Free Republic

Border: Mexico's Zetas have drawn a bead on Guatemala's 2011 presidential election, and former U.S. officials say the cartel is stockpiling arms to do the same to Mexico in its 2012 election. Is there a White House plan? Smuggling military-grade weapons from Fort Worth through El Paso and Columbus, New Mexico, the Mexican cartel known as Los Zetas may be doing so not just to fight other cartels but to disrupt Mexico's 2012 election, according to report quoting former officials in the El Paso Times that ran July 13. Phil Jordan, a former director of El Paso's DEA Intelligence Center,...

TRENTON - Bail for an illegal alien from Guatemala accused of kidnapping, duct taping and robbing a woman was nearly doubled today by a Mercer County Superior Court judge. An illegal immigrant detainer was placed on Sergio Sarceno Cano, 30, who was charged with kidnapping, terroristic threats, criminal restraint, theft and weapons offenses for the Feb. 21 alleged assault, said Assistant Prosecutor Skylar Weissman. Cano allegedly kidnapped the victim from her Hamilton home, bound her arms, legs and mouth with duct tape and moved her around various places in the township against her will, the prosecutor said. “He taped her...

The Inter-Press Sevice (IPS) is reporting that the head administrator of the Mexican Superintendency of Tax Administration, Raul Diaz, has confirmed that his government is building a wall in the state of Chiapas, along the Mexican/Guatemalan border. The official reason is to stop contraband from coming into Mexico, but as Diaz admitted: “It could also prevent the free passage of illegal immigrants.”

When the Los Angeles Police Department faced hundreds of protesters on the streets of the Westlake District, some were people drawn to the event from other parts of the city for political reasons. Twenty-two people were arrested Tuesday night after protesters clashed with police near a vigil for Manuel Jamines, a Guatamalan-born day laborer fatally shot Sunday by an officer who said Jamines refused to drop a knife. Among those arrested was Jubilee Shine, 40, a South Los Angeles activist who heads the Coalition for Community Control Over the Police. Shine said he was arrested on 6th Street near Bonnie...

The Guatemalan government has issued a public protest after three Guatemalans were arrested this month by immigration agents at a Federal Express office in Florida, when one of the immigrants went to pick up a package containing his newly issued Guatemalan passport. Suspecting that the passport was fraudulent, Fedex officials called ICE agents to alert them when the Guatemalans arrived to collect the package...Two of the Guatemalans were illegal immigrants who have been deported, and one is in deportation proceedings.Guatemalan diplomats said that Fedex and American officials had examined and seized legitimate passports without notifying them and had improperly disrupted...

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. Guatemala City and Mexico City The scandal surrounding accusations that Guatemala's president orchestrated the murder of a prominent lawyer is intensifying – deepening divisions in a country still recovering from a 36-year civil war. It is also, according to some analysts, handing the country its greatest threat to democracy since that war ended in 1996. Tens of thousands of Guatemalans have taken to the streets since a video emerged in which...

Satellites spot lost Guatemala Mayan temples Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:29pm EST GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Mayan astronomers aligned their soaring temples with the stars and now modern archeologists have found the ruins of hidden cities in the Guatemalan jungle by peering down from space. Archeologists and NASA scientists began teaming up five years ago to search for clues about the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilization that flourished in Central America and southern Mexico for 1,000 years. The work is paying off, says archeologist William Saturno, who recently discovered five sprawling sites with hundreds of buildings using a...

Mr Bush will speak about social justice and equality President George W Bush is in Guatemala for a one-day visit, after a stop in Colombia where he pledged his personal support to its fight against drugs. He will discuss security, trade and immigration with Guatemala's president. This is the fourth stop in Mr Bush's tour of Latin America, which has seen protests at every stage. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, has used a parallel tour of the region to speak out against what he calls the interference of the "American empire". Mr Chavez started his tour last week in Argentina,...

If you thought that Latin America has enough troubles with the narco-guerrilla war in Colombia, escalating political violence in Venezuela and the economic collapse of Argentina, get ready to hear about another diplomatic hot spot: Guatemala. Senior U.S. officials say the three-year-old government of President Alfonso Portillo is suspected of ties to drug trafficking, corruption and human rights abuses. All of this may not only cause a suspension of the estimated $50 million annual U.S. aid to that country, but may also endanger plans for a U.S. free trade agreement with five Central American countries. Guatemala's neighbors -- El Salvador,...