Child killer lynched in Guatemalan town

An angry mob beat and burned to death a man who apparently killed two schoolchildren with a machete on 12 September, in the north-central Guatemalan town of Tactic, the Honduran daily La Prensa reported on 15 September. Witnesses said 35 or 40-year-old Julio Saquil entered a school and slit the troats of an eight-year-old girl and 13-year-old boy, before furious staff and locals seized and lynched him inside the school. Officials identified him as having a criminal record, Reuters reported on 13 September. Hours later, a mob publicly beat and almost lynched four individuals suspected of being thieves or accomplices of Saquil, though these were finally handed over to police, Guatemala's Siglo 21 reported on 14 September. The United Nations System in Guatemala deplored the killings on 14 September and urged the Guatemalan state to act against criminal violence, the Cuban website Prensa Latina reported. The website cited a local rights body Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (GAM) as counting 4,899 homicides in Guatemala in the period January-31 August 2012, apparently six per cent less than the same period in 2011. GAM observed that the government of Otto Pérez Molina, elected in 2011, was faltering in its promised bid to significantly reduce crime. The government reportedly envisaged a 20 per cent reduction in crime in 2012 compared to 2011. Meanwhile 180 or more suspected criminals were lynched around Guatemala in 2011, Reuters reported. The education ministry closed the school in Tactic indefinitely, while staff and pupils were to receive counselling, Siglo 21 reported.