From: Casa Alianza - Regional Office 
Subject: Guatemalan street children gunned down - please help.


>From    :   Casa Alianza/Covenant House Latin America

With the changes of government in Guatemala, we are all pulled into
the false hope that the new authorities will be able to - or want to -
pull out a magic wand and stop the tremendous violence against the
street children.

But then our bubble of false hopes is popped....

In the early morning of Sunday, January 21st, 1996, at approximately
03:00 hours, a group of ten street children and youth were sleeping in
the entrance of a pedestrian shopping precinct on 18th street between
5th and 6th Avenues in Zone 1 of Guatemala City. The group included
Juan Pablo Mendez (15), Carlos Antonio Mejia Chavez (aka Mario Mejia,
or  Flash ) (20) and other minors with nicknames of   Vaquero ,
Diablo  and  Fina . At present we do not have the names of the
remaining children.

At approx 3am, a male dressed in civilian clothes came upon the group
of children and, without saying anything, started firing his pistol
into the group of children huddled together for warmth. Carlos Antonio
Mejia was hit first and received two bullets - once in the neck and
once in the chest. Upon hearing the shots and screams, the other
children woke up and ran. The unidentified man continued firing
indiscriminately at the children. Juan Pablo Mendez (15) was frozen on
the floor in shock and the man turned and pointed the gun at him. Juan
Pablo lifted his legs to try and protect himself, and the man fired
and hit the boy in the lower right leg (ocasionadole una herida entre
la tibia e el perone). The man then ran off...

The children described the aggressor as approximately 35 years old,
bearded, muscular, approx. 1.75 metres tall, moreno, wearing a mustard
color jumper and jeans.

Juan Pablo stated to Casa Alianza staff that a street girl called
Carla, collected two bullet heads that she found on the pavement where
the boys were sleeping. We are trying to find Carla. The boy also said
that he is scared that the aggressor may be a member of the National
Police  porque estos constantamente nos exigen dinero y objetos
robados y como ultimamente no les hemos proporcionado, entonces como
forma de intimidarnos sea esta .

Carlos Antonio Mejia is in the Emergency Ward of the San Juan de Dios
Hospital where he was operated on early Sunday morning, and he is
still in critical condition. Juan Pablo was also taken to the
emergency room of the San Juan de Dios Hospital where they put his leg
in plaster. He was discharged to the Casa Alianza Crisis Center at
10am the same Sunday. Casa Alianza is undertaking x-rays to make sure
that there is no damage or to see if the bullet is still in the boy s
leg.

At present there is no further information regarding the attacker.
Nothing has appeared in the local press about this incident.

Please send your e-mail messages of concern to the President of
COPREDEH (the government's human rights office) at

copredeh@nicarao.apc.org

Please send me a copy of your messages, and please pass this message
on to other lists and concerned people. Thank you for your help and,
thank you for caring.

I will be sending you an update on the previous requests for action
within a few days. The results demonstrated show that your messages
DO have a tremendous impact.

Thank you for what you are doing for these children...
Bruce Harris
Executive Director
Latin American Programs
Covenant House/Casa Alianza
SJO 1039                         Costa Rica phone:
PO Box 025216                    +506-253-5439
Miami FL 33102-5216   USA        +506-224-5689 fax
Home Page: http://magi.com/crica/casalnza.html