The murder of a former prosecutor has plunged Guatemala’s anti-corruption movement into mourning. In a country plagued by organized crime, the police’s initial response raises the question of just how complicit they are in one of the highest-profile murders in decades.
Roman Gressier writes in El Faro English about the murders of Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa and Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, the former being an anti-corruption prosecutor and the target of the attack, while the latter was an innocent bystander. There are many questions being asked about the attack, including state security provision for a high profile prosecutor, official corruption, and narco-influence throughout state and business structures. An increase in violence and social instabitiyy only serves the interests of the business elites, the so-called Pacto De Corruptos and brings further pressure on the presidency of Bernardo Arévalo.
Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, one of Guatemala’s most renowned former anti-mafia prosecutors, was murdered on Saturday, October 17. That same weekend, as hundreds of people paid their respects in Guatemala City, questions about his death —as well as about those leading the criminal investigation— only multiplied.
His murder took place around 9:35 a.m. on a turf soccer field in Zone 5, an area of the capital known for its military installations and nearby gun shops. A group of at least four hitmen disguised as athletes arrived wearing F.C. Barcelona jerseys at Campo Marte, a sports complex just a few meters from the Army’s Guard of Honor. Hours later, in his initial report on the facts of the case, Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda —the head of Guatemala’s Security Cabinet— said they did not know how many men had fired shots. Nor did they know how the assailants managed to vanish from a popular sports complex in broad daylight.
What they did know was that the attackers left behind more than 50 shell casings. With the investigation ongoing, the Public Prosecutor’s Office has not specified the caliber. Two men were killed: Foppa, 43, was shot multiple times in the head and died instantly. According to the interior minister, he was coaching a soccer team from the sidelines and was the sole target of the attack. The other man killed was 53-year-old athlete Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, whom authorities described as a collateral victim. Five other people were injured, including a minor.
The former prosecutor had been assigned a National Civil Police detail since 2010, back when he prosecuted big cases against criminal organizations such as Barrio 18, the 18th Street gang. But when Villeda took office in November 2025, he said he increased Foppa’s security “due to the political profile he had at that time.” At the moment of the attack, the two police officers were standing by Foppa’s son “about 30 or 40 meters” away from him. According to Villeda, the officers reported that Foppa had asked them, before the attack, to stay by his son’s side. The authorities knew the obvious: that his two bodyguards did not stop the murder, but they did not know why.
You can read the full article, including links and photos, here, Death of an Anti-Corruption Prosecutor.
Categories: Corruption, Criminalisation, Criminalization, Guatemala, Human Rights, Impunity, Justice, Solidarity in Action, Solidarity in Action/Guatemala, Violence
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