Guatemalan Lawmaker Portillo Paz and Three Police Officers Killed in Zacapa Attack
GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemalan congressman Julio César Portillo Paz was attacked on Friday, November 6, in Río Hondo, in the eastern department of Zacapa, and was taken to hospital with serious injuries, where he later died. Three National Civil Police officers guarding him were also killed in the attack. Portillo Paz's death was confirmed by the National Unity of Hope party (UNE), to which he belonged, and Guatemala's Congress posted a statement of mourning late on Friday, identifying him as the representative of the Zacapa district.
The Interior Ministry said the officers died repelling a direct attack on the lawmaker by unidentified assailants. Vice President Karin Herrera named the three officers killed as Jorge Paau Xicol, Erick Armides Ramos Osorio and Fernando Reyes Aldana. The attack took place on Friday afternoon at kilometre 137 of the Atlantic highway in Río Hondo.
President Bernardo Arévalo condemned the violence, said the three officers had died in the line of duty, and instructed security forces to cooperate fully with the prosecutors leading the investigation. Authorities have not disclosed a motive for the attack or identified who was responsible.
Portillo Paz won his seat in 2023 for the opposition party Cabal but later switched to the National Unity of Hope, led by former first lady Sandra Torres. Zacapa sits on drug-trafficking routes where the Lorenzana family cartel, which has links to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, is reported to operate. The killings came about three weeks after former anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was shot dead in Guatemala City. (Source: Reuters)
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：危地马拉国会大楼（共和国宫）正门，门楣刻有「REPUBLICA」字样，位于危地马拉城。Arielaasturias 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The entrance of the Congress of the Republic building in Guatemala City. By Arielaasturias, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
