Who is Montaña 3?

This post is an update on what is known about the the assassination of three Salvadoran members of the Central American parliament while they traveled in Guatemala in February 2007. The initial investigation by authorities in Guatemala quickly arrested members of the organized crime division of Guatemala's national police. But in a brazen raid, unknown persons managed to penetrate Guatemala's high security prison and execute the suspects in their cells.

Since that time, the most promising leads have apparently been cellular telephone logs of calls to and from the now dead killers. This past August, press reports in El Salvador and Guatemala indicated that one person implicated as making calls with the killers around the time of the murders is Guatemalan mayor and legislator Manuel Castillo. According to those same reports, Castillo has been implicated for a number of years in narco-trafficking in the region.

The same reports indicated that another person, given the name "Montaña 3" by investigators, had also made and received calls involving Castillo and the killers. Now authorities apparently know the identity of Montaña 3. In an
article published in La Prensa, El Salvador's attorney general and Guatemalan authorities are cited as stating that they know the identity of Montaña 3, who they say coordinated the killings, but are not yet going to reveal the identity.

There has still been little information about the motive for the crime and what connection, if any, the three politicians had to narco-trafficking. Nor is there information about who carried out the executions within the prison.

Comments