12 dead in a Guatemalan village plagued by land disputes | Top stories

GUATEMALA CITY – A dozen people were killed on Saturday in a Guatemalan village that has been involved for years in a land dispute with a neighboring town, police said.

Civilian National Police said the 12 dead included men, women and children, but gave no details of what happened in the village of Chiquix, in western Guatemala, near the Mexican border.

A local police officer was killed earlier in the week in the same area, and violence has already occurred there.

Residents of Chiquix have argued over access to water and land with residents of the town of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan. Negotiations between the two sides have so far yielded little results.