Congressman Julio Portillo was attacked Friday in Rio Hondo, located in Guatemala’s eastern Zacapa department. He sustained serious injuries and was transported to a hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. The National Unity of Hope party, to which Portillo belonged, confirmed his death. Guatemala’s Congress released a statement expressing mourning for what it described as the tragic loss of the lawmaker.
Three National Civil Police officers also died in the attack. President Bernardo Arevalo acknowledged their deaths as casualties incurred in the line of duty and directed security forces to collaborate with prosecutors in the investigation. Neither the motive for the attack nor the identity of those responsible has been disclosed by authorities.
Portillo initially won his legislative seat in 2023 as a representative of the opposition Cabal party but later switched his affiliation to the National Unity of Hope party, which is led by former First Lady Sandra Torres. The Lorenzana family cartel, which maintains ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, operates the drug trade in the Zacapa region where the attack occurred.
The incident occurs approximately three weeks after former anticorruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa was shot and killed in Guatemala City. That earlier killing prompted heightened concerns regarding organized crime’s reach and the potential emergence of politically motivated killings in the country. Investigators have not indicated whether the two cases are connected.
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