Fleeing Honduras

Just hours before departing San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Ana Marie Ramos, 35, cries as she talks about the gang slaying of her sister, the suicide of her brother and the passing of her elderly mother. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Oct. 12, 2014 3:17 PM PT

Ana Marie Ramos has had to make a series of difficult choices, stemming from what she views as an impossible situation: raising a youngster in a street-gang-infested Honduran city.

Ana Marie Ramos and son Yahir bid farewell to neighbors as they leave San Pedro Sula, Honduras. With a roller-bag full of baby clothes, formula and diapers, Ramos was setting out on her second attempt to leave the dangerous city. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ana Marie Ramos and Yahir’s father drive with their son to the bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The toddler’s father asked that he not be named because of the dangers posed by gangs in the city. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Yahir’s father whispers “adios” to his 2-year-old son at the bus terminal in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ana Marie Ramos fans Yahir with the boy’s shirt as they wait inside the hot bus terminal in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. They arrived nearly eight hours early because driving at night in the city is too dangerous. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A Honduran police officer looks over Ana Marie Ramos’ papers about an hour into the bus ride away from San Pedro Sula. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Inside a police building in Ocotepeque, Honduras, Ana Marie Ramos waits with her son while other bus passengers have their passports checked. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ana Marie Ramos looks up in disbelief as a Honduran official in Ocotepeque tells her that her papers authorizing her son to leave the country are insufficient. “But I have the father’s permission,” she pleaded. “You have to let me through.” New orders required the child to have a passport. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

Ana Marie Ramos looks out toward customs officials before being escorted off the bus near the Honduras-Guatemala border. She called her son’s father to report that new rules require the boy to have a passport. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)

A few yards shy of the Guatemala border, 2-year-old Yahir watches as a Honduran customs officer escorts his mother, Ana Marie Ramos, from the bus she hoped would take them to Guatemala City. They had to turn back to San Pedro Sula. (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)