|
|
|
Guatemala police 'held hostage'
|
by cwlbc Saturday March 1, 2008
|
| |
Guatemalan villagers holding a group of about 30 police officers hostage say they will release the men in exchange for government talks on legalising their land, officials say.
The crowd had earlier threatened to kill their captives, whom they seized from a police station in the Caribbean coastal town of Livingston on Thursday night.
"They are just waiting for interior ministry personnel to arrive in the town to hand over the officers and their weapons,'' Sergio Morales, human rights prosecutor, told AP on Friday.
The government will then fly three local leaders to Guatemala City for talks with officials, he said.
Leader's release urged
The group had earlier demanded the release of Ramiro Choc, a local Mayan farmer leader, who was arrested last week on charges of illegal land invasion, robbery and holding people against their will.
Authorities say Choc leads land seizures in the region and has encouraged locals to take over protected nature reserves.
Choc had urged the villagers to release the officers in a telephone call from prison, Ricardo Gatica, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told AP.
Almost half of Guatemala's population are indigenous, many landless peasants who often invade land for subsistence farming.
Land disputes were one of the catalysts for the country's brutal civil war between from 1960 to 1996 which left around 250,000 people dead or missing.
In January Guatemala's new president, Alvaro Colom, took office with a pledge to reduce crime and violence, however crime continues to be at high levels.
Guatemala is one of the poorest central American nations, with half of its 13 million people living on less than $1 a day, and discrimination against the ethnic Mayan majority remaining high.
It is also one of the most violent, with about 6,000 people being murdered in the country every year.
|
| posted by: | webwatcher review | message: | Howdy I found your site and it is extremely essential! I am seriously happy you submitted your information it has completely helped. posted Wednesday April 24, 2013 | |
|
post a comment
| |
|
