Patrollers Luis Godinez, Marcos Domingo and Juan Perez Domingo are charged with killing Juan Chonay last October when they fired into a crowd of demonstrators protesting the existence of the civil patrol in Colotenango. Human Rights Ombudsman, Jorge Garcia Laguardia, announced January 15 he will look into accusations that another Huehuetenango PAC is intimidating indigenous residents. The Organization for the Defense of the Maya said PAC chief Lucio Lopez accused the ethnically Mam residents of El Limonar of being guerrillas, and threatened to drop bombs on the community. De Leon Threatens Force To Deal With Corruption Guatemala City, January 19. He predicts crisis if it fails.
Grassroots groups are strongly opposed to the changes.
Just how popular the January vote will be is unclear. What is clear is that powerful interests are lining up on both sides of the question, and ignoring questions of democracy in the process, according to El Grafico columnist Carlos Soto. Soto also has harsh words for the unions that are planning to disrupt the vote on reforms. Leaders of public employee unions say the Executive and the Legislature designed the reforms behind closed doors. Far from cleaning up government, they say, the new elections will allow corrupt legislators to stay in office.