Guatemalan police are searching for 12 Mayan villagers they believe are responsible for the Saturday lynching of a Japanese man and a tour-bus driver, the local police chief said Monday.
Baudilio Portillo Merlos, chief of the Guatemalan national police, said arrest warrants have been obtained for the 12, including a woman who screamed, "My child was stolen," and another woman who shouted that a Japanese tour group was stealing local children.
Tetsuo Yamahiro, 39, a real estate company employee from Yono, Saitama Prefecture, and the bus driver, Edgar Castellanos, 39, were stoned to death after some 500 residents of Todos Santos Cuchumatan village attacked the Japanese tour group of 19.
Rumors that foreigners come to the area to abduct children are reportedly persistent in some Mayan communities.
Five other Japanese tourists and two policemen were injured in the attack.
According to Saiyu Travel Co., a Tokyo travel agency that organized the tour, of the 19 tour participants, 16 have decided to continue their tour despite the incident. and will remain in Guatemala until Saturday.
On Monday, a senior Saiyu Travel executive in Tokyo denied media reports that photo-taking had triggered the assault.
According to Michiko Wakita, those injured or killed in the Saturday incident had not been taking photographs of people at a market in the village of Todos Santos Cuchumatan.
"The tour guide (accompanying the group) had warned participants about potential problems regarding cameras," Wakita said, quoting the guide, who was also among those attacked.
Wakita quoted the guide as saying Yamahiro's camera was still in its case when his body was recovered, with no indication that it had been used. Others in the group had also concealed their photographic equipment, she said.