Eight Found Guilty in Slaying of Salvadoran Diplomats

PrintEmailSave to Favorites

On February 19, 2007, one of the most heinous crimes in Guatemalan history was perpetrated against three visiting Salvadoran diplomats and their chauffeur, who were found dead, shot execution-style and burned in their car on the outskirts of Guatemala City. The case made headlines around the world and brought home the need for a U.N.-backed entity which came to be known as Cicig, an investigative body created to fortify, train and equip Guatemala's weak judicial system. Three years after the crime was perpetrated, the guilty have finally been brought to justice in another example of Cicig's prowess in investigating and prosecuting Guatemalan crimes.

First, a bit of history... Following an investigation, the perpetrators turned out to be high-ranking police officers from the Department of Criminal Investigations operating as contract killers. Things really came to a head when the captured policemen were executed by a death squad while awaiting questioning in a high-security prison just days after the crime. Initial government statements and doublespeak had pinned the blame for the executions on fellow prison inmates, including gang members. The incident opened a can of worms in which high-ranking government officials were implicated in the continued operation of death squads and ties to organized crime. Cicig's mandate in Guatemala has been anything but smooth, with one Chief Prosecutor already calling it quits and charges having recently been filed against a Costa Rican investigator who has since fled the country. Guatemala's history really does read like a mystery novel.

In any case, the guilty party includes Manuel de Jesús Castillo Medrano, a former Guatemalan Congressman; Carlos Gutiérrez, a.k.a. Montaña 3; Carlos Orellana Donis, Vanner Morales Silva, Javier Lemus Escobar, Carlos Orellana Aroche, Marvin Contreras, and Obdulio de León Lemus. Castillo Medrano was sentenced to 203 years, while the other members of the so-called 'Banda de Jalpatagua' received sentences ranging from 99 to 210 years.

Investigations revealed Castillo Medrano as the crime's intellectual author, in conjunction with Salvadoran Congressman Carlos Silva Pereira.