Suspected gang members have dumped four human heads in front of Guatemala’s congress and at other places in the capital along with messages warning the government to halt its crackdown on organised crime.
A head found outside congress on Thursday had a handwritten note with it addressed to the interior minister and the head of the penitentiary system.
“Put the jails in order or these horrific acts will continue,” it said.
Another of the severed heads was left on a pedestrian walkway at a shopping centre, a third was found in front of a fire station, and a fourth in a plastic bag on a highway leading into Guatemala City.
Drug cartel members in Mexico commonly hack off victims’ heads and leave gruesome notes to spread terror among rival gangs and the public, but the tactic is rarely seen in Central America.
Still scarred by its brutal 1960-96 civil war, Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America. Vicious street gangs known as maras run huge extortion rings, and trigger-happy Mexican drug traffickers have moved in to run cocaine smuggling routes to the United States.
Imprisoned gang members often run their enterprises from their cells, using cell phones obtained with the help of corrupt jailers to order kidnappings and murders.
President Alvaro Colom launched a crackdown on jailhouse gang activity earlier this year, whereby gang members are frequently transferred without warning to different prisons to prevent them forging strong ties with prison officials.
“The criminals are hurting because of the actions we’ve taken in the jails,” police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said.