Central America
Talks planned to end 100-year Guatemala indigenous dispute
AFP
Hundreds of indigenous people lifted their blockage of a major road in Guatemala on Tuesday after an agreement was reached for talks to resolve a bloody century-old land dispute.
On Monday, members of the Mayan K’iche group had blocked the Interamericana highway with the caskets of 11 of the 13 victims of a weekend massacre in which four children aged between five and 16 were alleged killed with machetes.
The roadblock was lifted after an agreement among residents who had traveled to Guatemala City to meet government officials to try to start talks over a legal border between two rival communities.
“A dialogue will begin in the first half of January, where the issue of the border will be discussed,” said Mateo Tzep, 42, a community leader from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan municipality that is in conflict with the neighboring Nahuala.
Although both communities are K’iche, they have been fighting over land — at times violently — for more than 100 years.
On Friday night, armed men with “high caliber” weapons ambushed a group of people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan who went to the village of Chiquix in Nahuala to pick corn.
The children were cut into pieces and the victims were then burnt inside the truck they were traveling in. A police vehicle was also attacked, leaving one officer dead and two injured.
The Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan community claims those in Nahuala have stolen some of their land.
On Monday, President Alejandro Giammattei declared a month-long state of siege in the two communities, which means demonstrations and the right to carry weapons are banned.
“These events are no longer the product of an ancestral land conflict. They are the direct consequence of an illegal armed and organized group that acted against civilians and security forces through an ambush,” said Giammattei.
He vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Three men carrying M16 rifles were arrested on Sunday. Authorities said they would carry out forensic tests on the weapons to see if they were used in the massacre.
Protesters had blocked the Interamaericana — one of Guatemala’s main highways, which links the capital to the west — with tires, tree trunks, rocks and concrete blocks.
“We don’t want any more deaths, we don’t want any more violence. We are looking for peace and justice,” said a man at the roadblock who identified himself only as Diego.
Indigenous people, many living in poverty, make up more than 40 percent of Guatemala’s almost 17 million population, according to official statistics.
Central America
Honduras vote vount drags on as Asfura and Nasralla remain in technical tie
Honduras remained on edge this Friday as the presidential election vote count continued, with a technical tie persisting between right-wing candidates Nasry Asfura, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, and Salvador Nasralla, five days after the election.
The vote tally has progressed slowly, with interruptions and amid fraud allegations from Nasralla, the 72-year-old television host and candidate of the Liberal Party (PL).
“The world is already talking about the fraud they are trying to commit against” the Liberal Party, Nasralla wrote on X, as he denounced irregularities in the uploading of vote tally sheets into the system and announced legal challenges.
With 88% of the polling station records counted, Asfura of the conservative National Party (PN) leads with 40.20%, while Nasralla follows closely with 39.47%, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Around 2,000 tally sheets with inconsistencies will also undergo a special review. Nasralla has questioned whether the CNE will be able to deliver final results before December 30, the legal deadline for announcing the official outcome.
Central America
Juan Orlando Hernández thanks Donald Trump after U.S. pardon
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández expressed his gratitude on Wednesday to U.S. President Donald Trump after being pardoned on Monday following more than three years in a New York prison, where he had been sentenced in 2024 to 45 years for drug trafficking and firearms offenses.
Hernández thanked Trump on social media platform X, stating: “President Trump, thank you for listening and responding when it was most needed. You saw the injustice committed against me and my country and corrected it. Your support for Honduras, your leadership, and your timely decision meant everything to my freedom and my nation. You have my respect and gratitude forever.”
In his message, Hernández began by saying: “THANK GOD. All glory be to Him. I am a free man. I said it when I left my home, I said it when I was unjustly convicted, and I say it today as I regain my freedom. I am innocent.”
He also expressed deep appreciation to his family and friends who “never stopped fighting and praying” for him, while blaming, as Trump had, the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden for his conviction. Hernández described his trial as a manipulated process orchestrated by the Biden-Harris administration and the deep state, claiming there was no real evidence, only accusations from criminals seeking revenge.
Hernández was extradited to the U.S. in April 2022 and sentenced in June 2024. His wife, Ana García, told EFE that Hernández had written to Trump on October 28, his 57th birthday, requesting a pardon, which Trump granted. García added that the couple has not yet decided whether Hernández will return to Honduras, where he could face investigations for alleged corruption, according to Attorney General Johel Zelaya.
Central America
Honduras Extends Voting by One Hour Amid High Turnout, CNE Announces
The National Electoral Council (CNE) announced that polling stations will remain open an extra hour due to the high voter turnout in Honduras’ general elections this Sunday.
These elections—the twelfth since the country returned to constitutional order in 1980 after nearly two decades of military governments—will now run until 6:00 p.m. local time (00:00 GMT), the CNE said in a statement.
The extension may only be applied for the additional hour established in the Electoral Law, and polling stations may close only after the last voter already in line at closing time has cast their ballot, ensuring that all those waiting are able to participate, the CNE added.
More than six million of Honduras’ ten million inhabitants were called to the polls to elect the successor to leftist President Xiomara Castro, as well as 298 municipal mayors, 128 members of the national Congress, and 20 representatives to the Central American Parliament.
The presidential race features Rixi Moncada, candidate of the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre); Nasry Asfura of the National Party, the main opposition force—publicly endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump—and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, also running from the opposition.
Before the extension was announced, the CNE had indicated it would release its first preliminary report around 9:00 p.m. local time (03:00 GMT) and a second one at 11:00 p.m. (05:00 GMT). Final results must be published within 30 days following the election.
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