4 held in deaths of Salvador lawmakers

Four people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver, Guatemala's interior minister said.

Authorities, however, gave conflicting versions over what they believe were the motives behind the slayings.

Interior Minister Carlos Vielman said the four suspects were tied to drug traffickers and had ordered corrupt police officers to kidnap the politicians and bring them to an isolated, rural area outside Guatemala City to search their vehicle for drugs.

The charred bodies of the three Salvadoran politicians, all members of the Central American Parliament, were found along a rural road on Feb. 19. Two lawmakers were burned alive, and the driver and the third lawmaker were killed before their bodies were set afire, an autopsy showed.

However, prosecutor Alvaro Matus, who is leading the investigation, said evidence indicated the lawmakers' vehicle was targeted by mistake.

"The inspection that was done of the car found no evidence that any alterations were made to the car or that it had any hidden compartments to hide drugs, money, arms or other items," he said.

Matus said the four suspects _ three men and a woman _ belong to a gang, but his investigators have not found links to drug trafficking. He said investigators were still trying to determine the nature of the gang, but said it was "highly dangerous" and had exchanged phone calls with the corrupt police officers before the killings.

Officials have identified seven national police officers as suspects in the killings. Four were arrested but later killed in prison under circumstances that remain murky. One officer is in custody, and two remain at large.

Vielman said three of the gang members owned a gas station in Jalpatagua, 60 miles southeast of Guatemala City on the border with El Salvador, that was used as a front for moving cocaine through Guatemala to Mexico and the United States.

The contradictions added to the mystery behind the case. More than a month after the grisly slayings, authorities have not determined a clear motive for the crime.

Iduvina Hernandez, director of the Institute of Security in Democracy, a nonprofit group pushing for judicial and police reforms, said politics are at play in the investigation.

She said the prosecutor's office appears to want to quickly close the case while the national police, which falls under the Interior Ministry, is under pressure to offer a more substantial explanation for the killings and why its officers could have been involved.

"There is clearly competition going on between the prosecutor's office and the national police," she said.

The case has laid bare the extent of corruption within Guatemala's forces. On Tuesday, Guatemala's Congress gave Vielman a vote of no-confidence. President Oscar Berger, who has said he is happy with the minister's work, now must decide whether to support Vielman in his job.

The new suspects were identified as Mario Javier Lemus Escobar, Obdulio Waldemar de Leon Lemus, Carlos Orellana Donis and Linda Castillo Orellana. They were captured in Jalpatagua.

Authorities said they do not know if the four were also behind the deaths of the four police officers who were gunned down in their prison cells. Witnesses blamed a group of men dressed as prison guards who were able to get through eight locked doors at the maximum security prison.

Prosecutors blamed imprisoned gang members and have detained two dozen guards and the prison's director while they investigate.

One of the slain parliament members was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of El Salvador's late right-wing leader Roberto D'Aubuisson, which initially prompted speculation about political motives.

El Salvador's Interior Minister Astor Escalante said his government was satisfied with the arrests, but said important parts of the puzzle are still missing "such as establishing a motive."

Salvadoran officials have denied the lawmakers were linked to drug traffickers.