Guatemala: Los Zetas kill at least 27

GUATEMALA CITY – At least 27 people, some of them children, were killed by an armed faction of the Los Zetas drug cartel on a farm in the northern Guatemalan department of Petén, Latin American media reported.

The killings took place in the early hours of May 15, said Donald González, spokesperson for the country’s National Civil Police, in the town of Caserio La Bomba, located 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Mexican border.

Police said that more than 50 members of the Z 200, an armed branch of the Los Zetas cartel, dressed in military uniforms entered the farm and demanded to speak to its owner, Otto Salguero. As the workers didn’t know his whereabouts, the Los Zetas members proceeded to kill and behead them, one by one, the police said.

The killers left one survivor to care for the numerous children present at the scene, police said. The Z 200 left several graffiti at the scene, warning Salguero that he is next.

Military units were deployed to the Mexican border to prevent the killers from leaving Guatemala, said Rony Urízar, spokesperson for the Guatemalan army.

“We are coordinating with Mexican authorities to [prevent the killers’] escape,” Urízar said.

[Prensa Libre (Guatemala), 15/06/2011; Miami Herald (Guatemala), 16/05/2011]