Guatemalan prosecutor, six more killed in ambush

Seven people including a public prosecutor were shot dead while driving in north-western Guatemala on 23 December, in an attack suspected to be the work of a drug cartel, the daily Prensa Libre reported. The attack occurred in the San Pedro Necta district in Huehuetenango, the department bordering Mexico; the cars were burned. Of the victims three were identified as the district prosecutor of Chiquimula in eastern Guatemala Irma Yolanda Oliveras, an employee of the social works department of the First Lady's Office (SOSEP) and a businessman named as Luis Antonio Palacios, the Interior Minister was reported as saying. The group was returning in two armoured cars from the inauguration of a hotel belonging to Palacios in the district of La Mesilla in Huehuetenango, or going to La Mesilla as other reports suggested. It appeared the district prosecutor was for some time a target of criminals, possibly of The Zetas cartel whose activities she was tasked with investigating. Prensa Libre cited Guatemala's Prosecutor-General Claudia Paz y Paz as recently commenting on persistent threats to prosecutors in frontier districts like Chiquimula. Police reportedly arrested in August suspected members of the Zetas thought to be planning the assassination of the Chiquimula district prosecutor, though reports did not immediately clarify if she was that prosecutor.