Soldiers interrupt funeral

last updated 8 January 2015

San Luis de la Paz, Mexico

Mexican soldiers this week disrupted the burial of a U.S. Marine in his hometown in Mexico. Juan Lopez, a 22-year-old Marine killed in Iraq, emigrated to Dalton, Ga., as a teenager, but his family wanted to lay him to rest back home in San Luis de la Paz. They also wanted a ceremony with full military honors, but the Mexican Defense Department refused to let U.S. soldiers carry weapons and give Lopez a 21-gun salute. Instead, several Marines carried Lopez to his grave with dummy rifles strapped to their backs. But four Mexican soldiers blocked their path and made the pallbearers return to their car. U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said he was “outraged.”