Four months after a murdered lawyer sent Guatemala into political crisis with a posthumously released video accusing the president and first lady of ordering his death, 10 men are behind bars after being accused of the killing.
Authorities arrested a band of suspected hitmen who they say carried out orders from the crime's masterminds, who have yet to be identified. The lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was shot to death while riding his bike in an upscale Guatemala City neighborhood on Mother's Day. Days earlier, he recorded a video that began "if you're watching this, it's because I was killed by the president."
The Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, a United Nations-backed investigatory body (known by its Spanish acronym CICIG), announced the arrests on Sept. 11 — exactly four months after the murder. President Alvaro Colom, who has denied involvement in the crime, declared, "truth and justice will prevail."
But instead of marking the announcement as a significant step in solving a crime that paralyzed the country for weeks, analysts say the arrests serve as a reminder that organized crime and the police and military remain bedfellows in Guatemala.
Six of the 10 suspects were current or former police officers, including the alleged ringleader, William Gilberto Santos Divas, a former official in the National Civil Police known as "El Comisario." Another, Edwin Idelmo Lopez, was a military specialist until 2005, according to authorities.
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