Central America

Hilton Hotels Corp. confirmed Sunday that it had reached agreements to develop about 55 hotel properties in Russia, Britain and Central America with a group of partners. "HHC does have agreements in place to form alliances for development in the three markets outlined, which is expected to result in around 55 hotels in total," said Linda Bain, vice president of international communications for the Beverly Hills-based company.

The first place Francisco Rivera headed to after fleeing war in his native El Salvador in 1980 was the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. There, churches and community volunteers had created a haven of shelter, support and sustenance for war refugees like himself, then a 28-year-old poet and writer whose literary group had been targeted by right-wing death squads.

The distinguished guests from El Salvador entered this capital city with one set of police officers as bodyguards, and another set of police officers waiting to ambush them. As they drove along mountain roads, Eduardo Jose D'Aubuisson and fellow legislators were entering a trap set by rogue Guatemalan police officers at the hire of drug traffickers, officials said. Those officers believed the Salvadorans were using their diplomatic immunity to work for rival traffickers.

Central America has become a crucial way station in the billiondollar cocaine business, with traffickers shipping hundreds of tons northward from Colombia along the isthmus and increasingly infiltrating police and government agencies, U.S. and regional sources say. The recent killings of three Salvadoran legislators in Guatemala underscored the shift, intelligence sources say.

An international summit on transnational gangs wrapped up in Universal City on Friday with an agreement between U.S. and Latin American law enforcement leaders to begin crafting four initiatives, including one to improve intelligence sharing on criminals who move back and forth over borders.

Rodrigo Avila-Aviles came to Los Angeles from El Salvador this week to discuss an export-import problem that has nothing to do with tariffs or quotas. As director general of the El Salvador National Civil Police, Avila-Aviles is here to talk to the FBI about what can be done about the number of gang members moving back and forth between Central America and the United States. Once here, they learn new ways to menace neighborhoods before they are deported, the director general said.

Seeking to combat the spread of street gangs across international borders, the FBI will join forces with Los Angeles police and prosecutors next month to teach authorities from Mexico, El Salvador and other Latin American countries how to better track and investigate gang crime. The three-day training in Los Angeles comes amid an alarming increase in "transnational" gangs that move between countries despite repeated efforts to dismantle their organizations and finances, authorities said. The U.

IF you love the tropics but are tired of Caribbean islands, consider visiting Central America. But think outside the box. Instead of a trip to Costa Rica -- where prices have risen along with the country's popularity -- select Honduras, Nicaragua or Belize, where vacations are downright cheap. Among the bargains: * Honduras, www.letsgohonduras.com, (800) 410-9608, is a newcomer to mass tourism and lacks the mega-resorts that are sprouting up elsewhere.