Guatemala launches siege to reclaim violent north
COBAN, Guatemala-Gangs roamed the streets with assault rifles and armored vehicles, attacking whomever they pleased and abducting women who caught their eye. Shootouts became so common, residents couldn’t tell gunfire from holiday fireworks. Local leaders of the mountainous northern province of Alta Verapaz, which has become a prime corridor for smuggling drugs from Honduras to Mexico, say they have been asking state and federal authorities to intervene for two years now. “The violence has increased. There are assaults, extortion, shootouts in the street caused by outsiders,” said Ariel Hasse, director of city projects in Coban, about 60 miles (100 kilometers)…
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Guatemala launches siege to reclaim violent north
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on December 21, 2010. Filed under
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