Amnesty International today expressed grave concern at an armed attack carried out against Guatemala's Attorney General on the evening of 5 December, but only made public days later. Carlos De León Argueta , the country's highest ranking prosecutorial officer, was fired upon by unidentified gunmen as he returned to his home in Guatemala City. Six shots were directed at the car he was driving, but hit only trees and a wall near the entrance to his home. The Attorney General escaped unhurt.
"Carlos De León is the highest ranking member of the Guatemalan legal community to suffer such an attempt on his life since Epaminondas González Dubón, then head of the country's Constitutional Court was extrajudicially executed in 1994," Amnesty International said.
"Both men had been involved in inquiries into past human rights violations and official involvement in drug-trafficking," the organization added saying that both attacks represented a grave assaults on the rule of law in Guatemala.
"The fact that the country's highest ranking prosecutorial officer, the Attorney General, can only carry out his duties at the risk of his life, gives some idea of the conditions under which other Guatemalan law professionals are forced to live, particularly those involved in efforts to combat impunity and bring the perpetrators of past emblematic human rights violations to justice," Amnesty International stressed.
"Carlos De León is the highest ranking member of the Guatemalan legal community to suffer such an attempt on his life since Epaminondas González Dubón, then head of the country's Constitutional Court was extrajudicially executed in 1994," Amnesty International said.
"Both men had been involved in inquiries into past human rights violations and official involvement in drug-trafficking," the organization added saying that both attacks represented a grave assaults on the rule of law in Guatemala.
"The fact that the country's highest ranking prosecutorial officer, the Attorney General, can only carry out his duties at the risk of his life, gives some idea of the conditions under which other Guatemalan law professionals are forced to live, particularly those involved in efforts to combat impunity and bring the perpetrators of past emblematic human rights violations to justice," Amnesty International stressed.