There have been about 50 college professors murdered in Guatemala in the past two years. The latest taught in the school of communication sciences. You can read the story at Journalism professor murdered in Guatemala .
Guatemala has been a very violent place as long as I have known it. My first trip to Guatemala City was in 1968. The U.S. ambassador had been assassinated in one of the first acts of terrorism against an American ambassador in modern time. Helga Ruge, the wife of the embassy consul who was there at the time, has written about those days in AmericanDiplomacy.org. It is a good read. She talks about the assassination on Page 2. I had good contacts in Guatemala City in those days and heard of the killing very quickly. A fortunate Pan American flight got me from Mexico City to Guatemala City in time to be the first foreign correspondent on the scene. I had never heard the story about the reporter calling Ambassador Mein's wife but if it is true I suspect it was Alfonzo Anzueto, a very agressive, accurate reporter who worked as an AP stringer. Alfonso died in 2000 so I can't verify that suspicion. If he did call the residence he would have done so because someone at the embassy told him the ambassador had gone home for lunch.
