U.S. Official Assassinated

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31771, 30 August 1968, Page 11

U.S. Official Assassinated

(N. Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

GUATEMALA CITY, August 29. . An intensive police hunt has begun in Guatemala City for a gang of gunmen who ambushed the United States Ambassador to Guatemala (Mr John Gordon Mein) in his chauffeur-driven car and killed him with a hail of pistol and machine-gun bullets.

The assassination, in broad daylight yesterday while the Ambassador was returning to the Embassy from a luncheon given in his honour, was the third in Guatemala this year of an American official.

Colonel John Weber and Lieutenant-Commander Ernest Munro, American military advisers to the Guatemalan forces, were killed in an attack by a terrorist group last January. The Ambassador’s Cadillac was moving along Reforma Aveune .about 10 blocks from the Embassy, when several youths leapt out of two small Japanese-made cars, snatched open the rear door of the Cadillac and began to drag out Mr Mein.

When he resisted they opened fire, then fled as he slumped, bleeding, to the pavement to die almost immediately with nine bullets in his body. The Ambassador's chauffeur, a Guatemalan, was unhurt.

Police cars spread out through the city within minutes of the shooting and one of the killers’ cars was found half an hour later. The Ambassador leaves a widow and three children.

Both Leftist and Rightist terror groups have been in action in Guatemala City, where shootings, bomb attacks, hoid-ups and kidnappings with a political motive have become almost a part of everyday life. The Guatemalan authorities blamed pro-Communist terrorists for the killings last January.