Reuters AlertNet Lite - Top Guatemala detective quits in drug killings saga

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Top Guatemala detective quits in drug killings saga

03 Mar 2007 03:34:41 GMT
Source: Reuters

GUATEMALA CITY, March 2 (Reuters) - Guatemala's top detective quit on Friday following a spate of recent murders of politicians and policemen that have raised suspicion of links between high-level security forces and drug gangs.

Javier Figueroa was in charge of six detectives suspected in the Feb. 19 slayings of three lawmakers from El Salvador and their driver. Four of the policemen were arrested but killed within days, their throats slashed in a prison cell.

As the scandal grips the nation officials have come under growing pressure from opposition figures and activists who say shadowy armed groups working within the police have been given free rein to kill and smuggle drugs, weapons and people.

Announcing Figueroa's resignation, Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann said Figueroa and his deputy, Victor Soto, who was demoted, were not under investigation.

But an opposition candidate in September's presidential election has accused both of links to criminal groups and a police informant told Guatemala's human rights ombudsman that Soto headed an organization that killed suspected criminals while committing crimes of its own.

President Oscar Berger has said the deputies' murders were linked to drug gangs who operate in both Guatemala and El Salvador and both governments have asked for help from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to solve the crimes.

The charred bodies of three Salvadoran members of the Central American parliament and their driver were left on an isolated road near Guatemala City. One deputy was the son of an infamous Salvadoran civil war-era 1980s death squad leader.

The detectives were linked by a satellite positioning system to the murders and four were sent to jail, but hit-men breached security at the prison where they were being held, gunned them down and slit their throats.

One of the two surviving detectives linked to the deputies' killings is on the run and the other is under heavy guard after turning himself in.

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Last updated:Sat Mar 3 03:36:25 2007