Guatemalan lawmaker and 3 police killed in attack

Guatemalan Congressman Julio Cesar Portillo Paz and three police officers were killed in an armed attack on Friday in the eastern town of Rio Hondo, authorities said.

The attack targeted Portillo in Zacapa department, Guatemala's interior ministry said. The ministry said the three officers were killed in a “direct attack against the lawmaker.”

Guatemala's Congress later posted that its president, board members and lawmakers mourned the death of Portillo, who represented the Zacapa district.

A fire service official had earlier told reporters that Portillo had escaped unharmed. Authorities later said he had been killed.

The suspects escaped and had not been identified.

Portillo won his seat in 2023 for the opposition party Cabal, but later switched to the National Unity of Hope party led by former first lady Sandra Torres. She is expected to run for president in Guatemala's elections next year.