Army U S Central America

As more than 1,000 camouflage-clad soldiers from the Army's elite Rapid Deployment Force based here were airlifted Thursday to Honduras, about 150 placard-carrying protesters marched outside the entrance to the fort, and worried spouses and girlfriends began an anxious vigil for news of their loved ones.

Rallying to the defense of an army accused of political murder and ties to the CIA, the Guatemalan government appears to be on a collision course with the United States. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio, a former human rights ombudsman who until recently enjoyed enthusiastic U.S. support, is resisting calls from Washington to act on charges that a senior officer, while on the CIA's payroll, was involved in the killings of a U.S. citizen and a leftist guerrilla married to an American.

Rallying to the defense of an army accused of political murder and ties to the CIA, the Guatemalan government appears to be on a collision course with the United States. President Ramiro de Leon Carpio, a former human rights ombudsman who until recently enjoyed enthusiastic U.S. support, is resisting calls from Washington to act on charges that a senior officer, while on the CIA's payroll, was involved in the killings of a U.S. citizen and a leftist guerrilla married to an American.

As more than 1,000 camouflage-clad soldiers from the Army's elite Rapid Deployment Force based here were airlifted Thursday to Honduras, about 150 placard-carrying protesters marched outside the entrance to the fort, and worried spouses and girlfriends began an anxious vigil for news of their loved ones.