Feb 27 2007
Guatemala mafia killed officers
Eight locked doors
An investigation into the murder of the three Central American lawmakers, all members of El Salvador’s governing Arena party, is still under way.
Mr Berger said that the gunmen managed to get through eight locked doors to reach the inmates, who had already been moved from one prison because their lives were believed to be at risk.
He said it remained unclear if the deaths of the policemen were linked to drug trafficking or other organised crime.
The US authorities estimate that much of the cocaine entering the US comes via Guatemala.
US President George W Bush is due to travel to Guatemala in March and it is expected that the growing drugs trade will be high on the agenda.
Guatemala’s chief human rights prosecutor, Beatrice de Carrillo, said the audacity of the killings revealed a culture of impunity in the country.
“There are some people, with a power so great, that they can allow themselves this luxury and, at the same time, they so fear the truth that they prefer a deed like this to it coming out,” she was quoted as saying by the Spanish news agency, Efe.
The killings in the prison, which is occupied mostly by street gang members, sparked a 12-hour riot during which five people, including the prison director were taken hostage.
It ended only after the inmates were allowed to tell a television crew that they had not been behind the killings of the four police officers.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6399381.stm Published: 2007/02/27 01:49:33 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6399381.stm
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