2 Killed as Child-Stealing Rumor Spreads

A Japanese tourist and a Guatemalan bus driver were killed in a rural market frequented by international tourists after being attacked by a mob of about 500 angry villagers who thought they were there to steal children, police said Sunday.

Tetsuo Yamahiro, 40, was killed when he and 22 other Japanese tourists were attacked with stones and sticks by a mob Saturday in the highland village of Todos Santos Cuchumatan, police spokesman Faustino Sanchez said.

Edgar Castellanos, a Guatemalan tour bus driver, also was killed in the attack in the town about 90 miles northwest of the capital. His body was doused in gasoline and partially burned.

“The tourists were taking pictures of women and children in the market when someone started to scream that they were stealing children, and a crowd of 500 villagers quickly closed in around them,” Sanchez said. Two other Japanese tourists were slightly injured.

Local police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Two police officers were injured.

A persistent rumor in some Mayan communities is that foreigners come to steal children to sell them or their body parts abroad, although no cases have been documented.

In 1994, U.S. journalist June Weinstock was attacked and beaten almost to death by hundreds of angry peasants in the remote village of San Cristobal Verapaz who thought she was trying to steal a baby.

In 1997, a Guatemalan woman suspected of trying to snatch a baby died after a crowd of villagers dragged her and another woman from jail and beat them savagely.

Every year, the market at Todos Santos Cuchumatan draws thousands of foreign tourists, who come to see the brightly colored Mayan textiles. The market is listed in international tourist guides as a good place to visit.