Assassination of anti-corruption prosecutor in Guatemala Juan Francisco Solarzano Foppa was shot over 50 times in broad day light

Written by Grahame Russell

Message sent
Good intentions of the current President aside, Guatemala remains firmly dominated by the corrupt, violent political interests of the Pact of Corrupt traditional economic and political elites. This violence will likely increase in lead-up to the June 2027 elections.

Below

  • Prensa Comunitaria article

  • Democracy Now interview with Silvia Solorzano Foppa, mother of Juan Francisco

“Juan Francisco was a young lawyer coming from a background of pro-democracy and revolutionary activists. He made a name for himself at the Public Prosecutor’s Office [during a time] when drug trafficking was spiking, and especially gang violence and unsolved murders.”

“Dark forces are at work, and it really seems like they want to stir up a whole other set of problems for the government. Guatemala has elections coming up in [June 2027], meaning we’re in a pre-election climate. Stirring up anxiety and unrest like this has happened before. It’s part of creating pre-election confusion and insecurity.”

“It comes down to the commitment to keep fighting for a better Guatemala, for a real democracy. That is something we Guatemalans want to create on our own without interference from Israel, the U.S. or any other nation. Part of that democracy means respecting our natural resources, our rivers, our volcanoes, our land, our nickel, our oil. Even if they’re small amounts, they are ours. And they keep being stripped away, not just by the United States and other countries.”

(Silvia Solorzano Foppa, mother of the victim)

Lawyer Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa Murdered at Campo Marte
October 17, 2026, by Prensa Comunitaria
Translated by Rights Action
Original:https://prensacomunitaria.org/2026/10/asesinan-al-abogado-juan-francisco-solorzano-foppa-en-el-campo-marte/

The former prosecutor for the Public Prosecutor’s Office and former superintendent of the SAT was attacked by a group of hitmen while playing soccer at Campo Marte in Zone 5 of the capital. Another person, identified as Gustavo Aguilar, was killed in the attack, and five others were injured.

Emergency responders reported that they received calls reporting an armed attack at a sports complex, and upon arriving at the scene, they found the bodies of two people.

Some witness accounts circulating minutes after the armed attack indicate that two men entered the field and opened fire. Some say the attack was directed at Solórzano Foppa and that the other victim, identified as Gustavo Aguilar Gamarro, was struck by a stray bullet. […]

Foppa on Social Media
In recent years, Solórzano Foppa had become known for using his social media accounts to share his analyses on security issues, in which he questioned the responses of the authorities in power.

In his posts, he openly pointed out Mara Salvatrucha’s stronghold in the area and the connection between Sandra Torres’s niece and one of the leaders of Barrio 18.

DEA-linked (?) Massacre at Huite

The last video he posted on social media was on October 15, in which he discussed the deaths of eight people in Huité, Zacapa. “My conclusion after analyzing the data we have is that this was a raid by CIA mercenaries, supported by the Guatemalan army and carried out from U.S. military bases in Honduras,” he wrote when he posted the video.

On September 23, he appeared in court as the defense attorney for Miriam Salazar, former administrative director of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, in a case involving the purchase of a building in Zone 5 of the capital city.

Solórzano Foppa, 43, made a name for himself as a lawyer who exposed cases of corruption and investigated gangs and organized crime. He also defended journalist Jose Rubén Zamora.

He served as a prosecutor with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and was a member of the Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes Against Life and the Directorate of Criminal Analysis between 2008 and 2012. He participated in investigations alongside the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and, as an attorney, handled several high-profile cases related to corruption. From 2016 to 2018, he served as superintendent of the Tax Administration Service (SAT).

Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, prominent anti-corruption lawyer in Guatemala, was assassinated - shot over 50 times in public

Democracy Now, October 19, 2026
Watch/Listen: https://www.democracynow.org/2026/10/19/guatemala

Rights Action
For decades, Rights Action has denounced the close to complete corruption of Guatemala’s legal system and administration of justice, systemic repression, and the criminalization, jailing and forcing into exile of hundreds of lawyers, judges and prosecutors, and land, rights and environmental defenders.

We regularly send grassroots funding in support of victims (and their lawyers and advocacy groups) of this systemic repression lawfare.

Change media sources
Rights Action urges folks to diversify news sources as antidote to oftentimes propagandistic reporting of government and corporate media in U.S. and Canada. Democracy Now, Gray Zone, DropSite News, Real News Network, CounterPunch, Intercept, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, Breach, rabble.ca, Orinoco Tribune, Electronic Infitada news, Al Jazeera News (for Palestine related reporting), BreakThrough News, Canadian Dimension...

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Grahame Russell
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