The Guatemalan lawyer, former prosecutor, and prominent investigator Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, 43, was shot dead this Saturday, October 17, on the sports courts of Campo Marte, located in Zone 5 of Guatemala City. Another person, identified as Gustavo Aguilar, was also killed in the attack, the Municipal Fire Department confirmed.According to preliminary reports provided by Minister of Governance Marco Antonio Villeda, the attack was allegedly carried out by four individuals who fled on motorcycles.Security forces detained two young men, one of them a former member of the army, as suspects following an operation in which more than 30 cartridge casings were recovered at the crime scene.This high-profile killing drew an immediate institutional condemnation. President Bernardo Arévalo strongly repudiated the act on social media and stated his government will work to swiftly investigate the crime.“Those who believe that terror can intimidate the people of Guatemala and the government I lead are mistaken,” the president said. “In honor of Foppa, in honor of our homeland, in honor of our justice.”A career marked by the fight against corruptionSolórzano Foppa, popularly known as Foppa, built an extensive career defending rights and pursuing white-collar criminal networks. Between 2016 and 2018, he directed the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), where he attempted to curb tax evasion that went through the country’s major economic structures.He also worked as an investigator with the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and founded the Directorate of Analysis and Criminal Investigations of the Public Ministry.Foppa’s work was crucial in high-profile cases such as “La Línea”, which led to the fall of former President Otto Pérez Molina and former Vice President Roxana Baldetti.He also served as defense counsel for journalist José Rubén Zamora and was the target of political persecution during the administration of Alejandro Giamattei and the tenure of former attorney general Consuelo Porras, under whose orders he was jailed on two occasions (2021 and 2023) on charges his supporters described as fabricated.On Friday, October 16, Foppa had publicly condemned in a video on social media the execution of eight campesinos in Huité, Zacapa, on September 27 in response to an alleged operation by mercenaries with foreign support.Venezuela Sends 40 Tons of Aid to Panama as Specialists Inspect Schools and Historic BuildingsLegacy of resistance and exileGrandson of the celebrated poet and writer Alaide Foppa, who disappeared in 1981 during the dictatorship of Efraín Ríos Montt, and son of combatants of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor (EGP), Juan Francisco carried a deep family history linked to social and political resistance in Central America.His assassination represents a severe blow to social movements, human rights defenders, and the democratic institutions that seek to dismantle the so-called “Pacto Corrupto,” leaving a void in the country’s legal scene. (Telesur)Translation: Orinoco TribuneOT/JRE/AU