Article: Land Conflict (3)

Guatemala Prosecutors Dig for Missing Peasants

Champerico, Guatemala (Reuters) - Guatemalan authorities excavated a suspected mass grave on Thursday but found no sign of peasant squatters alleged to have been summarily executed by police this week, prosecutors said.

Farm workers at a ranch near the southern town of Champerico used a tractor to dig into a septic pit where peasants had said up to 20 people may have been buried.

No bodies were found but authorities said they would search other areas for corpses.

"The fiscal assigned to this case is still going to comb the area to see if other sites exist," said Otto Juarez, a representative of the attorney general.

Nine people died on Tuesday in a battle between police and armed peasant squatters at the Nueva Linda cattle ranch and locals have told the government that police killed between seven and 20 other people and threw their bodies in a pit.

The government-appointed human rights ombudsman, Sergio Morales, says up to 40 people are missing.

The squatters occupied the ranch last year in protest at the kidnapping of a ranch-hand, allegedly by the owners. Police eventually evicted the squatters and arrested 30 people.