Guatemala City, Guatemala, May 23, 2011 / 12:04 pm
Bishop Gabriel Penate Rodriguez of Izabal, Guatemala has expressed both sadness and outrage over the massacre of 27 people near the country’s border with Mexico.
These persons endured “a cruel death, carried out with unheard of brutality and barbarity. It is impossible to believe that a human being could be capable of committing such an act,” the bishop said in a May 20 statement.
All of the victims were found decapitated in the province of Peten. The attack took place the weekend of May 14.
Bishop Penate Rodriguez said that the victims of the massacre carried out by the drug cartel “Los Zetas” were poor and humble people who “sought their livelihood in Peten by working at the large farms there.