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CENTRAL AMERICA |
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German Tourist Killed in Guatemala
GUATEMALA CITY – A 73-year-old German
tourist died at a private hospital in this
capital after suffering gunshot wounds
during an armed robbery, officials said.
A spokesman for the Guatemalan Tourism
Institute, or Inguat, told reporters that
Paul Wolfgang Ritter died Friday after being
shot by robbers earlier this week in the
Caribbean town of Santo Tomas de Castilla.
“According to the medical report, the German
tourist died as a result of cardiac arrest
and an excessive loss of blood resulting
from the gunshot wounds,” the spokesman
said.
Ritter, who had arrived in the country a
week earlier on board a Norwegian cruise,
was mugged and wounded Wednesday by two
assailants while he was taking photographs
inside the Santo Tomas de Castilla cemetery.
The National Civil Police’s press office on
Friday reported the capture of two youth
gang members, saying they are the “prime
suspects” in the murder.
Guatemala has been dealing with a crime wave
that has driven the murder rate up to around
17 a day.
The more than 5,400 homicides reported last
year in Guatemala – a nation of
approximately 13 million – was nearly equal
to the number of murders in neighboring
Mexico, which has more than 100 million
inhabitants and is the scene of open warfare
among rival drug cartels.
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