The killing of Margarita de Rosales, a leader of the opposition Unidad Nacional de la Esperanza (UNE) in San Miguel Pochuta, 60 kilometres northwest of Guatemala city, was seen by many as the final straw, coming as it did on top of a string of lynchings and attacks on journalists and prosecutors. The government responded to the uproar by ordering 400 army troops to reinforce the police in a high-profile display of 'security presence'.
Under the orders of a police commissioner, the soldiers will accompany the police in joint patrols of areas considered crime hot spots. This move, which has been tried before to no lasting effect, has been criticised by both the human rights prosecutor -a state official- and Minugua, the UN verification mission in Guatemala.
One problem is that at least one component of the recent wave of violence -the attacks and acts of intimidation against journalists and law officers- is considered by many to be the handiwork of 'clandestine security groups' rooted in sectors of the military (WR-03-24). So little progress has been made in clarifying these events that the government has agreed to invite the UN and the OAS to form a special commission of inquiry, due to start work in September.
As if to drive home this point, within hours of the announcement that the troops were being sent in, another UNE leader, youth wing coordinator Ismael Donís, was shot in his store in San Miguel Petapa, 30 kilometres west of the capital.
Criminals & vigilantes. To be sure, the current wave of violence also has other components: common crime and extreme vigilantism. Over the past week six people were murdered, their bodies later incinerated in two cars, in what looked like a settling of accounts between gangs. In separate incidents, four suspected criminals were lynched.
Critics of the government's response say that enhanced military-police patrolling is unlikely to have any impact on events such as these: the first type calls for better detection of gang activity, while the latter tend to be spontaneous mob reactions, not necessarily in the areas singled out for patrolling.
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