Guatemala News

A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet.

This is part of a special 'People on the Move' series, highlighting the human rights violations faced by migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in every part of the world.

Guatemala's top court has thrown another curve into the genocide case of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, overturning his conviction and ordering that the trial be taken back to the middle of the proceedings.

A former general who presided over a reign of terror in Guatemala during the 1980s has been convicted of genocide.

In April, the Good Neighbors Group hosted a quarter auction to raise funds for a medical clinic in Nueva San Jose, Guatemala.

A Guatemalan court convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity on Friday, sentencing him to 80 years in prison, the first such sentence ever handed down against a former Latin American leader.

Cigarettes, plastic bags, food containers, caps, plastic bottles, and more litter the beaches in Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.

Ana Caba fled her home to live in remote mountains for nearly a decade after Guatemalan troops razed her indigenous Maya village and dozens like it in a brutal counter-insurgency campaign in the early 1980s.

In this Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Guatemala's President-elect Otto Perez Molina, center right, greets new members of Guatemala's Army elite special forces, "Kaibiles," at a graduation ceremony in Poptun, Guatemala.

CNN reports, " The trial marked the first time that a head of state was tried for genocide by his country's own judicial system." The guilty verdict, which was reached today, May 10, ended a process that began in 1999, when the Guatemalan non-governmental organization Association for Justice and Reconciliation filed complaints against several ... (more)

Guatemala's former dictator Jose Efrain Rios Montt speaks during his genocide trial in Guatemala City, Thursday, May 9, 2013.

General EfraA n RA os Montt in happier times-for him-announcing his military coup, in Guatemala City, March 23, 1982.

In an ongoing trial, former Guatemalan dictator Efrain RA os Montt is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity.

The judges are expected to announce their decision at 4pm local time, despite new calls for annulment from a lower court .

Guatemala's former military leader Efrain Rios Montt is one of the central American nation's most controversial figures, who briefly seized power during one of the bloodiest periods of the country's brutal 36-year civil war.

Amid smiling children and passing motorbikes, a fire truck from Newtown rolls down the streets of a small Guatemalan town.

A recent study shed light on the number of infants who die on their first day. Save the Children ranked nearly all countries on the number of deaths per 1,000 births.

Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt is denying he ordered the extermination of Ixil Mayas as he testifies for the first time at his genocide trial.

A Guatemalan bishop criticized the nation's government after it suspended constitutional rights in four towns following violent protests against a Canadian-owned silver mine.

Also, for the convenience of our readers and the online community generally, we have reproduced the complete Caribbean Net News archives from 2004 to 2010 here .