Democracy Dies in Darkness

Executions for the Nation to See

Guatemala Telecasts Deaths by Injection of 2 Convicted in Kidnap-Murder

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GUATEMALA CITY, June 29 -- As television broadcast the scene live, two members of a Guatemalan kidnapping ring were executed today by lethal injection.

The executions came a week after Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo sent several of his relatives to Canada for their safety, fearing reprisal from the kidnappers' confederates.

Guatemalans watching television saw Luis Amilcar Cetino Perez, 35, being strapped to a gurney, then mumbling a prayer as the fatal mix of chemicals flowed into his arm. The broadcast showed the line of a heart monitor begin to flatten, cutting back to a shot of Cetino's hand as it quivered, then lay still.

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