Guatemalan law enforcement authorities have arrested two men in connection with the brazen killing of prominent anti-corruption lawyer and former prosecutor Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa, an assassination that has sent shockwaves through the Central American nation and drawn swift, high-level condemnation from the presidential office.
The fatal attack unfolded on a Saturday at the bustling Campo Marte sports complex located in Guatemala City. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, Solorzano Foppa and another man, identified as Gustavo Adolfo Aguilar Gamarro, were gunned down by two assailants during a visit to the recreational facility. The daylight shooting immediately triggered an intensive police response across the capital.
Shortly after the attack, the National Civil Police of Guatemala announced that they had successfully apprehended two suspects, identified in subsequent court proceedings as Daniel Choc Toz and Rigoberto Choc Toz. Along with the arrests, law enforcement officers seized a carbine-style firearm and a motorcycle believed to have been utilized by the perpetrators during the execution of the crime. The rapid apprehension of the alleged gunmen marks an immediate breakthrough in a case that threatens to destabilize public confidence in the country’s fragile security and judicial institutions.
Solorzano Foppa, who was 43 years old at the time of his death, was widely recognized as one of Guatemala’s most fearless and high-profile legal figures. Throughout his career, he built a formidable reputation for taking on powerful and entrenched interests, fearlessly denouncing wrongdoing by some of the country’s most influential politicians, business leaders, and major corporations. His career was defined by a persistent crusade against impunity and financial crime, putting him at direct odds with powerful actors within the political and economic establishment.
The assassination drew an immediate and vehement reaction from Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo. Utilizing his official account on the social media platform X, the president did not mince words regarding the targeted killing of the former prosecutor.
"I strongly condemn the cowardly murder of former prosecutor Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa," Arévalo wrote in his public statement. Emphasizing the determination of his administration to bring all guilty parties to justice, the president added, "Both the direct perpetrators and those who ordered the crime must face the full weight of the law."
Arévalo further revealed that he had directly instructed his government to maintain close coordination with all relevant investigative authorities to ensure a comprehensive and transparent resolution to the crime. Signaling a firm stance against attempts to destabilize the nation through violence, the president warned that criminal elements would not succeed in their underlying objectives.
"Those who believe that terror can intimidate the people of Guatemala and the government I lead are mistaken," Arévalo stated. "In honour of Foppa, in honour of our homeland, in honour of justice."
The tragic death of Solorzano Foppa silences a prominent voice that had spent years navigating the complex and often perilous intersection of law, politics, and organized crime in Guatemala. Before establishing himself as a defense attorney willing to take on controversial human rights and anti-corruption cases, Solorzano Foppa served in several critical public administration roles within the nation’s justice and tax systems.
He previously headed the Criminal Investigations Directorate within the Public Prosecutor’s Office, a position that placed him at the heart of state-led criminal probes. Following his tenure in investigative services, he took charge of Guatemala’s tax authority, the Superintendency of Tax Administration (SAT), serving as its superintendent from 2016 to 2018. During his time leading the tax agency, he played an instrumental role in helping prosecute dozens of powerful Guatemalan business figures and corporate entities, aggressively moving to recover significant sums of unpaid taxes and challenging the traditional impunity enjoyed by the nation’s economic elite.
In the years following his departure from public office, Solorzano Foppa remained deeply involved in high-stakes legal and political battles. In 2025, he publicly alleged a troubling connection between the Barrio 18 street gang and the National Unity of Hope political party, while also exposing deep-seated links between transnational criminal gangs and elements within the domestic judicial system.
His willingness to confront systemic corruption extended to high-profile political persecution cases. In 2023, Solorzano Foppa briefly joined the defense team of José Rubén Zamora, a renowned Guatemalan journalist and founder of the investigative newspaper elPeriódico. Zamora has become an international symbol of resistance against the systematic criminalization of journalism, the suppression of free speech, and the gradual erosion of judicial independence in Central America.
Solorzano Foppa’s involvement in Zamora’s defense, however, made him a direct target of legal retaliation by state prosecutors. Later in the proceedings, Solorzano Foppa was forced to withdraw from the Zamora case after the Public Prosecutor’s Office accused him of obstructing judicial proceedings and destroying or concealing information. While he consistently denied the accusations, maintaining that the charges were politically motivated retaliatory measures, he ultimately accepted a plea agreement. At the time, he expressed that he did so because he held no realistic belief that he would receive a fair and impartial trial within Guatemala’s compromised judicial framework.
The arrest of the two primary suspects and their subsequent transfer to the holding cell at the Tower of Tribunals in Guatemala City marks only the initial phase of what is expected to be a prolonged and intensely scrutinized legal process. As investigators work to uncover the masterminds who ordered the killing, the assassination of Juan Francisco Solorzano Foppa remains a stark reminder of the grave dangers facing legal professionals, independent journalists, and anti-corruption advocates operating within the region.