Guatemala

In the remote northeastern corner of Guatemala, archaeologists have found what appears to be the 9th century workplace of a city scribe, an unusual dwelling adorned with magnificent pictures of the king and other royals and the oldest known Maya calendar. This year has been particularly controversial among some cultists because of the belief that the Maya calendar predicts a major cataclysm - perhaps the end of the world - on Dec. 21, 2012. Archaeologists know that is not true, but the new find, written on the plaster equivalent of a modern scientist's whiteboard, strongly reinforces the idea that the Maya calendar projects thousands of years into the future.

In the remote northeastern corner of Guatemala, archaeologists have found what appears to be the 9th century workplace of a city scribe, an unusual dwelling adorned with magnificent pictures of the king and other royals and the oldest known Maya calendar. This year has been particularly controversial among some cultists because of the belief that the Maya calendar predicts a major cataclysm - perhaps the end of the world - on Dec. 21, 2012. Archaeologists know that is not true, but the new find, written on the plaster equivalent of a modern scientist's whiteboard, strongly reinforces the idea that the Maya calendar projects thousands of years into the future.

After four of his classmates disappeared during Guatemala's civil war, Luis Gonzalez fled his homeland and sneaked across the border into the United States in 1985. He applied for asylum in 1997 but an immigration judge said Gonzalez failed to prove he personally had been persecuted. Now Gonzalez, a Maywood resident, is facing deportation. Gonzalez, 40, who is married and has three U.S.

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.

Twice before, the anti-drug agents had gotten a tip about a load of cocaine at the hulking industrial park on this dreary stretch of highway half an hour outside Guatemala City. Twice before, a U.S. official said, they had found nothing. On their third visit, they found a firing squad. Gunmen unleashed a furious barrage of bullets and at least one grenade, in some cases finishing the job point-blank.

It was with great interest that I read the editorial, "Coming Clean on Guatemala," March 10. I agree that our government has been involved with the torture and murders in Guatemala. How about an investigative piece on the part that the School of the Americas in Atlanta, Ga., has played in the training of the soldiers who murder innocent people in Guatemala? It is time to lay blame on what this so-called school is really all about and what this also has cost in terms of human lives and taxpayer dollars.

Although Guatemala abandoned military rule in 1985 and ended a civil war against leftist guerrillas in 1996, the violence that always has seemed startlingly at odds with the country's natural beauty has not been eradicated. On the contrary, the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the recent resignation of the chief of a U.N. commission responsible for battling crime and corruption and from a devastating report by the International Crisis Group is that the brutality is as entrenched as ever.

Re "Can Genocide End in Forgiveness," by Michael Shifter, Opinion, March 7: The recent reports concerning the Commission for Historical Clarification in Guatemala provide us with the opportunity for some clarification of recent moral dilemmas in the U.S. Spokespersons for the right wing in America have decried the lack of morality that characterizes the president and the majority of the American people who support him. They seem intent on claiming the...

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 former official of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles and two of his brothers have been charged with engaging in an elaborate scheme to enrich themselves by steering contracts for construction projects at the city's housing projects. Federal prosecutors allege that Victor Taracena, who supervised construction projects at the housing authority from 2003 to 2007, arranged for numerous contracts to be awarded to companies controlled by his brothers, Bennett A. Taracena and Diego L. Taracena.

Madison Avenue in Los Angeles doesn't look anything like its New York counterpart. Ours is a narrow side street in East Hollywood lined with old apartment buildings of stucco and brick. For generations, the poor and the newly arrived to L.A. have come to live there. On a fall night in 1962 my mother and father landed on Madison Avenue on their first night in the U.S. after a long trip from Guatemala. Five months later, I was born. Last week, I went back there with both my parents.

Advances in medicine occur because people agree to participate in clinical trials. Americans can be assured that current rules and regulations to protect them in federally sponsored trials are sufficient, according to a new report. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues released a report Thursday that addresses the question of whether people are protected from harm, fraud and unethical practices when they volunteer to enter clinical trials. The country, unfortunately, has a long history of abuse of research participants, including an incident that was uncovered only last year on unethical research sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service that took place in Guatemala in the mid-1940s.

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.

Fifteen years after Guatemala's bloody civil war officially ended, the country is still struggling to find peace. Crime and poverty have been rampant for years, and now drug cartels and gangs threaten to usher in a new wave of violence. On Sunday, Guatemalans will cast their votes for the presidential candidate they hope will stop the bloodletting and restore security. They face a nearly impossible choice. Otto Perez Molina, considered the front-runner, is a former general who has promised to reduce violence by double digits during his first month in office.

Guatemalan voters pick a president Sunday at a moment when deepening drug crime threatens the nation's feeble justice system and doubts hang over both candidates. Rampant violence by encroaching Mexican drug traffickers provides an ominous backdrop to the sharp-elbowed runoff between the front-runner, retired Gen. Otto Perez Molina, and congressman Manuel Baldizon, who came in a distant second in the initial round of voting in September. Both men vow aggressive action. The rightist Perez Molina promises to use army troops to attack traffickers and says he will cut the murder rate in half, while the populist Baldizon has called for greater use of the death penalty.

A tough-on-crime former army general headed for a runoff against a populist congressman in the race to become Guatemala's next president as vote counting neared completion Monday. With more than 98% of precincts counted from Sunday's vote, Otto Perez Molina held a double-digit lead over Manuel Baldizon, 36% to 23%, but lacked a majority needed to avoid a second round on Nov. 6. Perez Molina, 60, who led troops against leftist guerrillas during Guatemala's 35-year civil war, went into the voting as the front-runner among 10 candidates.

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.