The president of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, was unhurt this Saturday from an alleged shooting attack on his entourage when he was traveling through a village in the northwestern department of Huehuetenango, according to a local radio station.
“Shots fired at the presidential delegation in the village of La Laguna de Jacaltenango, Huehuetenango,” said the radio station Sonora es la Noticia.
And he added that “there are wounded but President Giammattei is unharmed and safe.”
However, military sources explained to journalists that on the occasion of the president’s tour an operation was carried out on a highway in La Laguna, He spotted a vehicle with heavily armed men and an exchange of fire began.
In the event, a man of Mexican origin who identified himself as Josué López Velásquez, an alleged member of the Nuevo Jalisco cartel, was injured.
According to the Guatemalan Army, with the support of the Mexican military, an operation was carried out and four other men were captured in Mexican territory, leaving the wounded man and a rifle grenade abandoned on the Huehuetenango highway.
The shooting took place when the Guatemalan soldiers stopped the vehicle in which the armed men were traveling.
Giammattei traveled by helicopter to Huehuetenango on a work tour to promote the products that the inhabitants of La Laguna grow so that they can be marketed.
Apparently, the sources said, López is the supposed leader of the structure that confronted the Guatemalan military.