Eight people were killed in a four-hour gun battle between police and thieves in the Villa Hermosa suburb of Guatemala City. An armed gang had robbed a jeweller in a shopping center, killing a security guard. Hundreds of Special Forces troops from the National Civil Police, backed up by some 70 army troops, later surrounded them in a private house, where they refused to surrender. One local radio station, broadcasting from the scene, carried recordings of a man shouting: "The only way we'll come out is dead." One officer was killed in the shoot-out, and six bodies were found in the house—along with assault weapons and hand grenades. Four police and a soldier were wounded. "The exchange of gunfire was very intense, but everything is now under control," Interior Minister Adela Camacho said. (BBC [2], Xinhua [3], Prensa Libre [4], Guatemala, Dec. 16)
Marc Rognon, a 17-year-old Swiss visitor, was killed by a gang in Guatemala last month. Rognon's family offered to pay a ransom. But before a payment could be made his body was found near that of another dead man near the side of a road. Swiss police are requesting permission travel to Guatemala as "observers" of the investigation. (24 Heures [5], Switzerland, Dec. 14)
Members of the Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha gangs are giving up tattoos, baggy pants and tank tops for smart blazers and a preppy look, to evade a harsh crackdown by security forces and citizen vigilante groups. (AP [6], Dec. 15)
See our last posts on Guatemala [7] and Central America [8].
