Four Guatemalan police officers arrested in the brutal slayings of three Salvadoran legislators told investigators they thought the victims were drug traffickers, police in El Salvador said on Friday.
The grisly killings may have been a case of mistaken identity, or a complicated plot, in which someone who wanted to kill the Central American Parliament members tricked the rogue Guatemalan police officers into thinking the victims were drug dealers.
Salvadoran police, who are cooperating with their Guatemala counterparts in the investigation, said some of the group -- which includes Luis Arturo Herrera, head of the Guatemalan National Police organized crime unit -- had confessed to the killings.
"They did not know that they were real legislators," said Rodrigo Avila, director of El Salvador's national police. "This could have been part of an ambush or some premeditated attack on the legislators, by misleading the triggermen by telling them they were criminals."
The rogue officers may have quickly found out their error and burned the victims' bodies to cover their tracks.
"They realize there had been a mistake, and they try to destroy the evidence," Avila said.
Police in both countries have said the murders could have been politically motivated. The victims included Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of El Salvador's late right-wing leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, who allegedly founded death squads in the 1980s.
The assailants repeatedly shot D'Aubuisson, two other Salvadoran officials and their driver before setting them on fire while they were still alive, officials said. Their charred bodies were found on Monday along a road about 32km southeast of Guatemala City.
The three slain politicians -- D'Aubuisson, William Pichinte and Ramon Gonzalez -- represented El Salvador at the Central American Parliament, which is based in Guatemala City and has 132 members representing five of the seven Central American nations. They were all members of El Salvador's ruling party, ARENA.
Besides the organized crime unit chief, Guatemalan authorities also arrested Jose Corky Estuardo Lopez, a high-ranking police officer, and organized crime investigators Jose Adolfo Gutierrez and Marvin Langen Escobar. Two other suspects still are being sought.
The assailants used an unmarked police vehicle equipped with a GPS device, which later enabled investigators to track the car back to the crime scene.
The GPS tracking showed the assailants waited for the Salvadoran officials along a highway until their police escorts left them on the edge of the city before intercepting their vehicles.
The US' FBI has been asked to help in the investigation.
D'Aubuisson's late father was embroiled in scandals as the alleged founder of El Salvador's death squads during its civil war from 1980-1992. The death squads were responsible for the kidnap, torture, and murder of tens of thousands of civilians.
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