Mob Burns Alive A 16-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Involved In The Murder Of A 68-Year-Old Man
Graphic video and photos of the brutal attack has been shared widely on social media.
By Sadho Ram — 26 May 2015, 04:35 PM
Earlier last week, a 16-year-old girl, said to be of Indian origin, was mercilessly beaten and then burned to death by a mob in the village of Rio Bravo, near the capital of Guatemala City. According to local news site Tiempo, she was accused of being part of a group that killed motorcycle taxi driver Carlos Enrique González Noriega, 68.
The woman, who appears dazed, is dragged by her hair into the centre of the angry crowd.
Image via Mail OnlineAccording to The Daily Mail, the unnamed 16-year-old girl had allegedly been part of a gang with two other men that murdered a 68-year-old taxi driver.
While the two men managed to get away, she found herself surrounded by an angry vigilante mob, and was violently assaulted with punches and kicks.
After the brutal beating, the teenager was left in a daze with her face covered in blood. She was then forcefully shoved to the ground by the mob, and then doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire.
According to The Independent, the mob filmed a video that showed young children and elderly women looking on as she is burnt alive. The horrific video shows the girl dazed and stumbling in the middle of a crowd of people, her face bleeding, reported the Mail Online.
The young girl lies on the crowd while angry people surround her to kick and beat her.
Image via Mail OnlineA police spokesman said that officers had tried to intervene but were blocked by the bystanders.
The video, which is far too graphic to publish here, has been shared widely in Guatemala and has provoked an outcry on social media - one Guatemalan Twitter user called the video "depressing".
According to media reports, the teenager was seen struggling and writhing in pain on the ground and screaming while cheers were heard from the mob as the flames engulfed her body.
Just as the fire was dying down, a man approached her and poured a can of petrol over her burning body, making the flames become even bigger. The teenager was then left to die as the crowd looked on.
Police are now investigating the matter. Meanwhile, violent lynchings, which often involve the victims being burned alive, are a fact of life in Guatemala. It has a major problem with violent crime.
In March, two men were lynched in the village of Saquiyá, around 100 miles away from Rio Bravo, after they were accused of stealing a car.
The mob of around 150 people burned one of the men alive, and hung the other from a tree.
Guatemala has a major problem with violent crime. Many powerful drug and human trafficking cartels operate in the nation, due to its central position between South and North America.
Huge numbers of street gangs and corrupt or incompetent police have ensured that the country has the sixth highest murder rate in the world - and less than four per cent of murders end in a conviction.