Alvaro Colom

Alvaro Colom, a center-left businessman, won Guatemala's presidential election Sunday in a vote that was in many ways a referendum on this country's fragile and besieged democracy. Colom, 56, defeated former army Gen. Otto Perez Molina, an officer during the bloody dictatorship and counterinsurgency warfare of the 1980s. With 97% of the vote tallied, Colom led Perez Molina by 52.8% to 47.2%. Nearly all of the uncounted votes were in Colom's provincial strongholds.

Violence-weary Guatemalan voters went to the polls Sunday to pick a new president, with a former general, who vowed to get tough on crime, taking the early lead. Sporadic bloodshed, including a shooting that left a police officer dead, was reported as voters elected a president and vice president, representatives of Congress and hundreds of mayors and municipal council members. Otto Perez Molina, promising a mano duro , or firm hand, against crime, had led nine other candidates in preelection polls.

Accusations by a dead man have delivered Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom his most serious crisis since taking power a year and a half ago. Protesters and political foes have urged Colom to step aside while investigators look into murder allegations lodged on video by a lawyer days before he was slain by gunmen Sunday.

Rodrigo Rosenberg's homemade video may have been low in production values, but it definitely has legs as a riveting political drama. The 18-minute tape, containing Rosenberg's startling allegations of murder against Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, has rocked the political world here since its release May 11-- the day after he was slain by unidentified gunmen while bicycling.

A slain lawyer's videotaped and posthumously broadcast accusation that President Alvaro Colom ordered his slaying threw Guatemala into an uproar Tuesday and prompted the government to call for a United Nations agency and the FBI to investigate the killing. Colom vehemently denied the allegations made in a videotape left by lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who was shot to death Sunday by unidentified assailants while riding his bicycle.

Violence-weary Guatemalan voters went to the polls Sunday to pick a new president, with a former general, who vowed to get tough on crime, taking the early lead. Sporadic bloodshed, including a shooting that left a police officer dead, was reported as voters elected a president and vice president, representatives of Congress and hundreds of mayors and municipal council members. Otto Perez Molina, promising a mano duro , or firm hand, against crime, had led nine other candidates in preelection polls.

Alvaro Colom awoke Monday to the realization that an entire country of poor and desperate people was depending on him. Having won Guatemala's presidential election Sunday night, Colom will inherit a series of seemingly intractable problems when he takes office Jan. 14. Guatemala is one of the most troubled societies in Latin America. Thousands of its citizens migrate to the United States in search of work each year. Organized-crime groups have infiltrated many key government institutions.

Alvaro Colom was sworn in Monday as Guatemala's first leftist president in more than 50 years, promising to fight poverty in a nation where half the people live on less than $1 a day. Colom, who led Guatemala's efforts to coax thousands of war refugees back home after its civil war ended in 1996, took office in a ceremony attended by world leaders including Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, who recently clashed over a hostage-release mission.

Rodrigo Rosenberg's homemade video may have been low in production values, but it definitely has legs as a riveting political drama. The 18-minute tape, containing Rosenberg's startling allegations of murder against Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, has rocked the political world here since its release May 11-- the day after he was slain by unidentified gunmen while bicycling.

Reporting from San Salvador and Mexico City -- Argentine songwriter and singer Facundo Cabral, an icon of Latin American folk and protest music, was shot to death early Saturday by unknown gunmen who intercepted his car in Guatemala City and pumped it full of bullets. Guatemalan authorities said they had not yet determined a motive for the slaying, which appeared to be a well-orchestrated ambush, and there were suggestions that a businessman accompanying Cabral might have been the intended target.

Accusations by a dead man have delivered Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom his most serious crisis since taking power a year and a half ago. Protesters and political foes have urged Colom to step aside while investigators look into murder allegations lodged on video by a lawyer days before he was slain by gunmen Sunday.

A slain lawyer's videotaped and posthumously broadcast accusation that President Alvaro Colom ordered his slaying threw Guatemala into an uproar Tuesday and prompted the government to call for a United Nations agency and the FBI to investigate the killing. Colom vehemently denied the allegations made in a videotape left by lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who was shot to death Sunday by unidentified assailants while riding his bicycle.

Alvaro Colom was sworn in Monday as Guatemala's first leftist president in more than 50 years, promising to fight poverty in a nation where half the people live on less than $1 a day. Colom, who led Guatemala's efforts to coax thousands of war refugees back home after its civil war ended in 1996, took office in a ceremony attended by world leaders including Presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, who recently clashed over a hostage-release mission.

Alvaro Colom awoke Monday to the realization that an entire country of poor and desperate people was depending on him. Having won Guatemala's presidential election Sunday night, Colom will inherit a series of seemingly intractable problems when he takes office Jan. 14. Guatemala is one of the most troubled societies in Latin America. Thousands of its citizens migrate to the United States in search of work each year. Organized-crime groups have infiltrated many key government institutions.

Alvaro Colom, a center-left businessman, won Guatemala's presidential election Sunday in a vote that was in many ways a referendum on this country's fragile and besieged democracy. Colom, 56, defeated former army Gen. Otto Perez Molina, an officer during the bloody dictatorship and counterinsurgency warfare of the 1980s. With 97% of the vote tallied, Colom led Perez Molina by 52.8% to 47.2%. Nearly all of the uncounted votes were in Colom's provincial strongholds.

With nearly 65% of the ballots counted in Guatemala's presidential election, former Guatemala City Mayor Oscar Berger had 38.4% of the vote, compared with 27.6% for center-left candidate Alvaro Colom. Retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, a former dictator accused of human rights abuses, was trailing with 16.9%. To avoid a second vote, one candidate had to poll more than 50% -- something no one has done since Guatemala became a democracy in 1996.

The conservative ex-mayor of Guatemala's capital easily defeated his moderate opponent in a presidential runoff election, voting officials confirmed. Oscar Berger, who was declared winner with 54% of the vote, has pledged to create jobs, stamp out corruption and beat back rising crime rates. Berger, mayor of Guatemala City from 1990 until 1999, defeated center-leftist Alvaro Colom in the runoff, which was peaceful and orderly. The 1,000 Guatemalan and international observers on hand reported almost no violence or incidents of fraud.