Alfonso Portillo took $2.5m from Taiwan to recognise nation American judge sentences extradited Portillo to six years Guatemala's ex-president was sentenced Thursday to nearly six years in prison for accepting bribes, as a US judge rejected leniency and said government corruption must be stamped out worldwide. The $2.5m in bribes Alfonso Portillo admitted accepting from the government of Taiwan to...
Carlos Arnoldo Lobo, who the US government says trafficked multi-tonne loads of cocaine, will be extradited next week Honduras said it will extradite to the US a drug trafficker who worked for Mexico's powerful Sinaloa cartel , making his the first such case since the country changed the law to allow the process two years ago. Carlos Arnoldo Lobo, who the US government says trafficked multi-tonne...
Swaths of rainforest affected by 'narco-deforestation' caused by landing strips and roads built by and for drug traffickers According to Kendra McSweeney: "Drug trafficking is causing an ecological disaster in Central America." McSweeney, a geographer at Ohio State University, is the co-author of a recent report on the little-known phenomenon of "narco-deforestation" that is destroying...
Data shows Mexican nationals comprised 65% of the 368,644 deportees in 2013, with almost 80% of those aged 20-39 Most of the undocumented people deported from the United States last year were young Mexican men, according to a new study. Mexican nationals comprised 65.5% of the 368,644 deportees, and of them the vast majority were men in their twenties and thirties, said the Transactional Records Access...
About 2m undocumented migrants have been deported under Obama and a backward trek has begun. In the first of a three-part series, Rory Carroll reports from Forks, Washington The rainforests around Forks, a small town in Washington state, have long attracted hunters and fishermen, but beginning in 2008, this lush, remote landscape acquired a new breed of pursuer and prey. That year, Border Patrol agents...
Across Central America, the changing climate has caused catastrophe for those who depend on the region's most important cash crop: coffee. In the last two years, warmer temperatures and higher humidity levels have contributed to the spread of the roya - or coffee rust a fungus that attacks leaves and fruits. Whole plantations have been destroyed and tens of thousands of campesinos have lost their jobs....
Initiative (IM-Defensoras) in the Mexican capital. "And, of course, we are committed to continue." IM-Defensoras is a three-year-old effort to provide women rights defenders in the region with protection mechanisms that are gender-sensitive and adapted to different contexts, and that go beyond traditional options usually focused on organising some kind of police guard or facilitating exile. The initiative...
It might not be data-driven and it's definitely subjective, but enabling girls to tell the stories of the obstacles they face can change community attitudes and policy How did 15 adolescent girls transform a community of over 26,000 people and a nation of 14 million? They started by simply sharing their stories. Many of us who work in international development are suspicious of interventions that are...
s first female – and easily most effective – attorney general, will be forced to leave office seven months early after the court ruled in favour of a dubious technical challenge brought by corporate lawyer and businessman Ricardo Sagastume. Paz y Paz, 47, took up her role as top prosecutor in December 2010 at a time when impunity hovered at 97% and most Guatemalans had little faith in the justice system....
t happen soon, politics in Guatemala will take over during the next election cycle and make a resolution difficult." The expert also said he was impressed by steps the banks are taking to push the Guatemalan government to implement the reparations plan, although those efforts have not yet borne fruit. There are echoes of the Chixoy dam in current social conflicts pitting mining and hydroelectric companies...
t taking the problem seriously." The violence behind today's exodus stems from turf wars between street gangs such as the M-18 and Mara Salvatrucha, the growing power of drug cartels and woefully weak and corrupt state institutions across the region. Many of the refugees tell stories like that of Mirta, a 24-year-old Honduran woman travelling with her two small sons. After years living in New York,...
s oil wealth – had powered the resurgence of the Latin American left in the 21st century. With Chávez gone, the crowds returned again and again during the following weeks either to support or condemn his successor, Nicolás Maduro, who was always going to find it difficult to fill the huge political space left by his predecessor. As some clashes turned violent, there were a handful of deaths. But despite...
s youngest ever ambassador, Julie Chappell, is working on a forum to help talented young girls become global female leaders We spoke to Julie Chappell, head of the emerging powers department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who is leading a campaign to promote British businesses abroad and just won a Women of the Future award. How accessible is the Foreign Office for young women? I've worked...
s questions (Cameron's crack at Labour's liaisons, 21 November), Michael White refers to the question I asked the prime minister and opines that I "had read somewhere that UK business investment lagged behind Mali and Paraguay. If you can believe that, you can believe anything. Meacher does. Cameron's contempt was understandable". The source I had quoted was the Economist. On 6 July it ran an article...
s responsible governance rules Coca-Cola has said it will cut off suppliers that do not follow guidelines to protect the land rights of local communities in developing countries. The soft drinks company also pledged to use its clout to encourage other food and beverage firms, traders – especially of soy, sugar and palm oil – as well as governments to endorse and implement voluntary UN guidelines on...
Mark Tran continues his photo diary of Guatemala, visiting Raxnam village, near Cobán city, where he investigates cash crops and local food issues Mark Tran ...
relatives and their lawyers converge on Washington. The 86-year-old former military ruler of the central American state was found guilty by a domestic court in May of ordering the massacre of 1,771 members of the Mayan Ixil people during Guatemala's civil war in the early 1980s. But 11 days later the country's constitutional court overturned the conviction and 80-year prison sentence imposed on him,...
Guatemalans attend a kite festival in Santiago Sacatepéquez to mark the Day of the Dead ...
Mark Tran recently spent 10 days looking at life in Guatemala, a country recovering from civil war. Mark Tran ...
s focus on potatoes to improve food security , while Mark Tran reported from Guatemala on the quest to find alternatives to coffee and cardamom . Meanwhile, we reported on the first global index that attempts to me asure modern-day slavery country by country, and highlighted your stories of the activists and campaigners who have made a positive impact on tackling human trafficking. Elsewhere on the...