dave Holloway filed the request in probate court earlier this…

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Joe O'Donnell -- the Australian man shot in the back on the island of Roatan, Honduras in a dispute over where he parked his bicycle -- has had his third surgery since the shooting, according to this article. Meanwhile, the man who shot him at point-blank range in front of several witnesses is under "house arrest" while he awaits trial on Roatan.

Joe O'Donnell -- a resident of Sydney, Australia, who holds Australian and Irish citizenship -- was shot in the spine last month on Roatan, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and has called for support to pay medical bills reaching tens of thousands of dollars, according to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.…

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In a recent interview with the Washington Post, Mexico's Tourism Secretary Gloria Guevara argues that all of Mexico should not be tarred with the same brush in the area of safety.

"Mexico has 2,500 counties," Guevara said. "Eighty of those have issues. So does that mean that the entire country has issues? Of course…

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