Central Americans

Gathered below an overpass on Independence Avenue, dressed in the multiple layers typical of homeless travelers, the migrants watched for the next northbound freight train through Tultitlan. Many of them, mostly young men and boys, prepared to hop aboard, hobo-style, on an ever-more-precarious trip that might get them as far as the United States. But fewer migrants are achieving that goal. Central Americans who for years have passed through Mexico en route to the U.S. are increasingly cutting their trips short as they run out of cash or become discouraged by fewer opportunities farther away from home.

The federal government has tried just about everything to stop the flow of migrants crossing the border illegally. It boosted the number of Border Patrol agents, made punishment harsher, deployed drones and motion sensors, built and rebuilt fences. For years it has even quietly funded the dissemination in Mexico of songs and mini-documentaries about dangers at the border. Now it is using a more proactive tactic: Since last year, agents in Arizona have called Mexican and Central American television and radio stations and newspapers, asking for the opportunity to tell of the dangers of crossing illegally, particularly through the Sonoran Desert . The outreach, which was initially greeted with skepticism, is being embraced.

Four Central American nations will send up to 500 soldiers to help United Nations peacekeeping forces in Haiti next year in an effort to stem political unrest and violence. The impoverished Caribbean nation has remained troubled since President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in February. The U.N. mission needs more international troops and police.

A conclave of Central American presidents meeting in Guatemala to discuss a major overhaul of their drug laws — including legalization or decriminalization — failed to arrive at a consensus Saturday and agreed to meet again soon in Honduras. Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina had invited five counterparts to discuss what he described as growing frustration with Washington's anti-drug policy, which many in the region say is exacting too high a price in crime and corruption.

Antonia Guevara told the doctor that she felt a sharp pain that started on the left side of her throat, went down her neck and reached her heart. Gumersinda Umanzo wanted a mammograph. Maria Garcia was having lunch with her psychologist. Margarita Hernandez was receiving legal advice on her refugee status. The four women were in the same building.

While public debate has focused on the thorny question of what to do about the feared influx of Haitian refugees, the Clinton Administration soon will face a similarly vexing dilemma concerning the huge Central American immigrant community, which is concentrated in Southern California. The situation is particularly pressing for El Salvadorans and Guatemalans, whose numbers have reached about 1 million in the United States, according to most estimates.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service this week began releasing Central American immigrants whose deportations have been deferred until January because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Mitch. The INS had previously halted until Jan. 7 all deportations to Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala because of the disaster. So far, the move has blocked the expulsion of more than 250 residents of Southern California, home to the nation's largest concentration of Central Americans.

U.S. border authorities said Wednesday that they expect greater numbers of undocumented Central Americans to attempt to enter into California from Mexico in the coming months. Officials of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said that increased enforcement along the border in Texas, the usual crossing point for Central Americans, is likely to bring about a shift to California.

The end of Central American warfare and the passage of tough new immigration laws have combined to raise the prospect of deportation for about 300,000 Central Americans in Southern California and elsewhere who have been living in the United States legally for years. The thorny issue--which has raised anxieties in both the United States and Central America--is likely to be near the top of the agenda today as President Clinton meets in Costa Rica with presidents of seven nations in the region.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez became one of the most famous Central Americans to die in war since the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero at the outset of El Salvador's civil war. As one who knows individuals whose lives were transformed by working with Romero, I can see how the sacrifice of the 22-year-old Guatemala-born Marine is changing the story of Central American immigrants.

Central Americans who have pushed for years to call the Pico-Union area "Historic Central America Town" have yet to earn the title, but they will soon gain recognition at one intersection in the neighborhood. The Los Angeles City Council on Friday passed a motion to name the corner of South Vermont Avenue and West Pico Boulevard as Msgr. Oscar A. Romero Square. Romero, a martyr among Salvadorans, was a Catholic archbishop assassinated in 1980 during El Salvador's civil war. A clinic also honors him in the area.

Presidential election results seemed to indicate clear winners Sunday in Guatemala and Nicaragua, two Central American countries where democracy has been dramatically weakened by violence and political abuse. In Nicaragua, President Daniel Ortega, a one-time Sandinista revolutionary who now professes to be a born-again Christian, looked set to be reelected, based on preliminary results, after eviscerating the constitution to become eligible for a third term. In Guatemala, retired army Gen. Otto Perez Molina, who had the edge going into Sunday's vote, was well on the way to victory, according to partial results.

A Roman Catholic priest who has long championed the cause of migrant workers denounced on Monday what he said was another mass kidnapping of undocumented Central Americans, purportedly yanked from a train by masked gunmen in southern Mexico. Father Alejandro Solalinde, who runs the Hermanos en el Camino shelter for migrants, said at least 80 people mainly from Guatemala and Honduras were apparently abducted Friday in Veracruz state. He based his claim on information from several members of the group who said they managed to escape.

Mexican authorities fired seven regional directors of the country's immigration agency Thursday after allegations that its officers in northern Mexico had delivered Central American migrants to kidnapping gangs. Commissioner Salvador Beltran del Rio described the firings as part of a wider effort to weed out corruption at the National Institute of Migration, or INM, the agency that enforces Mexico's immigration laws. Mexican officials have pledged to fight armed groups that kidnap migrants to extort money or recruit them for drug trafficking.

Margarita Lopez grew up embarrassed by how easily she spoke Spanish. As she grew fluent in English and became one of the top students at her L.A. high school, she always considered her native language a reminder of her roots as the daughter of working-class Central American immigrants. Speaking Spanish took her back to sixth-grade remedial English, when she was given books to read "with just four words in them. " She remembered being made to feel dumb. "I was mad at being bilingual," she told me. Of course, she was wrong to think that way. She sees that now, as a 19-year-old freshman at Vassar College in New York's Hudson Valley.

BAJA CALIFORNIA Whale watching and a nod to Steinbeck The itinerary of the eight-day "Baja California: Among the Great Whales" cruise is inspired by the 70th anniversary of the publication of John Steinbeck's "The Log from the Sea of Cortez. " A Steinbeck expert accompanies the trip and provides insight alongside a seasoned staff of biologists, chemists and adventurers. Itinerary: La Paz to San Carlos, Bahia Magdalena, Los Cabos, Gorda Banks, Islas Los Islotes, Espiritu Santo and back to La Paz. Dates: Departures between Jan. 22 and Feb. 19 Price: Starting at $4,990, double occupancy (single supplement $2,650)

A veteran Los Angeles police officer who owns a private security company in Belize surrendered to federal authorities Monday after being indicted on a weapons charge. Johnny Augustus Baltazar, 50, is accused of illegally shipping 10 handguns and 1,500 rounds of ammunition to the Central American nation, where he owns a company called Elite Security, according to authorities. Prosecutors suspect the guns were intended for use by employees of the company. Baltazar did not have the required license to export the firearms, officials allege.