Guatemalan mayoral candidate accused of killing rivals
(CNN) -- A local politician in Guatemala had two rivals killed before faking an assassination attempt on himself to disguise his involvement, authorities said.Luis Fernando Marroquin, a candidate for mayor of the city of San Jose Pinula, was arrested Wednesday, the country's attorney general and interior minister said. He and two alleged accomplices are charged with murder, illicit association and faking a crime.
Last month, two mayoral candidates were killed and Marroquin survived an alleged gun attack in the city, located just southwest of the capital.
The killings of the politicians spoke to the brazenness of the violence that is known to rear its head in the Central American country. But, authorities, say, there will not be impunity this time.
Marroquin, the officials said, had conflicts with two other contenders, Augusto Enrique Ovalle Barrera of the Unionist Party, and Carlos Enrique Dardon of the Compromise, Renovation and Order Party. Marroquin reportedly pulled down his opponents' campaign posters and threw them away.
Marroquin belongs to the Renewed Democratic Freedom party, or LIDER.
Authorities linked two guns to some or all of the three incidents, but something about the alleged attack on Marroquin didn't add up, officials said.
The candidate claimed he was saved by a bulletproof vest he was wearing. But an investigation of the vehicle showed that at least three bullets had entered the driver's seat, meaning that if Marroquin was there, they would have gone through him and his vest, the interior minister's office said.
In addition to Ovalle, two others were killed in that attack.
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