Guatemalan authorities on Thursday ordered the arrest of a congressman suspected of conspiring to kill three Salvadorean politicians and detained the lawmaker's alleged accomplice.
The charred bodies of the three Salvadorean politicians, all members of the Guatemala-based Central American Parliament, and their driver were found along a rural road on Feb. 19. No motive has been determined for the crime.
The lead investigator in the case, prosecutor Alvaro Matus, said an arrest warrant had been issued for Guatemalan Congressman Manuel Castillo. On Wednesday, a court stripped Castillo of his immunity from prosecution. He leaves Congress this month to become mayor of Jutiapa.
Castillo and his lawyers were not available to comment on Thursday. Castillo has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the accusations.
Matus alleged that Castillo has links to Carlos Gutierrez, another suspect in the case who was arrested on Thursday in Jutiapa, near the border with El Salvador.
Gutierrez, a suspected drug trafficker, was in constant telephone communication with the parliamentarians' killers the day of the slayings, Matus said.
Castillo "told us he didn't know [Gutierrez] but we have evidence to the contrary," Matus said.
Two former police detectives have also been detained in the case, and four other detectives linked to the crime were murdered by inmates inside their prison cell just hours after they turned themselves in to authorities.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS