Free Republic

And there it is….the conservative President of Guatemala who left office last Sunday and was replaced by a far Left Progressive with the help of the @StateDept has now been sanctioned and designated “corrupt”.@DrGiammattei is the Central American leader who refused to go to Joe Biden’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles - and who begged the White House for help to combat the illegal immigrant invasion coming through his country to the United States (Biden-Harris refused to help).

The U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Wednesday, banning him and his sons from entering the United States because of his alleged “involvement in significant corruption.” The sanctions were issued three days after Giammattei left office at the end of his four-year term and following the inauguration of his successor, leftist President Bernardo Arévalo, who took office on Monday. In a press statement issued on Wednesday, spokesman Matthew Miller asserted that the State Department has “credible information indicating that Giammattei accepted bribes in exchange for the performance of his public functions during his tenure...

A Guatemalan migrant has been nabbed and charged with sexually assaulting and fatally strangling an 11-year-old Texas girl, then stuffing her body in a laundry bag under her bed. Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, 18, was on the lam for nearly a week after the horrific Aug 12 assault of little Maria Gonzalez in Pasadena before cops caught up with him in Louisiana on Saturday and he confessed, KHOU-TV reported. Rodriguez — who crossed the US border with Mexico in January, self-surrendered to authorities and was then cut loose again — was charged with capital murder and is awaiting extradition back...

he Columbus Dispatch reported on Wednesday that police arrested a 27-year-old undocumented Ohio man, Gerson Fuentes, after he confessed to raping a 10-year-old girl, which resulted in pregnancy. The viral story of the child who needed to seek an abortion out of state after Roe v. Wade was overturned was reported vaguely by the Indianapolis Star and was used as a political weapon to go after Republican legislators who advocate for abortion restrictions. I reported on glaring errors and omissions in the reporting in the Indianapolis Star, which led to fact-checks by multiple news organizations, including Snopes and the Washington...

The man charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio is a Guatemalan illegal immigrant, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. The Columbus Dispatch first reported that Gerson Fuentes was arrested after police said he confessed to raping a child on multiple occasions. He has been charged with rape, and the outlet reported that he was possibly in the country illegally.

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to meet virtually with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei to “collaborate” on migration solutions, according to a statement from a White House official.

While the world is absorbed in the Coronavirus drama, yet another caravan of illegal immigrants is heading north to the United States from Central America. The group departed recently from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and is making its way to Guatemala en route to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The final destination is the U.S., according to a Mexican news report that reveals the caravan has some 500 Central Americans but is expected to grow along the way. “They left their country due to a lack of work opportunities and prevailing violence,” according to the...

A leader of a Guatemalan drug trafficking organization was sentenced today to 23 years in prison for his participation in an international drug trafficking conspiracy, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Wendy Woolcock of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division. Waldemar Lorenzana-Lima was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the District of Columbia following an Aug. 18, 2014, guilty plea to his participation in an international drug trafficking conspiracy.  The court also ordered Lorenzana-Lima to forfeit $50,949,000.As Lorenzana-Lima admitted in connection with his...

It was maddening and frustrating to watch this past week’s coverage of the so-called “caravan” of thousands of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans plowing through Mexico’s southern border and their subsequent march toward the United States. How is the support system, organizational infrastructure, logistical planning and financial backing not a big part of this story?......Any average American watching this enormous undertaking would naturally be curious as to how the entire thing is being managed and how it originated........... Thousands of people don’t spontaneously decide to leave their homes and walk thousands of miles, violating multiple international borders, without some help.... We...

A Guatemalan man has been charged in the attempted kidnapping of a woman at a Jasper Park, as well as for trying to lure a teen into his vehicle in an unrelated incident on the same day Jasper Police Chief J.C. Poe identified the suspect as Bernardo Castro-Gabriel, 22, also known as Omar Sanchez. Police say the incident happened about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday at Gamble Park near the Walker College Campus of Bevill State Community College on Gamble Avenue. The victim, whose name and age aren't being released, was jogging on the park's track when police say the suspect -...

Worse things have happened in the last week or two. Worse things have been said. Yet what sticks in my mind and won't go away are a few sentences that came out of Nancy Pelosi's mouth during her marathon speech to the House last Wednesday. She was there, on the House floor, to speak up for the so-called “Dreamers” – people who were brought illegally to America by their parents when they were children and who now want to be accorded legal residency, if not citizenship. As Pelosi and other advocates for “Dreamers” have tirelessly asserted, some of them have...

The skeleton of a Maya Queen - with her head mysteriously placed between two bowls - is just one of the treasures found in a 2,000-year-old rodent-infested tomb. Priceless jade gorgets, beads, and ceremonial knives were also discovered in the cavern - which was found underneath a younger 1,300-year-old tomb which also contained a body - in the Guatemalan ruins of Nakum. The two royal burials are the first to be discovered at the site, which was once a densely packed Maya centre.

A 4-year-old girl who was deported was reunited with her parents. Emily and her grandfather were traveling from Guatemala when their flight was diverted due to bad weather. The grandfather apparently had immigration infractions dating from the 1990s on his record, but it is not yet clear if he reentered the US later with expired documents; the family's lawyer said that he has a valid H-2B visa. Customs agents told the girl's father that they could transfer Emily to a detention center for minors in Virginia or send her back to Guatemala with her grandfather. US authorities did not permit...

When a federal court in California blocked the deportation of an undocumented Guatemalan woman this week, the case resonated in Palm Beach County. Lesly Yajayra Perdomo, 34, insisted that Guatemalan society is so dangerous for women under 40 that, for no other reason than her sex and age, she faced the threat of physical harm if forced to return to her native country. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with enough of her argument that it sent her case back for further review. In Palm Beach Gardens, Ana Matias, 33, had no trouble understanding Perdomo's plea. She...

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) -- An illegal immigrant was sentenced Monday to 60 years in prison for a crash that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy inside a Colorado ice cream shop. Francis Hernandez, 26, of Guatemala was sentenced for the deaths of Marten Kudlis, Deborah Serecky and Patricia Guntharp.

Note: The following text is a quote: December 11, 2009 286 arrested in ICE's largest ever enforcement surge targeting criminal aliens 2 convicted rapists and armed robber among those captured in 3-day California operation LOS ANGELES - Nearly 300 foreign nationals with criminal records have been removed from the United States or are facing deportation following a three-day enforcement surge in California, making it the biggest operation targeting at large criminal aliens ever carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the operation, which concluded late Thursday, ICE officers located and arrested a total of 280 criminal aliens...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0903/090309la.htm Leader of ring that moved thousands of illegal aliens across U.S. sentenced to more than 6 years in prison LOS ANGELES - A Guatemalan national who helped run a Los Angeles-based organization that harbored and transported more than 9,000 illegal aliens was sentenced today to 78 months in federal prison. Francisco Andres-Francisco, 40, was sentenced by United States District Judge George H. King in Los Angeles. Andres-Francisco has been in custody since he was arrested 14 months ago in Pennsylvania after being found driving a van allegedly loaded with illegal aliens. Andres-Francisco...

EDINBURG — Mario Olivares Cifuentes thought he understood the risks of illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Tales of migrants drowning in the Rio Grande or succumbing to the oppressive South Texas sun spread frequently among those hoping to make the trek. But for Olivares, a Guatemalan migrant, the real danger emerged only after passing those natural perils. For almost a day, he and 20 of his countrymen were allegedly kidnapped, tortured, raped and held for ransom in a stash house east of Edinburg before federal agents rescued them last week. Their purported tormentors — a group of Mexican nationals believed...

CITRA, Fla. -- A 13-year-old student was killed and eight others injured when a school bus crashed and caught fire, trapping the injured children in their seats. Officials said the bus carrying 21 students from North Marion Middle School and North Marion High School was struck by a big rig Tuesday afternoon on U.S. Highway 301 at 155th Street near Citra. As flames began to overwhelm the bus, four motorists stopped and began pulling the trapped students out of the flames. "They were heroes," Marion County School Superindent Jim Yancey said at the crash scene. "(The motorists) started pulling people...

Nobody saw it coming. The school bus had stopped on U.S. 301 in Citra to let three or four students step off. Suddenly, Jamar Williams and 20 others from North Marion high and middle schools were knocked around or thrown to the floor. A semi had struck the bus from behind. The vehicles lurched forward and erupted in flames. "It just hit. It happened too fast," said Jamar, 14. "It was just so smoky it was hard to see. "I just remembered from television, stay calm in these situations and don't panic," he said. "That's how people get killed." Despite...