Marroquín, founding director of the local monthly Sol Chortí, which has reported extensively on corruption in the mayor’s office, was fatally shot in the town of Jocotán by two assassins, according to eyewitnesses. Brothers Neftalí and José Gabriel López León, who were being tried for the murder, said that Jocotán mayor José Manuel Ohajaca hired José Gabriel to kill Marroquín, who was also a member of the ruling Partida de Avanzada Nacional (National Vanguard Party) in the department of Chiquimula.
On September 21, 1999, the Neftalí and José Gabriel were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Ohajaca, remained at large; at year’s end he was rumored to be living in Los Angeles.