Suspects in deaths of Salvadoran politicians are murdered

Another twist in the case of last week's murders in Guatemala. On Sunday, the four Guatemalan police officers arrested for the assassinations were found murdered in their jail cells according to press reports. It would appear that very powerful forces did not want them to do any talking.

Comments

Carlos X. said…
Am I the only one that thinks this whole thing is fishy? The latest twist is the equivalent of four Jack Rubies killing four Lee Harvey Oswalds -- simultaneously! To say nothing of the fact that the whole "mistaken identity" theory of the murder is absurd to begin with -- the idea that four seasoned officers would opt for murder, oblivious to the GPS tracking devices on their car simply because they were afraid of getting some heat for stopping the wrong people. The best way for these governments to create a cloud of doubt and conspiracy to hover around for years to come, especially given the personalities involved, is for this investigation to follow the course that it's on.
Anonymous said…
Keeps getting weirder. Thanks for helping us follow this story.
Anonymous said…
CoLatino is reporting two different versions of events at the prison. The second one is the official story we have seen in the U.S. media. The first comes from family members visiting the jail. Their version of events sounds like a well-planned and well-connected operation.



Al principio se manejaron dos versiones de lo sucedido dentro del centro penal, la primera de ellas, manejada por los familiares de los reos que se encontraban de visita, que a eso de las 3:30 de la tarde, un comando fuertemente armado y vestidos de civil ingresaron violentamente a las instalaciones, agrediendo a los visitantes y a los reos para luego sacarlos al patio de la penitenciaría desde donde aproximadamente 20 minutos después escucharon varios disparos.

La segunda versión, que es la que las autoridades guatemaltecas manejan como más certera, es la de una reyerta que se originó en el interior del centro penal, provocada por los mismos reclusos y que fue durante esos disturbios que los acusados del asesinato de los diputados fueron ajusticiados.
El-Visitador said…
"Am I the only one that thinks this whole thing is fishy?"

Nay.

This is exactly like the 1913 murder of our most educated President, Dr. Manuel Enrique Araujo. The murderers were quickly done away with so that the intellectual authors would never be known.

Goes without saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. ES & GU should have put the accused under a binational custody force.

Though this lesson is likely to be forgotten by Salvadoreans way before the year 2107.
Carlos X. said…
The confusion in the stories does not help. El Diario de Hoy had a story saying they had their throats cut ("degollados"), while other reports say they were shot dead. Very strange.
Anonymous said…
Even more twisted!

AP is reporting that the riot resulted after "mafia hitmen" dressed as guards entered the prison and killed the suspects. It also states that the rioters surrendered after they were allowed to tell TV reporters that they were not responsible for the suspects' deaths.
Carlos X. said…
According to EL NUEVO DIARIO, of Managua, the "mafia hitmen" would have had to go through eight locked doors to get to the suspects. I see that Beatrice de Carrillo is now casting doubt on the notion that these four men were the killers (in a CO LATINO story).
El-Visitador said…
'"mafia hitmen" dressed as guards entered the prison and killed the suspects'

The current spin paints the Guatemalan prison guards as either (a) incompetent nincompoops or, most likely, utterly corrupt.

In version (a), Guatemalan prison "guards" will let in anyone armed to the wazoo, so long as they have appropriate attire.

In version (b), the prison guards are nothing but Madams of the bordello who will let any paying customer into the house.

Some "guards."
Anonymous said…
D A B U S O N
formed Mano Blanco and a variety of squads in the 80s with Direct Support from the CIA.

One cannot Murder his son and get away. Their days were numbered.

The Far Right Did this. NO DUH.

Nothing "fishy" about it.
Anonymous said…
Can this get any weirder?weirdest?
Tim said…
And I'm not writing anything more until some of the fog has lifted.....
Anonymous said…
Latin America, Narc Country, all courtesy of the CIA. You know, I myself found it strange that the policemen had used their official vehicles by which they obviously could've been easily caught. Unless of course they weren't expecting to be caught believing that the higher chain (someone with greater power in the government) had their backs protected. Another thing that keeps bugging me with the possibility that they did it is that in PrensaLibre a story appears with them saying that they had been hired to commit the crimes, but refused to testify because they feared for their lives... as the paper quotes them saying "I prefer suicide than before talking, or else they'll kill me". Even though things in the region are so bad that you can't really rely on the mainstream media cause they are tainted, and cover up for narcs... so the media could've also made this up? Surely.

http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2007/febrero/23/164224.html

Eitherway, be this whole corrupt policemen (one of the departed even was top official of Guatemala's anti-organized crime unit) thing just be a smokescreen to hide something more sinister (along with the real perpetrators), or they actually did it in my opinion is besides the point. Because things like this just go to show you how corruption has corroded every damn institution in the region thanks to the ever present impunity. El Salvador with money laundery-narc Presidents (Cristiani) and governed by a part involved with deathsquads, Nicaragua with a corrupt president (Aleman), Colombia with a narcpresident and heavily backed by the paramilitaries/cartels/deathsquads of Colombia responsible of shipping tons upon tons of cocaine to the world's top consumer (USA), cartels taking control in regions of Mexico, whole Central America functioning as a narctranshipping spot. It is just too messed up. This last case of the PARLACEN is just the latest case of dirtiness to come out to the open. If anything is certain, is that I'm sure Figueroa and Guatemala's Ministro de Gobernacion must be very, very, very happy because someone fulfilled their requests of putting the "policemen" to death (imo both of those men might as well be involved in illegal activities, to cite Bersuit Vergabarat "Son todos narcos, de los malos..."). Funny thing is how this Ministro de Gobernacion comes forth delivering a diffferent story than so-called eyewitnesses who handle a different story, which in my opinion seems very possible. Corrupt officers do sell uniforms to narcs and other criminals, these "hitmen" could easily be acquainted with the guards of the prison and given permission to act freely by the higher ups. Not only that, but ignore the fact that this was a "maximum security prison", but according to a story that appeared, the "tribunal" that was in charge of the case says that they had not given permission for the policemen to be transferred to that prison from the prison in the capital that they were in... So the point is, that either way if those policemen where the killers, they had their days counted (because assuming that they were guilty, they already had their days counted either ARENARC would get their heads or another narc, because they would of known too much already...).

One thing that bothers me, though, is why did the FBI step into the scene so late? Was it because the Guatemalan authorities acted too late to request them (to give ample time to whoever wants to kill the cops and put an end to the case a chance to do so), or did they purposefully delay themselves? Let us not forget how the CIA, FBI, and the DEA protect narcs specially if they are "anti-communist" friends of the USA. As far as I'm concerned, the FBI could just go to Guatemala and put a show of "investigating" the policemen and do nothing that could harm any mafioso friendly to the USA (specially now that Bushie is nervous about Venezuela's rising influence in the region...).

Anyway, all that is left to do is wait and see... not if this case is solved, but how fast this case gruadally disappears from the realm of perception almost magically (the narcs in power and the media machine they control have that ability).


By the way, here are the lyrics to Señor Cobranza, it perfectly manifests just how disgustingly corrupt politics are (specially in the damn region)...

http://www.lyricsdownload.com/bersuit-vergarabat-senor-cobranza-lyrics.html