Exiles Guatemala

Two of four exiles who returned to Guatemala after seven years in exile were arrested at Guatemala City's international airport and accused by the government of maintaining links with leftist guerrillas, officials said. Rigoberta Menchu and Rolando Castillo Montalvo, members of the Unitary Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition, were taken away for interrogation. Two other exiles, former advisers of a now non-existing union, apparently had no problems entering the country.

Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the Guatemalan Indian human rights activist awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, voiced strong support Thursday for efforts to grant temporary protected status to tens of thousands of Guatemalan exiles living in the United States. "Conditions are not right for many of my compatriots to return home," Menchu said during an interview in Los Angeles, home to the nation's largest Guatemalan refugee community.

Ending more than a decade of exile, almost 2,500 Guatemalan refugees crossed into their native land Wednesday and prepared to rebuild their lives, despite continuing civil war and uncertain futures. Their return from refugee camps in southern Mexico clears the way for the repatriation of tens of thousands of Guatemalans who fled violence and military repression in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Ending more than a decade of exile, almost 2,500 Guatemalan refugees crossed into their native land Wednesday and prepared to rebuild their lives, despite continuing civil war and uncertain futures. Their return from refugee camps in southern Mexico clears the way for the repatriation of tens of thousands of Guatemalans who fled violence and military repression in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Rigoberta Menchu Tum, the Guatemalan Indian human rights activist awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize, voiced strong support Thursday for efforts to grant temporary protected status to tens of thousands of Guatemalan exiles living in the United States. "Conditions are not right for many of my compatriots to return home," Menchu said during an interview in Los Angeles, home to the nation's largest Guatemalan refugee community.

Jorge Castaneda, a former Mexican foreign secretary under President Vicente Fox, allegedly served as an agent for Cuba's intelligence service for at least three years starting in the late 1970s, the Mexico City daily El Universal reported. Documents kept in Mexico's national archive show that Castaneda, then in his mid-20s, was recruited as a spy by the head of Cuba's intelligence operations in Mexico.

Two of four exiles who returned to Guatemala after seven years in exile were arrested at Guatemala City's international airport and accused by the government of maintaining links with leftist guerrillas, officials said. Rigoberta Menchu and Rolando Castillo Montalvo, members of the Unitary Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition, were taken away for interrogation. Two other exiles, former advisers of a now non-existing union, apparently had no problems entering the country.