GUATEMALA CITY – The Guatemalan government will pay monthly pensions of 500 quetzales ($63) to the widows and children of bus drivers murdered by gang members, a spokesman for the national ombudsman’s office said Wednesday.

The payments are to begin next month under the auspices of the Social Welfare Bureau, which reports directly to the office of President Alvaro Colom, the spokesman said.

Under the agreement brokered by the ombudsman’s office, the widows will also be invited to take vocational courses from the Technical Training Institute.

Gangs running protection rackets have killed 450 bus drivers in Guatemala since 2006, according to figures compiled by the Association of Drivers’ Widows.

More than 100 drivers have died so far this year, along with 50 fare collectors, transit company owners and bus inspectors, while another 78 people – most of them passengers – have been wounded in gang attacks.

“The people dispatched to carry out the attacks, collect the extortion (payments) and threaten the drivers are members of the youth gangs,” national police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said.

The gangs demand that transit operators pay a “circulation tax” to operate within gang-dominated neighborhoods in and around Guatemala City.

Authorities say that 176 bus drivers and fare collectors and 53 taxi drivers were killed last year in the Central American country, which experiences an average of 17 murders per week. EFE