Honduras: Assailants Wearing Police Uniforms Kill 2 Students

Eighteen-year-old Gerson Daniel Meza Medina and 19-year-old Mario Enrique Suarez Gomez, both students at the Honduras Technical Institute (ITH), were detained and presumably executed by men wearing uniforms from Honduras' Technical Agency of Criminal Investigation (ATIC). Video images circulating on social media sites show what appeared to be ATIC agents detaining the two youths from a house in Bella Vista in the district of Comayaguela this week.

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They were taken to La Montanita where their bodies, blindfolded and hands tied, were later discovered.

Jorge Galindo, a spokesperson for ATIC, said that it is evident that the uniforms are not real. "We've ruled out that they are ATIC personnel."

He explained that "Many signs indicate that they are not ATIC agents. The vests they wear, the letters with the inscription ATIC are larger in which the agency uses. Also, the back of the vest doesn't have the inscription. The agency has this inscription (on the back of their vests).

Galindo went on to say that the individuals who detained the two students "carried R-15 and Atic agents utilize a (firearm) called a Scorpion and the vehicle they placed the students is not the type utilized by Atic."

Gerson Medina resided in Los Pino colony, and his friend Mario Gomez lived in the Bella Vista neighborhood.

Students from the Honduras Technical Institute protested the kidnapping and murder of their fellow students. They said the victims were taken after participating in demonstrations requesting reduced bus fares.

The murders come only weeks after two men were fatally shot at a gas station in broad daylight in San Pedro Sula. The perpetrators also used uniforms resembling Atic agents, according to El Heraldo.