Lawmaker held in slayings
Guatemalan police officers escort ruling-party lawmaker Julio Antonio Juarez Ramirez to a courtroom Saturday in Guatemala City after he was arrested on charges of orchestrating the slayings of two journalists in 2015.
GUATEMALA CITY — A ruling-party lawmaker accused of orchestrating the slayings of two journalists in 2015 was arrested Saturday in southwestern Guatemala.
Public Ministry spokesman Yecenia Enriquez said Julio Antonio Juarez Ramirez was detained at his home in Suchitepequez department on a warrant sought by prosecutors and a United Nations anti-corruption commission.
Juarez is suspected of murder, attempted murder and criminal association on allegations of hiring hit men to kill journalist Danilo Efrain Lopez, fearing that his coverage would hurt Juarez’s electoral campaign. A second journalist, Federico Benjamin Salazar, also died in the March 10, 2015, shooting, and Marvin Tunchez Ayala was wounded.
Juarez, a member of President Jimmy Morales’ National Convergence Front party, has said he is innocent.
In November, the Supreme Court lifted his immunity from prosecution that comes with elected office. That same month Morales praised Juarez’s work and asked those present to applaud him.
Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Juarez under the Global Magnitsky Act, which targets human-rights abusers and corrupt officials.