The death toll from suspected gangsters’ attacks on Guatemalan police rose to 10 on Monday, as Guatemalans saw heavier security in the streets and curtailed rights after Congress approved President Bernardo Arévalo’s emergency declaration. The violence started Saturday when inmates seized control of three prisons in apparently coordinated riots, taking 43 guards hostage. The gangs were demanding privileges for their members and leaders, according to authorities. Shortly after police liberated one prison Sunday morning, suspected gang members attacked police across the capital.
Officials said late Monday a tenth police officer died following the attacks. Police honored the fallen officers in a ceremony Monday, where flag-draped coffins sat in the Interior Ministry. “Today it pains me to give each one of the families this flag, symbol of the nation that will not forget the sacrifice and commitment of their police fallen in the fulfillment of their duty,” Arévalo said Monday.
Outside the Interior Ministry, José Antonio Revolorio, 72, father of officer José Efraín Revolorio Barrera, 25, said, “I hope that the criminals who did this to my son will one day pay for it, that the law will go after them. And that this doesn’t end here, because my son was an honest man, competent at his work.”
Meanwhile, the government gazette published Monday Arévalo’s declaration of a 30-day state of emergency, saying there were “coordinated actions by self-named maras or gangs against state security forces, including armed attacks against civilian authorities.”