AP for SA judges

[Blank Frank]

Mob Hacks Guatemalan Judge to
               Death 

               By Will Weissert
               Associated Press Writer
               Tuesday, March 13, 2001; 3:17 p.m. EST

               GUATEMALA CITY –– More than 1,000 people in a
               northern Guatemalan town attacked a judge after he
               issued an unpopular ruling in a rape case, hacking him to
               death with machetes before setting his body on fire. 

               The crowd was holding three police officers and the
               mayor of Senahu hostage on Tuesday. The town is 155
               miles northeast of the capital, Guatemala City. 

               Judge Hugo Martinez ruled late Monday that there was
               not enough evidence to hold two rape suspects who had
               been handed over to police after being captured by
               hundreds of town residents. 

               Shortly after the ruling, Martinez was attacked by the
               mob as he left the courthouse, said Faustino Sanchez, a
               spokesman for Guatemala's national police force. 

               The judge used a pistol to wound two attackers before
               he was overcome by the mob, which hacked him to
               death with machetes before dousing him with gasoline
               and burning his body, Sanchez said. 

               Other members of the crowd then stormed a nearby city
               building, "seizing the mayor and three police officers
               who were trying to protect the accused men," Sanchez
               said. The fate of the two men was unclear. 

               It was the first mob-justice killing so far this year in
               Guatemala, a country that has seen scores of vigilante
               killings annually in recent years. 

               Police negotiators and a contingent of Guatemalan
               soldiers were en route to Senahu, a highlands town in
               the largely Indian state of Alta Verapaz. 

               Locals in Senahu blocked entrances to the city and
               refused to let police officers, negotiators or reporters
               enter the area, said Edin Arondo, a spokesman for the
               volunteer fire department of the nearby city of Coban. 

               "The situation outside the area is extremely tense,"
               Arondo said in a phone interview. "We can only
               imagine what is going on inside." 

               Since the end of a 36-year-old civil war in which
               200,000 Guatemalans were killed, vigilante violence
               has become common here. Last year mass killings
               claimed 28 victims, and in the two previous years some
               100 Guatemalans died at the hands of angry mobs.