Drug hitmen kill Guatemala cops jailed for murder

[maddezmom]

CUILAPA, Guatemala, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Drug hitmen murdered four policeman being held at a Guatemalan prison on Sunday on charges of killing three Salvadoran politicians last week, police said.

"It is confirmed that the four bodies are them. It's a drug trafficking thing," police spokeswoman Maria Fernandez told Reuters.

~snip~

The deputies' bodies were found dead in a burned-out car near Guatemala City on Tuesday. Guatemalan officials said their murders were drug related, an indication of the high levels drug crime has reached in Central America.

Police did not say how the prison killings happened but relatives of prisoners in the Boqueron prison, near the town of Cuilapa, said on the radio that prison guards let attackers enter the jail at visiting time and that shots were heard soon after.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26252300.htm

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Dead men tell no tails... n/t

[carla]

2. Dead men HAVE no

tails. But they also don't tell any TALES...John Q. back to the blackboard for you.

[John Q. Citizen]

6. Oops, how silly of me. My grandmother (she was an english teacher) would be

turning over in her grave.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Just like Jack Ruby's killing Lee Harvey Oswald: the truth will be harder to find now.

You can see the push is on to sweep this whole thing under the carpet, calling the entire disaster, the killings of the three right-wing pollticians, the murders of four policemen said to be responsible (no trial yet, of course), all different parts of some kind of "drug thing."

The end of the story. It's all over.

Next!

That's a little too easy, isn't it? Sounds like Republican justice, for sure.

[youngdem]

4. Another enormous cost in the drug war is Central & South American Instability

We need to legalize drugs. It would go a long way in stabilizing Central and South America. The drug money funds so much of the instability.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Guatemala to Analyze Police Purge

Guatemala to Analyze Police Purge

Guatemala, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) The Guatemalan Security Cabinet will meet this week to analyze the National Civil Police (PNC) purge, an issue currently considered urgent in this nation.

The decision emerged after the scandal caused by participation of four members of the PNC Criminal Investigation Division in the assassination and burning of three deputies of the Central American Parliament and their driver.

The situation became worst this Sunday when the accused policemen were executed in prison by an unknown armed group.

"I prefer less police agents, those who are the best," said Guatemalan President Oscar Berger this weekend, when he announced the discussion of the issue in the Security Cabinet, with participation of the Government and Defense ministries.

Berger reported that the PNC members will be tested with a lie detector, including top officers, and did not rule out the same for Government Minister Carlos Vielman.
(snip/...)

~~~~ link ~~~~

[arcos]

7. Suspects in deaths of Salvadoran politicians are murdered

Suspects in deaths of Salvadoran politicians are murdered

CUILAPA, Guatemala: Four imprisoned Guatemalan police officers, important suspects in the grisly killings last week of three Salvadoran politicians, have been shot and killed in their cell, the police said.

Officers outside the jail in Cuilapa, 70 kilometers, or 40 miles, east of Guatemala City, showed reporters cellphone photos on Sunday of the bullet-ridden bodies of Luis Arturo Herrera, the head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit, and three of his officers.

"It's confirmed — they killed the four of them," said Maria José Fernández, a spokeswoman for the national police. Fernández said she did not know who shot the prisoners.

Members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang also rioted in the prison, capturing five prison officials, the police said. However, it was unclear if the gang riot started before or after the killings.

<snip>

On Feb. 19, assailants abducted and killed Eduardo D'Aubuisson — the son of El Salvador's late rightist leader, Roberto D'Aubuisson — along with two other Salvadoran officials and their driver.

<snip>

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/26/news/salvador.php

[EFerrari]

8. I wonder why the reporter dragged in a prison riot by a gang

that doesn't have anything to do with this story. That's sort of strange.

[arcos]

9. Well, it is suspected that gang members were the ones who killed them... nt

[EFerrari]

11. That's the unstated implication but the reporter doesn't outright

say that.

This story gets. stranger every day

[arcos]

12. It is certainly strange...

And different media sources give different details... they don't necessarily disagree among them, but they vary widely.

[Tempest]

10. Dead men tell no tales

And you can bet the officers involved had a whopper to tell.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Jailed policemen shot in their cells

26 February 2007 19:51
Jailed policemen shot in their cells
By Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press Writer
Published: 27 February 2007

Gunmen stormed a Guatemalan prison and gunned down four jailed police officers in a mafia hit that was clearly aimed at stopping investigators from finding out who ordered the brutal slayings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver last week, Guatemala's leader said yesterday.

President Oscar Berger said "organized crime gangs" reached the officers' cell Sunday after getting past eight locked doors at the prison, and were responsible for the "violent deaths of four important witnesses who could have helped the investigation."

Berger said it still wasn't clear whether drug trafficking or other organized crime was involved, but said officials determined that inmates weren't to blame. A major question is how the gunmen were able to get past eight doors to reach the suspects, Berger said.

The suspects' killings were the latest twist in the bizarre case, which has raised questions about corruption and drug ties in Central America. US officials estimate that 75 percent of the cocaine that reaches American soil passes through Guatemala.
(snip/...)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2308415.ece

[Judi Lynn]

14. Guatemala murders raise more questions

Last Updated: Monday, 26 February 2007, 17:49 GMT

Guatemala murders raise more questions
By Mike Lanchin
BBC Latin America analyst

In the latest twist in an increasingly complex case of the gruesome murder of three Salvadorean politicians, allegedly assassinated by corrupt Guatemalan police officers, the four main suspects have themselves been shot dead in jail.

A spokeswoman for the Guatemalan national police confirmed late on Sunday the deaths of the four men, identified as Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the police's organised crime unit, and three of his officers.

Maria Jose Fernandez said that she did not know who had killed the men, who were being held at the notoriously violent El Boqueron prison, 70km (43 miles) east of Guatemala City.

Initial reports from the scene, quoted in a Salvadorean newspaper on Monday, said that hired assassins had entered the jail during visiting time and had carried out the killings during a power cut later that same day.

However, police said that a riot had broken out in the prison on Sunday afternoon, initiated by members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang who dominate the jail, although they could not say whether the four victims were shot during or after the disturbances began.

One member of the Mara Salvatrucha told reporters by telephone from inside the prison that they had rioted out of fear of being blamed for the police officers' deaths.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6397209.stm

[struggle4progress]

15. Grim mystery unfolds in Central America (LAT)

Prison killings in Guatemala are the latest chapter in a cross-border saga

By Héctor Tobar and Alex Renderos, Special to The Times
February 27, 2007

... On Friday, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger said drug traffickers were behind the killings of the legislators and promised a "thorough purge" of corrupt elements in the Guatemalan police force ...

The four police officials killed Sunday were all members of Guatemala's organized-crime unit, including the unit's director, Luis Arturo Herrera. There were conflicting reports as to how they were killed.

Some media reports said an armed "commando" unit had entered the maximum-security prison about 40 miles outside Guatemala City. The assailants reportedly disarmed the guards, then slit the throats of the arrested officers.

Other reports said inmates in the prison killed the men in retribution for their actions as police officers ...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guatemala27feb27,0,2550461.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Judi Lynn]

16. What a great article! It's funny reading the opinions of fellow "officials"

claiming they have no idea how this happened, since they, themselves might very easily be part of this mess!

This has to have people in the two countries bouncing off the walls! From the article, a very quaint remark:

In El Salvador, the idea that the scion of one of the nation's leading right-wing families may have been involved in drug dealing was unpalatable. Salvadoran police floated a different theory: mistaken identity.

What is actually MORE unpalatable is the fact that right-wing official, murderee Eduardo D'Aubuisson's father, Roberto D'Aubuisson's nickname was "Blowtorch," and he was the very head of the death squads during Ronald Reagan's patronage of his country's president. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to conclude a mass murdering death squad leader, named "Blowtorch" wasn't a man everyone would love!

The final paragraph:

The arrested police officers told investigators that they had been contracted by a group of Guatemalan drug traffickers linked to Salvadoran organized crime. But they would say no more about their orders, because, as one of them said, "I'd rather commit suicide than talk."
(snip)

[Judi Lynn]

17. Here's a timeline for anyone interested.

Looks as if El Salvador has been right-wing ever since a military coup in 1961....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1220818.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of course, the sad story of what the hell happened to Guatemala, after Eisenhower got finished with it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/country_profiles/1215811.stm

[Judi Lynn]

18. Salvadoran torture survivor finds closure in American court

Salvadoran torture survivor finds closure in American court
By Juliana Barbassa
ASSOCIATED PRESS

9:15 a.m. February 25, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO – The acrid smell of disinfectant, sweat and fear filled Carlos Mauricio's nostrils. In the darkness behind his blindfold, he heard the moaning of other political prisoners inside the headquarters of El Salvador's national police.

There were screams and shouted questions, the hollow thump of blows, and a sound he recognized from his days working with cattle: the sizzling zap of an electrical prod, followed by guttural protests and involuntary thrashing.

“I realized I was in a chamber of torture,” he said. “At that moment, I accepted my death.”
(snip)

“I was told I wasn't confessing because I'd been trained not to confess, not because I was innocent,” he said. “There was no escape. You're guilty because you were accused.”
(snip)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070225-0915-torturetort.html