Attacks leave four Guatemala bus workers dead
GUATEMALA City, Guatemala (AFP) — Four public transport workers were killed yesterday in a spate of attacks by armed assailants in Guatemala, one of Latin America’s most violent countries.
A bus driver was killed in a neighbourhood just north of Guatemala City, in an attack police said appeared to have been in reprisal for his refusal to pay protection money to local gangs.
A second fatal attack targeted a bus driver in the southern section of the city, who died of gunshot wounds, police said.
A third, in the town of Mixco on the western border of Guatemala City, left two people dead — a driver and another bus company worker.
Officials said two suspects have so far been detained.
Guatemala, wracked by violence in even the best of times, is experiencing a crime wave that has seen the murder rate climb to 6,000 per year, mostly as a result of gang-related drug activity, police said. The population is 16 million.
