Latin America
Related: About this forumThe Assassinations of Indigenous Leaders in Guatemala Trigger Fear as Political Cycle Begins
Last edited Sun Jul 22, 2018, 07:55 PM - Edit history (1)
BY
Jeff Abbott Truthout
PUBLISHED
July 22, 2018
By all accounts on the morning of May 9, 2018, Luis Arturo Marroquín did not know he was being followed when he left his home to travel to a meeting in San Luis Jilotepeque, Jalapa, Guatemala. The 56-year-old was a community leader and member of the coordinating committee of the Guatemalan Campesino Development Committee (CODECA). Founded in 1992 on Guatemalas southern coast, CODECA is a human rights organization focused on improving the conditions of the rural poor, advocating for land reform, the nationalization of energy, and the improvement of wages for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous rural workers and farmers.
Marroquín was traveling to a meeting with other members from the organization. He stopped at a small store to make a few copies before his meeting, but he would not leave alive. Shortly after his arrival, a black Toyota Hilux pickup also arrived at the store. Two men got out, entered the store and opened fire, killing Marroquín. Concerned onlookers wrote down the license plate of the vehicle, which was later identified as belonging to José Manuel Mendez Alonzo, the mayor of the nearby municipality of San Pedro Pinula, Jalapa. Mendez Alonzo is also known to be an ally of the embattled administration of President Jimmy Morales.
According to a preliminary police report obtained by Truthout and confirmed by Hilda Pineda, the head of Guatemalas Public Prosecutors Human Rights Office, agents from the Guatemalan National Police located the vehicle that witnesses identified after the murder of Marroquín. Inside the vehicle were Mayor Mendez Alonzo and his two bodyguards, Otto Edilcer Najera Estrada and Carlos Romeo Jimenez Estrada both of whom were armed with guns, as well as two machetes and a military-style knife.
The police documented the identifications of the passengers and weapons located in the vehicle, but released the two bodyguards and the mayor who, according to Guatemalan law, benefits from immunity from prosecution for crimes while in office. Najera Estrada and Jimenez Estrada remain key suspects in the murder, yet the initial investigation has yet to find a direct link between pistols found in the vehicle and the one used to kill Marroquín.
More:
https://truthout.org/articles/assassinations-of-indigenous-leaders-in-guatemala-trigger-fear/
Mayor (Alcalde) José Manuel Mendez Alonzo
(Patriotic Party)
Youtube video:
GaryCnf
(1,399 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)DBoon
(22,395 posts)This is a problem entirely of our own creation