News stories by Danilo Valladares, page 15

A new process aimed at making the selection of judges more transparent in Guatemala failed to block the appointment of several candidates who were questioned by civil society and a U.N.-sponsored commission set up to strengthen and purge the country's justice system.

People in the town of Ixcan in northwestern Guatemala could relive the pain of the country's 36-year civil war if the army reopens a military base in the area, where more than 100 massacres of indigenous villagers were committed during the armed conflict.

In Guatemala, where corruption is so notorious that a U.N.-sponsored commission against impunity was set up to strengthen and purge the country's justice system, a new process has been put in place to make the selection of judges more transparent.

Nine suspects, including police officers and members of the military, have been arrested in Guatemala for the murder of prominent lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, who had accused President Álvaro Colom of his murder in a video broadcast after his death.

Byron Ranulfo Rustrián was just 12 years old. He loved playing football and was a good student. On Jul. 23, a group of youngsters he didn't know invited him to play a match and he agreed, but it was a trap: he was kidnapped and his body turned up five days later.

The overthrow of the government of Manuel Zelaya in Honduras revived fears of something similar happening in neighbouring Guatemala, although analysts, political leaders and social activists do not see it as likely.

The new draft law on mining before the Guatemalan parliament does not strictly regulate water use and environmental protection, does not provide for community consultation, and sets royalties payable to the state at too low a level, say environmental and social organisations.

Marco Tulio Guerra went to work as usual that morning at the meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. But his life was turned upside down when immigration agents swept into his workplace and arrested him along with another 388 foreign workers. Their crime: using false Social Security numbers

Veteran television reporter Rolando Santiz was on his way to downtown Guatemala City on Apr. 1 when two gunmen on a motorcycle drove up alongside his car and killed him in a rain of gunfire. The photographer driving with him was wounded but miraculously survived.

'The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) is our only hope for achieving justice, because it is not contaminated or compromised,' Eduardo Rodas Marzano, the brother of murdered lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, told IPS.