The assassination of Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa took place a short while ago and Guatemala Human Rights Commission (GHRC) released a note and a call for action regarding the murder. He was was a Guatemalan prosecutor, anti-corruption activist and politician and was best known for his work to stop government corruption and organised crime. The family are no strangers to violence as Juan Francisco’s grandmother was disappeared by the state in 1980. Alaíde Foppa was a Guatemalan academic, feminist, poet, human rights defender, and translator and was 66 years of age when she was abducted. The other person murdered was identified as Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, who was well known among Guatemala’s judo community.
On the morning of October 17, while on the soccer field the Campo Marte Sports Complex, in Zone 5 of Guatemala City, attorney Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa was shot to death by unidentified men. Another man, Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, was also killed in the shooting. Three other people were wounded.
Foppa had a protection plan involving National Police officers who functioned as his security guards. The plan was created in 2008, when he was investigating criminal structures in the Public Ministry, and it was reinforced in 2025 because of his political profile. According to Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda, Foppa had asked the security guards to watch his son, and they were some 30 to 40 meters away from Foppa, who was standing on the sidelines when he was killed. According to the General Director of the National Police, David Custodio Boteo, one of the agents said he pursued the gunmen, fired his weapon, and was able to give a description of the assailants.
Two Indigenous men, brothers Daniel and Rigoberto Choc Toz, were arrested shortly after the murder took place. The men worked as food deliverers and were riding a motorcycle, as witnesses said the assassins were. The suspects said police stopped them once, checked their documents and searched them, and then let them go but stopped them again a few minutes later and found a carbine rifle in the food delivery pouch, as well as a magazine, 9-millimeter ammunition, and a tactical vest. The brothers also said the police asked them for money.
The men were held until October 18 before being released for lack of evidence. The proceedings were kept confidential but sources cited in Guatemalan press reports maintain police officers involved in the search had planted the evidence on the men. An investigation into this possibility is reportedly underway. Guatemalan news media have reported, in addition, that the weapon found was determined not the same weapon used in the crime.
You can read the full note, with links, and how to take action, here, Assassination of anti-corruption prosecutor in Guatemala.
Democracy Now had an interview with Juan Francisco’s mother and you can view it, here, alongside a transcript of the interview, Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa: Prominent Anti-Corruption Lawyer in Guatemala Assassinated.
Categories: Accompaniment, Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Indigenous peoples, Justice, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala, Video, Violence
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