Guatemalan authorities catch suspects over police massacre

Guatemala detained on 14 July nine individuals including a policeman suspected of involvement in the murder on 13 June of eight policemen in Salcajá in the western department of Quetzaltenango. A ninth policeman was kidnapped during the assault on the police post, and later found dismembered in various spots near the Mexican frontier. The suspects were caught amid 38 raids carried out in La Democracia in Huehuetenango that also yielded assault weapons, 15 cars and cash in different currencies worth around 15,000 USD, Spain's El País reported, citing declarations by the Interior Minister Mauricio López Bonilla. The daily cited the director of Guatemala's public prosecution service Claudia Paz y Paz as saying "we have enough evidence indicating that the detained are responsible for" the crime. Media cited authorities as interpreting the massacre as a punitive act against the kidnapped policeman, an officer at the station who apparently had taken or stolen money and cocaine belonging to the gangsters thought involved in the crime. He was not killed immediately but kidnapped to reveal where he had hidden them.