Guatemala Municipality
under Prevention
GUATEMALA - Guatemalan
Coatepeque municipality
woke up on Monday under
the state of prevention,
decreed by the
government after riots
during the weekend that
resulted in a death, 15
people wounded and
several businesses
damaged.
According to the
government regulation,
the rights to strike, or
stop public service,
carry fire arms and
demonstrate, affecting
public transportation,
have been suspended for
two weeks in that city
of the country's western
region.
The riots in that
locality started on
Sunday, when the
Municipal Police tried
to evict peddlers and
threw their merchandise
on the floor, unleashing
their wrath.
In the clashes, young
peddler Edgar Alberto
Alvarez died, while
other seven residents
were shot and resulted
wounded, three of them,
including a police agent
and a fireman, were
beaten with blunt
objects, and several
were affected by
poisoning.
Groups inflamed with
rage set fire on the
municipal government
headquarters, the police
station and a private
market, besides three
vehicles and two
motorcycles.
Computers, furniture and
documents of the
municipality and the
Registry were destroyed
by fire, workers of
those offices.
Coatepeque mayor Edwin
Vega said the damage is
significant and reached
over one million
quetzals, around
$136,000.
One hundred National
Civil Police agents and
the same number of
soldiers were sent to
the place of the
conflict, and they will
stay there until the
state of prevention is
lifted.
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