Carlos by most standards was a friendly man. Carlos is slightly overweight. He is of medium height and has a moppy head of hair. He has a wife and children, which by most appearances he seems to take good care of them. The only way you would know of his sinister past would be if he walked up to you and told you what had done. When a man leans in close to you and tells you he has killed 17 people you know its the start of an unforgettable conversation. For starters you are not sure you even want to have the conversation. I stayed though and this is the tale I was told.
The story starts with Carlos's brother, a man currently living out his days in a Honduran jail. Carlos and his brother were living in one of the most dangerous and notorious areas of Northern Honduras. Such an area does not reinforce the need for schooling. Instead, it reinforced the need for street smarts and nerves of steel. Carlos's brother had that and soon ended up with a reputation in his neighborhood. That reputation helped launch him into one of the city's growing narcotics gangs as a mid-level boss. After some time he wanted to help Carlos out, and got him a job as the personal security guard for one of the gangs top bosses.
Carlos spent months traveling around with his boss as he made drug pick ups and drop offs around town. Though they never ran into any problems, his boss always drove with a 45 caliber pistol duck taped under the seat of his pick up truck. He gained a reputation as a steady reliable security guard for the boss and he most likely would have remained in that job for quite some time had his brother not gotten thrown in jail.
Gangs and the mafia seem to operate similarly. If someone has witnessed a crime you just take out them out. Carlos's brother had too many witnesses and enemies of his crimes. He would most likely stay in jail regardless of any outcome, but he wanted revenge. He got in touch with Carlos and asked him to do him a favor. He was to kill a man who his brother said had set him up. He did as his brother had asked. The favors did not stop there, and the hit list just kept growing with enemies of his brother. Carlos claims that they were all bad men, but he also claims that he had gotten to far into the narco gang and had to do whatever was asked of him to survive.
Carlos blames poor schooling and a lack of decent opportunities for the set of events that brought he and his brother to lead such a criminal lifestyle. He says it is no excuse for his actions, but when they were kids it was the gang members who were the only once prospering. One wanted to have money, freedom and respect like they had. It was not until they entered into the lifestyle that they learned what it would really mean for them to be a part of the gang. There was no questioning authority. You did as you were told to do or you would die.
He tried to get out of the gang by asking to be able to take on a security guard job at a discobar that the the gang boss owned. It was a job that Carlos took great pride in. He claims that very few people ever caused any real problems when he was on duty (perhaps because they knew that a gang was running the bar). However one night, after the bar had closed up and the night's profit was being counted, three men broke into the building. They had ski masks on and each carried an AK-47. Carlos was on the second floor balcony that overlooked the dance floor. He did not see them until after they had already fired. His two fellow security guards, who were guarding the ground floor, were instantly killed. The armed men went straight for the cash box, where they shot and killed the accountant.
The men could not see Carlos on the dimly lit balcony, ignoring him and focusing on scooping up the bar's money. All Carlos had was a Magnum .357 against three men with AK-47s, but he had claims he had the drop on them. He aimed at the group of men and fired all six of his bullets. As the smoke cleared in the darkness Carlos saw that he had killed all three of them. It is a moment that Carlos speaks of with pride. He stopped a robbery and he had killed the men who had killed his friends and co-workers.
Carlos had little time to reflect on his merits as a security guard. The three men who had robbed the bar had all been members of the much larger and much more violent MS-13 gang. Because he killed the robbers, the gang would then be looking to settle the score with Carlos. His boss gave him some money as thanks and told him to get lost. He was forced to move his entire family into hiding with him. After a few years of keeping a low profile, he took a job as a security guard for a company that sent him to protect a grocery store. He says he feels safe, but he always is keeping a lookout in case his past catches up to him. Carlos claims that he is no longer a hitman; he says that he prefers to be a legitimate security guard. Though he says he would be honored to work as a private security guard if the chance presented itself, saying that he has the experience and that his previous job record demonstrates that he is not a man to hesitate.
A man who has killed 17 people does not need to worry about being seen as hesitant to pull the trigger. I would hate to be the person who mistakenly robs a store while he is on duty. I only hope that the weight of poverty does not push him to take up any freelance work to feed his family. For now he has a steady job, but in Honduras those never seem to last long.
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