GUATEMALA CITY – A health workers’ union leader and three other people were gunned down over the weekend in the northern section of Guatemala City, a National Civilian Police, or PNC, spokesman said.

The gunmen opened fire from a vehicle on several neighbors who were chatting in the capital’s Salud Publica district on Saturday night.

“The men fired their weapons in an indiscriminate manner, hitting four people,” the PNC spokesman said.

Javier Cabrera, 27, and Ovidio Ortiz, a 52-year-old leader of the Guatemalan Public Health Workers Union, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Oscar Alexander Rodriguez, 34, and Fredy Leon Estada, 29, died in the emergency room at San Juan de Dios General Hospital.

The motive for the attack has not been determined, but investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Ortiz, whose union is one of the largest and most powerful in Guatemala, may have been the target, the PNC spokesman said.

An average of 16 people per day are murdered in Guatemala, according to official figures, making the Central American nation one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America. EFE