Guatemala's unregulated morticians

A funeral salesman, left, who go goes by the nickname Manteca which means Lard in English, watches women cry over the body of a murdered relative after he informed them of the killing in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A funeral salesman, right, who goes by the nickname Peluca meaning wig in English, peers through a car window as he explains to the relatives of a murder victim the necessary paperwork for the morgue to release the body in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A funeral salesman, right, who goes by the nickname Peluca, which means Wig in English, waits at a crime scene for the arrival of relatives of a murdered man lying on the road in hopes of selling his services in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

Funeral salesmen try to sell funeral packages to relatives of a man who was shot inside a public bus in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A funeral home worker pulls the body of a murdered man from a box at a funeral home in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

Glendy Maldonado, an embalmer and assistant at Valle del Sol funeral home, applies makeup as she starts her shift in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

The body of a man who was murdered lies in the Valle del Sol funeral home after being embalmed and dressed in what was once a mechanics shop in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

Morticians prepare a corpse for a funeral in the Valle del Sol funeral home, which was once a mechanic shop, in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

Victor Ludwin, left, and Victor Daniel, right, help hold up the body of their murdered brother Victor Barillas, 16, as a friend who works at the Valle del Sol funeral home prepares the body for a funeral in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A mortician who goes by the nickname Don Carlos takes an afternoon nap in his mechanics shop turned funeral home in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A corpse lies in a box as morticians take a break from embalming him at the Valle del Sol funeral home that was once a mechanic shop in Guatemala City Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk

A buzzard flies over the National Cemetery in Guatemala City. In an unregulated industry, improvised morticians called calaqueros, or skullmongers, rush to crime scenes to make sales pitches to bereaved relatives for coffin-wake-funeral packages for as little as $150 Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/guardian.co.uk