Guatemala

Guatemalan journalist and founder of El Periodico José Rubén Zamora has been returned to jail after an appellate court sided with prosecutors and withdrew his house arrest.

At least 55 people are dead after their bus plunged into a gorge and landed under a bridge Monday on the outskirts of Guatemala's capital.

In the first week of President Donald Trump's second term, the Department of Homeland Security reported deporting some 7,300 people. Among them were a planeload of Guatemalans who touched down in that country's capital this week, three days after being apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Guatemala President Bernardo Arévalo anticipates there will be issues like immigration that will generate tension with the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, but the former peacebuilder also sees shared interests.

Hundreds of Nicaraguan religious leaders, students, activists, dissidents and journalists are 'stateless.' President Daniel Ortega's government stripped them of their citizenship, homes and government pensions. They are scattered across the United States and other countries, in limbo as they struggle to recover from physical and psychological trauma.

Zamora, the 67-year-old founder of El Periodico newspaper, was sentenced to six years in prison last June for alleged money laundering. But that conviction and sentence were overturned by another court and a new trial ordered.

COMMENTARY By equating Israel's admittedly brutal counter-offensive in Gaza with genuine genocide like Guatemala's, protesters risk rendering genocide itself less meaningful.

Survivors of Guatemalan military massacres have brought former army general Benedicto Lucas García to trial for genocide — and many, after fleeing threats, are now part of Lake Worth Beach's large Maya community.

In the U.S., fentanyl has largely displaced heroin because of how cheaply Mexican cartels can produce the synthetic opioid. It means demand for opium poppies has plunged. As Guatemala poppy farmers lose their primary income, many in poverty-stricken areas migrate to the U.S.

Prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche said that the complaint filed by an unidentified foreigner had raised serious concerns because it involved allegations of abuse of children.

Many migrants make the perilous journey because they can’t find another way out of extreme poverty. Guatemalans are the largest group of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexican border illegally.

Last June, José Rubén Zamora was sentenced to six years in prison in a money laundering case that concluded following a trial that press freedom groups decried as political persecution.