Free Republic

03:13pm Guatemala. El presidente venezolano aseguró hoy que está en marcha un plan para derrocar a su colega guatemalteco Alvaro Colom, que los adversarios de ese gobernante estarían en la búsqueda de militares dispuestos a hacerlo. English translation: Guatemala. The Venezuelan president said today that a plan is underway to overthrow the Guatemalan colleague Alvaro Colom, the opponents of this ruling would be in search of soldiers ready to do so.

Two Guatemalan brothers who allegedly helped a prominent lawyer organise his own murder, and then blame the president of Guatemala for the crime, have turned themselves in. Francisco and Jose Valdes Paiz were said to have hired a contract killer to murder Rodrigo Rosenberg. An international commission found in January that Mr Rosenberg had organised his own killing. He is said to have wanted to highlight unsolved murders in Guatemala. Before he was shot dead in May 2009, Mr Rosenberg had warned in a video that he would be murdered on the orders of President Alvaro Colom. Mr Colom was...

Guatemala Murder Scandal Could Threaten the PresidencyThe 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 Rodrigo Rosenberg, the lawyer, accused Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and three others of murder and corruption. Mr. Rosenberg, who was shot dead while riding his bike on May...

Guatemalans are voting in presidential and parliamentary elections after one of the bloodiest campaigns in the country's history. More than 50 candidates, activists and their relatives have been murdered in the run-up to the elections. The two main presidential contenders are Alvaro Colom, a centre-left businessman, and a former general, Otto Perez Molina. They have vowed to fight crime and reduce poverty. Mr Colom, who is running for the presidency for the third time in a row, has promised to overhaul the security forces and the judicial system, which many criticise for being slow, corrupt and inefficient. Mr Perez Molina...