Associated Press via Yahoo! News, 3 April 2006

Guatemalan Youths Whipped by Parents

By Juan Carlos Llorca
Associated Press Writer

Four young men accused of trying to rob a school were whippedby their parents Monday in a sentence dictated by Mayan elders inwestern Guatemala, a police official said.

The youths received 13 lashes each and then were forced towalk on their knees for a quarter-mile in the village ofBarreneche, about 40 miles west of the capital, Guatemala City,police official Walter Bravo Fuentes told The Associated Press.

The young men also must complete seven days of communityservice, said Bravo Fuentes, who witnessed the punishmentalongside about 1,000 people from Barreneche and two neighboringcommunities, all with Mayan majorities.

A treaty Guatemala ratified in 1996 allows communities toinstitute punishments dictated by local custom but not codifiedin national law, said Luis Ramirez, an analyst at the Instituteof Criminal Sciences in Guatemala.

Usually such punishments don't go beyond a whipping.

Juan Catarino Toyon and Edgar Marcelino Tiu, both 20, and HugoMiguel Tiu and Elias Santiago Yax, both 18, were caught sneakinginto the high school in Barreneche before dawn Monday, BravoFuentes said.

Townspeople accused them of attempting to steal computers fromone of the classrooms, Bravo Fuentes said.

The suspects' community service will consist of cleaningstreets and cutting lawns. If they are caught attempting a crimeagain, they will be turned over to police and expelled from thecommunity, Bravo Fuentes said.

In some cases, community members have taken matters into theirown hands, beating and killing fellow villagers believed to havecommitted a crime. At least 350 people have died as a result ofvigilante justice in the past 10 years.