A gay politician is thankful for his bodyguards after they protected him from an armed robbery attempt.
Aldo Dávila currently serves as Guatemala’s first openly gay Congress member. According to Newsweek, Dávila was traveling within Guatemala City on April 19 when a group of armed thieves surrounded his vehicle.
Video surveillance of the incident, which has circulated on the Reddit & Facebook social media platforms, shows the three men surround the car while it is stationed at a red light. One man then pointed a bagged weapon while looking inside the car’s windows.
Thankfully, Dávila was not alone and was accompanied by his security team. The driver quickly pulled out his own gun and shot at one of the suspects. The two uninjured men then ran away while a female bodyguard checked the wounded suspect on the ground.
Warning: the following video includes violent content.
“I’m fine, a little scared,” Dávila told The Associated Press. “They approached from various sides, I threw myself to the ground and my guards, fortunately, repelled the attack.”
While it’s currently unknown if Dávila’s sexuality or political policies factored into the attack, many online commenters are suspecting at least one, if not both, were involved. Guatemalan activist group Patzun OBAP argued on Facebook that Dávila’s work made him a target.
“There are many discrepancies since he has been a person who has brought to light and has fought against various anomalies of the current government,” they wrote.
Dávila is a member of the leftist Winaq party, as the Washington Blade reports. Before running for office, Dávila was the executive director of Asociación Gente Positiva, a Guatemala City-based HIV/AIDS service organization. As such, his policymaking and advocacy have been for minority groups in the conservative-led country.
The investigation into the attack and the search for the two remaining assailants continues. Meanwhile, a police report identified the wounded thief as Fernando José Barreno. The 20-year-old sustained an injury to the back and right shoulder and was taken to an emergency room for his gunshot wounds.
“I am thankful for life,” Aldo Dávila said in a Facebook video after the attempted robbery. “I will continue working, I will continue speaking out and I will continue speaking for people who have been historically excluded.”
Source: Newsweek, The Associated Press, The Washington Blade,
