A group of Taiwanese holidaymakers visiting Brazil last week were relieved of their valuables and their passports by gun-toting bandits, then watched helplessly as US officials shrugged off requests for help by Taiwanese diplomats in a vacation gone horribly wrong.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman David Wang (
US diplomats in Brazil brushed off the group of tourists, even though they were accompanied by officials from Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sao Paulo.
The Central News Agency reported that three gunmen pulled the group's bus over as it drove from the Sao Paulo airport to a hotel during a 17-day tour of South America and robbed the passengers of their valuables and passports.
"The [victims] just got back [to Taiwan] last night [Friday]. My brother-in-law had to call me by pay phone [from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport] because the robbers in Brazil stole his mobile phone," said Wang Ling-tai (王玲苔), whose brother-in-law Huang An-chih (黃安祺), the group's tour guide, was present during the robbery.
The gunmen also took approximately NT$300,000 (US$4,800) from Huang, she said.
The gunmen reportedly made off with six passports and numerous pieces of luggage and jewelry, among other valuables, after commandeering the bus and waving assault rifles at the driver and passengers.
No one hurt
Luckily, no one was hurt, David Wang said.
Officials in Taiwan's representative office in Sao Paulo sought to help the six victims whose passports were stolen acquire "special permits," David Wang added, saying the permits would have allowed the victims to transit in the US on their way back to Taiwan.
The victims' original itinerary included returning via Los Angeles, group travel agency director Lin Hsueh-yen (
However, the victims ended up buying new return tickets for NT$50,000 each after the US refused to allow them to transit on its soil without visas, Lin said.
"The US was very unsympathetic to our customers, refusing to allow them special passage. Everything had to be done by the book with them, including making them wait until Feb. 27 for visa interviews.
Officials from Taiwan's representative office even went to the US consulate to persuade them to help us out, but the US wouldn't," Lin said by telephone yesterday.
"They weren't about to do us any favors, even after the group had been robbed at gunpoint," she said.
The travel agency, Taipei-based Anchih Travel, would cover their customers' losses, Lin said.
New tickets
The victims decided to return via stops in South America and Hong Kong with new tickets instead of waiting for the US to issue them new visas so that they could stick to their original itinerary, Lin said.
David Wang, meanwhile, told the Taipei Times that Brazilian authorities were cooperative but busy.
"The Carnival is happening in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo now, so the police there have their hands full," he said.
Brazil is notorious for its high crime rate, including kidnappings and robberies of foreign tourists, especially during the Carnival. Numerous cases of foreign tourists falling prey to kidnappers, murderers and bandits there have appeared in headlines in recent years.
The gunmen set upon the Taiwanese group's bus last week as it approached a tunnel in a rundown neighborhood, DPA reported yesterday, citing the Sao Paulo police.
The group had just landed and was on its way to a hotel after having visited Chile and Argentina, Lin said. The robbers were still at large, reports said.
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