There are fears for the safety of street children in Guatemala City after a sudden new wave of attacks. According to reports, on 24 September Ruben Garcia Gonzalez and Daniel Rosales were killed and Victor Manuel Garcia was injured when they were fired on by two private policemen. The two policemen are currently detained, but another private policeman has reportedly been assigned to guard Victor Manuel Garcia in hospital, apparently to prevent him from escaping, although no charges have been brought against him. Two days earlier, on 22 September, Fidel Solorzano was killed when a bag he had been given by two unidentified men exploded. In another incident on 19 July Juan Humberto Ramos Cifuentes, Cecilio Jax and Julio Cesar Chavez Orozco, also known as “Pepito”, were fired upon by two men as they tried to break into a car. Julio Chavez managed to escape, but the other two street youths were later found dead in a rubbish dump with signs of torture and several bullets to the head.
