Topic: Alvaro Colom

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Latin America Monitor
What Guatemala's new president wants from the US

Former Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who will be inaugurated as Guatemala's president today, plans to push for renewed US military aid, raising concerns among critics of his legacy from Guatemala's civil war.
Latin America Monitor
Despite rise of Mexican cartels, Colombian traffickers still strong in Central America

Although much has been made of Mexican cartels' spread into Central America, they have not supplanted Colombia-based drug traffickers, who are still highly active in the region.
Latin America Monitor
Guatemala agrees to extradite ex-President Portillo to US

President Álvaro Colom agreed to extradite former President Alfonso Portillo, accused of laundering $70 million through US banks, after Guatemala's courts ruled extradition permissible.
Retired military general leads in Guatemala presidential election

Otto Perez Molina is the front-runner in the Guatemala presidential election after Sunday's first round, though he did not garner enough votes to avoid a November runoff.
Guatemala election: Rising crime positions Otto Pérez Molina for victory

Mr. Pérez Molina, the former head of military intelligence in the 1980s, touts himself as the only candidate who can improve Guatemala's deteriorating security situation. He led the polls going into today's presidential election.
Latin America Monitor
Most Guatemalans unhappy with options in this weekend's presidential election

Violence is down compared to the last presidential election, but Guatemalans deserve more than what they have been offered in this campaign of candidates with questionable backgrounds.
Latin America Monitor
Questions persist over Guatemala election funding ahead of Sunday vote

Guatemalan political parties appear to be flouting the election funding cap and trying to conceal their funding sources, which some worry could be Guatemala's criminal groups.
Latin America Monitor
Guatemala's murder rate down, despite talk of 'failed state'

The murder rate, if it holds steady for this year, will be lower than when President Álvaro Colom took office in 2008. Yet he has not capitalized on this ahead of the Sept. 11 election.
Latin America Monitor
Extradition request threatens to reopen civil war wounds in El Salvador

Nine former military officials are fighting extradition to Spain over the killings of six Jesuits during El Salvador's civil war. Salvadoran opinion is divided over whether to reopen old wounds.
Do more troops mean less crime in Latin America?

Honduras is the latest Latin American country to deploy soldiers to fight organized crime. But evidence suggests that this does little in the long term, and may even make things worse.
Latin America Monitor
High court boots Sandra Torres out of Guatelmala's presidential race

The former first lady divorced President Alvaro Colom to sidestep Guatemala's ban on presidential dynasties. But a ruling from the country's highest court still determined her ineligible.
Latin America Monitor
Mexico isn't in cahoots with Sinaloa drug cartel, says government

The latest in the Mexican government’s series of 'myth-busting' videos challenges the idea that authorities aren't doing enough to hunt down Joaquin Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Latin America Monitor
Guatemala's divorced first lady barred from running for president

Critics said Sandra Torres' divorce from President Colom was a scam to dodge a ban on relatives running for office. Her party promises to appeal, but the candidates' list is due July 11.
US boosts funds to fight Central American drug crime

But even with more money, Central American countries still face an uphill battle in fighting inefficiency and corruption that hinder their anticrime efforts.
Latin America Monitor
Central American drug war, crime top agenda at regional summit

US Secretary of State Clinton and presidents from around Central America are convening in Guatemala City to determine ways to boost security and contain the sway of regional mafias.
Guatemala's presidential divorce of convenience

Sandra Torres, Guatemala's former first lady and presidential hopeful, divorced her husband to avoid a legal bar to her candidacy. But it may have turned the country's devout public against her.
Latin America Monitor
Is Guatemala becoming a narco-state?

With the recent massacre of 27 laborers in the department of Peten, groups are urging Guatemala to purge its institutions of organized crime. Throughout the region, drug money wields significant influence among politicians, police, and communities at large.
Mexican drug traffickers set up new cells in Central America

Los Zetas, one of the most violent drug gangs in Mexico, has recruited local former military agents, terrorized migrants, and lured poor farmers and youths to work as hired hands.
College professor uncovers America's 'abhorrent' STD experiments in Guatemala

The US apologized today for a series of medical experiments about sexually transmitted diseases it carried out in Guatemala in the 1940s. A Wellesley College professor discovered the project.
Tropical Storm Agatha floods kill 150, cause giant sinkhole in Guatemala City

Flooding and landslides from tropical storm Agatha have killed more than 150 people throughout Central America in the past few days, and apparently caused a giant Guatemala City sinkhole.
One dead, three missing in Guatemala volcano eruption

President Alvaro Colom declared the Guatemala volcano area a 'state of calamity.'
Ousted Honduran leader calls for 'insurrection'

Manuel Zelaya's rhetoric may make this weekend's talks more difficult and could spark violence in the tense and divided country, analysts say.
Honduras coup spotlights Latin America's growing instability

Unrest has also erupted in Guatemala and Nicaragua in the past year, and the region is dealing with powerful organized crime and drug traffickers.
Latin leaders unite against junta in Honduras

Leftists are urging Hondurans rise up against the coup leaders while conservatives denounce Sunday's ouster of President Zelaya.
Guatemala murder scandal could threaten the presidency

Accusations that President Alvaro Colom helped orchestrate the murder of a prominent lawyer continue to intensify – deepening divisions in a country still recovering from a 36-year civil war.