Guatemalan protesters attack oil pipeline
Guatemala's former paramilitary members blocked highways and attacked an oil pipeline, urging the government to pay
them more for fighting alongside the military during the country's 36-year civil war.
The government agreed this month to pay ex-paramilitary members $ 660 each in three instalments -- one this year, and
two next year. But protesters said they want $ 2,500 handed over in one payment.
They blocked highways for a few hours before officials cleared them from roads, police spokesman Faustino Sanchez
said. It was reported that 3,000 demonstrators took over an oil pumping station belonging to the French company
Perenco and began emptying oil from one of the pipelines in Las Pozas, 180 km (110 miles) north of Guatemala
City.
No one from the company would confirm the report. A spokesman for the Department of Energy, Juan Carlos Ruiz, said
that unidentified vandals had provoked an oil spill at the plant.
