GUATEMALA CITY.- Marlene Blanco Lapola, former director of the National Civil Police (PNC) of Guatemala, was acquitted of charges against her for allegedly leading a group responsible for “extrajudicial executions” of various people suspected of extortion.
The Prosecutor’s Office had requested 81 years in prison against Blanco, who has been facing the so-called “Cleopatra” case for twelve years. The former Police Chief had been identified as the main leader of a parallel structure dedicated to extrajudicial executions.
Both Blanco Lapola and the former PNC agents, Wilder Valdez, Mártir García and Lino Efrén García, were charged in the context of this case. Prosecutors accused them of the murder of three people in 2009, who were supposedly linked to a criminal structure that was dedicated to extorting transporters.
However, Valdez was also exonerated, while two other former police officers have been sentenced to sentences of between 25 and 75 years in prison for their involvement in this network, although they have been acquitted of the crime of illicit association, according to information from the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa. Free.
“I thank God because my innocence was proven. Unfortunately, when one is a good official in this country, before they ordered people to be murdered and now they have used institutions to imprison,” Blanco said.
Thus, Justice ordered the immediate release of Blanco and Valdez, who were under house arrest waiting for the trial to end. The former police chief was arrested in March 2012 after allegedly holding meetings with agents involved in the case.
Source: With information from Europa Press
