The mass killing is one of the worst since the end of Guatemala's 36-year civil war in 1996.
At least 27 people were found decapitated on a farm in northern Guatemala on the Mexican border Sunday, and police officials say the killings could be linked to drug gangs operating in the area.
"Among the 27 dead were two women. All of them were beheaded," the spokesman for the Guatemalan police, Donald Gonzalez, told AFP. He added that homicide officers from the national police were on the scene, but they do not yet know when the killings occurred.
The bodies were discovered in the department of Peten at a farm in San Andres, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of the capital.
If the killings are linked to the Mexican drug cartels, they would be among the largest ever in Guatemala tied to the criminal gangs.
Police chief Jaime Otzin told reporters there were few details, but that police were investigating two possibilities related to drug gangs.
The first involved the Mexican cartel "Los Zetas" that operates in the region, trafficking drugs through Latin America en route to the lucrative market in the United States.
The second possibility is that the killings were related to the murder on Saturday of Haroldo Lara Leon, a farmer and brother of the late drug trafficker Juan Jose Leon, who was killed by the Zetas gang in 2008.
Haroldo Leon was killed while riding in a truck on a country road with some 250,000 quetzales (around $31,000) cash, money he apparently intended to use to pay his workers.
Otzin did not suggest how the murders might be related.
Guatemala already has one of the highest murder rates in Latin America, an average of 18 per day. Most crimes are attributed to feared drug gangs known as "maras."
On November 30, 2008, 20 people were killed in the village of Agua Clara in the department of Huehuetenango near the border with Mexico.
Three weeks earlier authorities found a burned bus with the bodies of 15 Nicaraguans and one Dutchmen, who had come to buy Guatemalan merchandise, on a road in the department of Zacapa.
The high numbers of homicides and systemic failure of the judicial system in a country where 98% of crimes go unpunished led the United Nations to create the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which began operations in late 2007.
The Commission is charged with investigating and prosecuting serious crime in Guatemala. So far, several former senior officials and former police chiefs have been arrested and face prosecution by the committee.
Guatemala's violence still pales, however, in comparison with the brutal drug war to the north, in Mexico, where over 37,000 people have died since December 2006, when a military crackdown was launched on the illegal drug cartels.
Source: AFP
Lots of details missing the police chief would know nothing but plenty has been released from fed gov and people of the ground...from Guate i was able to get:
ReplyDeleteapx 200 heavily armed men convoyes into town at night and went directly to Salguero's ranch.
29 killed including 2 children...all KILLED by beheading except the children and women who rec shots to the head.
Haroldo was also in the drug biz and his death included a message to Salguero and signed Z200. AMerican media said no one knows who/what the Salguero is that is mentioned in the message at the ranch "we are coming after you Salguero" but I was able to connect it to the name Otto Salguero..the owner of the ranch where the slaughter went down. Obviously in bad favor with the last letter.
an arm was used to write the message in blood. both messages were signed Z200.
Guate is the most violent per capita in the americas
there is no doubt in Guate or Guate press.. who is responsible for both killings on Sat and Sunday. you must see the headline pic of guate press about the slaughter I posted in forum..only doubt is in Mx and US press.
also a pic of Juanchos brother and the ranch. if you do not know who Juancho is then perhaps you should read my post on forum for the history it is too long for here. but Juancho's killing was the pivotal point for Zs to take over the drug biz in Guate
Silly, stupid and apples to orange saying Guate pales to Mx in the number of death...it is a tiny country but the real gage in murders per capita and it is 4 times what Mx has...and 8 times the US
I can't post the pictures here or I would
Sure Guatemala is violent. What would Americans think it should be like after the US/Israeli driven slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans back in the '80s? This correctly has been called a genocide of the Mayan peoples in the Guatemalan Highlands by the usual super rich bastards the US funds and supports who live in the capitals throughout Latin America, and most especially in Guatemala City.
ReplyDeleteIn Guatemala there has never been anything other than utter forgiveness for these US supported war criminals that have run that country for way over a century now. Now BB dittoheads would have the US government rush in and supposedly 'save; the country from drug violence? In the darkest sense, this is hilariously funny and hilariously stupid thinking. The only way to save Guatemala from more US sponsored violence is to totally tie the hands of DC and the Pentagon in the future.
Let's make up now for the US population's passive and reactionary past support for Latin American slaughters run by the policies of our corporate run government. Enough is enough! Stop supporting US interventionism, no matter under what rhetoric it is proposed under.
Wow. This shouldn't be surprising, but still kind of shocking 27 people murdered, jesus. I guess the story on who Seguro was will come out soon enough.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how the UN goes in to Guatemala to prosecute severe crimes, but still holds off going in to Mexico to do the same thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen it is a small "3rd world country" they interfere regularly, but never hold bigger players to the same standard.