Disturbance leaves two men bloody, car burned

Apparently there was some more violence down the hill in Panajachel on Friday. It didn't affect us up the hill here in Sololá, but it made the news again.

It seems someone was accused of being an extortionist, and townspeople got whipped into a frenzy. They managed to chase down (the paper doesn't say how) the two guys' car, pull them out and beat them up.

Some 800 townspeople quickly gathered. The riled up folks started beating the two guys, threatening to take their lives. For good measure, they flipped over the car and set it on fire. Local police managed to intervene (which is pretty rare in itself) and save the guys' lives, transporting them to a jail a couple of hours away.

Fortunately, no one died, but judging by the photos in Nuestro Diario, they received quite a few blows. It looked like they went 15 rounds with Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield.

Please pray for Guatemala's authorities to fulfill their roles and uphold justice so that people will have confidence in the legal system here. Here's a link to the Spanish-language Prensa Libre account.

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A friend wrote an interesting reflection today on death after the passing of her mother-in-law. She and her husband work in Africa among Sudanese refugees.