An alleged sniper kills a soldier of the Guatemalan Army in El Tumbador, San Marcos

Defense Minister Henry Sáenz explained that a sniper carried out the attack due to the distance and precision of the shot. (Government of Guatemala) A member of the Guatemalan Army died after being shot in the head. According to authorities, the shot was fired by a sniper during security operations in the municipality of El Tumbador, in the department of San Marcos. The attack occurred on October 8 at the so-called 3,000 elevation, a sector with historical territorial disputes where transnational organized crime and drug trafficking also operate. The Minister of National Defense, Henry Sáenz, confirmed the death during the La Ronda press conference this Thursday, October 8, and explained that the military personnel was stationed between communities in conflict when he suffered the direct impact from another position. "Unfortunately, today the Guatemalan Army is in mourning because a sniper, from another position, fired at the military positions and hit the soldier in the head, killing him immediately," the official declared. Guatemala's Defense Minister, Henry Sáenz, confirmed the murder of a soldier in a conflictive area of the department of San Marcos and stated that it was carried out by a sniper. In addition, he explained: "By saying sniper, it refers to the characteristic of the distance and the precision of the target that fired," he explained. Although the soldier was not officially identified, Army sources confirmed to Infobae that he was Isaías Valentín Ramírez Salvador, originally from the hamlet of Las Vírgenes, in the municipality of El Tumbador, San Marcos. Military sources identified the fallen soldier as Isaías Valentín Ramírez Salvador, originally from the hamlet of Las Vírgenes. (Social Media) The armed forces maintain a permanent deployment in the region with the purpose of positioning themselves between rival populations and preventing tragic confrontations. According to official information, the tension in San Marcos is due to long-standing community conflicts that have facilitated the establishment of high-impact criminal structures. "There is a problem of many years in the communities of San Marcos," said Henry Sáenz, who compared this work to the operations deployed in the municipalities of Nahualá and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, in Sololá. The military chief linked the security situation to the presence of groups that possess tactical capability and combat weaponry. The armed forces maintain a permanent deployment in the region to prevent confrontations between rival communities. (Guatemalan Army) According to authorities, the public security forces and the Army have confiscated more than 7,000 weapons during the current governmental period, among which are rocket launchers and high-precision rifles. "Among those there have been RPG-7 weapons, there have been sniper rifles, and there have been weapons for exclusive military use," the minister stated. Although he did not attribute the authorship of the crime to a particular gang, Henry Sáenz warned about the risks implied by the convergence between local conflicts and international criminal gangs. "In that region there is a lot of organized crime that becomes transnational organized crime," asserted the head of National Defense, who based the classification of the attacker as a sniper on the distance and accuracy of the aggression. The Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) took charge of the proceedings to determine the precise location from which the shot was fired and the identity of the person responsible. Guatemala's Defense Minister, Henry Sáenz, explains that the attack on the Army soldier took place in a conflictive zone with a presence of organized crime in San Marcos. "Obviously, the Public Prosecutor's Office, upon carrying out the proceedings it needs to carry out, will determine from where the shot was fired, and by whom. We do not have that information at this moment," the minister noted. Furthermore, he ruled out any possibility that it had been an internal incident, emphasizing: "What I can tell you is that we did not shoot ourselves, and that is very unlikely."