Early on the morning of 10 May 2016, an ambulance was called to Colonia  Villalobos in Guatemala City. They found the body of community leader Blanca Estela Asturias who had been shot several times at close range.

Asturias was well known in her area. Apart from selling newspapers in the street, she was an active community leader who had been one of the leaders of a local campaign to force the city council to provide better water and drainage services.  They had organised a blockade to obstruct traffic in the area.  According to witnesses, on the morning of the killing, two men had approached her as she was at her newspaper stand at 6 am, and shot her at point blank range.

Neighbours paid tribute to everything she had done for the community and the many things they had got, only because of her.