Assassinations Increase in 2016 | Guatemala Human Rights Commission

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Assassinations Increase in 2016 | Guatemala Human Rights Commission: The human rights situation, on the surface, seems to have improved last year in Guatemala, but while the number of attacks was down to levels not seen since 2008, the violence of the attacks intensified: the number of assassinations increased. From January 1 to October 31, eleven human rights defenders were killed in Guatemala, and after October 31, the killings escalated. For example, on November 2, indigenous leader Benjamin Roderigo Ic Coc, departmental representative of the Mayan Council of the Peten, was found shot to death in Sayaxch�. He had received threats prior to his killing. On November 6, journalist Hamilton Hern�ndez and his wife were assassinated in Coatepeque. On November 9, union leader Eliseo Villatoro Cardona, in Tiquisate, was killed. On November 12, Jeremy Abraham Barrios Lima, Assistant to the General Director of the Center for Environmental and Social Legal Action of Guatemala, was shot to death. Miguel Suchite Hernandez, COCODE president, in La Llorna, Pet�n, was killed November 18, bringing the total number of defenders killed to date this year to sixteen.