Guatemala: a deputy and three police officers killed in an armed attack on cartel territory

An opposition deputy and three police officers were killed this Friday in Guatemala during an armed attack in a region where drug trafficking is rife, authorities announced. The murdered elected official is the deputy for Zacapa (east), Julio Portillo, 35, from the opposition National Union for Hope party of former first lady Sandra Torres, the Guatemalan Parliament said on the X platform.

An official from the local fire department initially claimed that the elected official was unhurt, but authorities later announced that he had died in hospital.

The attack occurred on a road in the village of Rio Hondo, in the province of Zacapa. According to the Interior Ministry, the three police officers were shot and killed while responding to the “direct attack on the MP” perpetrated by unknown persons.

The province of Zacapa is the territory of the Lorenzana family cartel, linked to the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. On September 27, eight civilians were killed there during clashes between rival gangs.

At the end of October, a sumptuous party, with 1,000 guests and whose cost was estimated at $2.5 million by local media, took place in the region to celebrate the 15th birthday of the daughter of the mayor of Zacapa, Xiomara Ovalle, wife of self-proclaimed drug trafficker Sergio Cifuentes, who returned to Guatemala after serving a prison sentence in the United States.

The American embassy in Guatemala condemned this party, recalling in passing that Xiomara Ovalle was also the sister-in-law of the drug trafficker Haroldo Lorenzana on whose head Washington put a price of five million dollars.