News stories by Danilo Valladares*

Ten years after its launch under a different name, the Mesoamerica Project, which involves major investments in energy, telecommunications, housing, health and other areas, is moving ahead slowly and continues to face scepticism that it will have a real impact against poverty.

The so-called 'Northern Triangle' of Central America, plagued by poverty, violence and the legacy of civil war, is considered one of the most violent areas in the world. But neighbouring Nicaragua has largely escaped the spiralling violence, and many wonder how it has managed to do so.

'We were in prison for three days in Mexico,' Amarilis Rodríguez from Guatemala says between sobs. 'When we crossed the border at Piedras Negras, in Tamaulipas, into the United States, we were chased by the 'migra' (border patrol agents). They caught me, but my brother escaped and I haven't heard from him since.'

Guatemala has been accepted as a candidate country by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the sector, and to reduce tensions between mining and oil companies and local people affected by their activities.

Amarilis Chilel, 15, left her hometown of Ixchiguán in northwest Guatemala to work as a domestic in the capital: a common story among rural girls and women in Central America. 'I went to school up to fourth grade,' she told IPS.

In El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the expression 'de rodillas ante las pandillas' is not just a catchy rhyme referring to youth gangs bringing the countries to their knees but is an accurate description of reality today: these criminal groups, born and evolved in violence, wield ever-increasing power.

With a backpack full of dreams, Gelder Lizardo Boche, a 17-year-old from Guatemala, set out for the United States on Aug. 9 from his hometown of San Antonio La Paz, with two brothers-in-law.