Guatemala

An exploding drug trade aided by extensive government corruption has turned Guatemala into the primary safe haven for Colombia's cocaine headed through Mexico to the United States, according to U.S. and Guatemalan authorities. An estimated 220 tons of cocaine passed through Guatemala last year, more than two-thirds of U.S. consumption of the drug, according to State Department officials.

Investigators from El Salvador, Boeing and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration joined Guatemalan experts in trying to discover what caused a Salvadoran jetliner to skid off a rain-slickened runway and plow into a Guatemala City neighborhood. TACA International Airlines Flight 510 from San Salvador to Los Angeles overran a runway on landing Monday evening. All 215 passengers and 11 crew members escaped with only minor injuries.

It's the end of the line for Henry Posner III. The Pittsburgh millionaire who spent $15 million to revive Guatemala's once-defunct railroad said Monday that the freight trains would stop rolling Oct. 1. His company, Railroad Development Corp., is locked in a legal battle with the Central American nation's government, which Posner said has made it impossible to keep operating the money-losing service. "Enough is enough," Posner said.

Guatemalan President-elect Vinicio Cerezo said today that he looks to the United States as a partner in his country's democratic development but he disassociated himself from U.S. policy in Central America. At a news conference, Cerezo said the new civilian government he will lead starting Jan. 14 will pursue a policy of "active neutrality" toward Central America's conflicts with emphasis on steps to promote peaceful agreements.

Gunmen in southwestern Guatemala hijacked a minibus carrying 13 Utah tourists Wednesday and opened fire, killing one man and robbing everyone aboard, police said. The bus had left the mountain city of Quetzaltenango and was headed for the Mexican border when it was intercepted by five men in a pickup truck outside Colomba, about 100 miles west of Guatemala City.

The eight-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal unanimously rejected as unconstitutional President Jorge Serrano's request to call elections for a new Congress to replace the 116-member body he dissolved when he declared a state of emergency Tuesday. Tribunal President Arturo Herbruger said the tribunal cannot legally schedule such an election because of Serrano's suspension of 46 articles of the constitution.

Los Angeles may have found a distant resting place for the sewage that some scientists believe to be poisoning Santa Monica Bay--the jungles and farmlands of Guatemala. Under a plan to be unveiled Friday, Los Angeles would turn over 350 tons a day of concentrated sewage, or sludge, to a Washington firm for shipment to a new port on the west coast of the Central American nation, just south of Mexico.

Gilbert Garcia Herrera wears a yellow G on the sleeves of his blue silks. The initial stands for his surname but also identifies him as the only harness driver on this circuit from Guatemala. "I think the closest harness track to Guatemala is here," the 32-year-old driver said last Saturday, smiling after his ninth victory of the meeting. That left him one away from shedding provisional driver status and gaining his A license.

Political turmoil in Guatemala spread Thursday as self-proclaimed president Gustavo Espina Salguero struggled to solidify his power in the face of mounting opposition and warnings of a violent backlash. Espina, who served as vice president until declaring that he would replace ousted President Jorge Serrano, a move that clearly enjoyed military backing, spent the day trying to woo congressmen and business leaders who have already rejected his potential presidency as a farce.

A Guatemalan appeals court Wednesday freed an army colonel who was the only military officer found guilty of ordering the 1990 killing of human rights activist Myrna Mack. Judge Wilebaldo Contreras ruled that there wasn't sufficient evidence against Col. Juan Valencia Osorio and overturned an October murder conviction for which he had been sentenced to the maximum 30 years in prison. Prosecutors and Valencia's accusers can appeal to the Supreme Court.