Timeline Guatemala

Timeline Guatemala

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Guatemala is about the size of Ohio and the population in 2003 was about 14 million. It has three climates: tierra caliente, tierra fria, and tierra templada.
(NG, 6/1988, p.783)(SFC, 11/28/03, p.C2)
The word Guatemala is a Spanish corruption of the Mayan word Quauhlemallan meaning land of many trees.
(SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)
Native groups include the Cakchiquel, Quiche of the highlands and the Tzotzil of Zinacantan.
(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A12)(AM, 7/97, p.52)

c800BC-200CE    The Mayan city of Takalik Abaj, in later day Guatemala, served as one of the most important economic and cultural centers of pre-Columbian times.
   (NG, May, 04, p.70)

500BC-300BC       Cival, about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered in 1984. It was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated to this time.
   (LAT, 5/5/04)

250BC-150BC       The Mayan site at El Mirador flourished during this period. In the 1980s archeologist Richard Hansen found Mayan carvings at El Mirador, Guatemala, that were sculpted well before Christ.
   (WSJ, 11/12/05, p.A1)(www.mostlymaya.com/el_mirador.html)

300BC-200BC       In 2006 archaeologists at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala dated Mayan hieroglyphs painted on plaster and stone to this period.
   (Reuters, 1/5/06)

c150BC   Cival was a large and sophisticated Mayan city of some 10,000 people.
   (USAT, 5/11/04, p.7D)
150BC       In 2005 archaeologists at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala led by Guatemalan Monica Pellecer Alecio found the oldest known Maya royal burial, from around 150 BC. Excavating beneath a small pyramid, that team found a burial complex that included ceramic vessels and the bones of a man, with a jade plaque, the symbol of Maya royalty, on his chest.
   (AP, 12/14/05)

100BC       In 2005 archaeologist William Saturno said he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya mural not seen for nearly two millennia. Discovered at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala, the mural covers the west wall of a room attached to a pyramid.
   (AP, 12/14/05)

100-1BC   The painted cave of Naj Tunich in the Peten of Guatemala began attracting pilgrims.
   (AM, 7/97, p.52)

c100CE   A mural was painted about this time at the Mayan ceremonial site of San Bartolo (Guatemala). It was uncovered by archeologist William Saturno of the Univ. of New Hampshire in 2001.
   (SFC, 3/13/02, p.A4)(USAT, 1/16/04, p.10A)

c250-900   During this time about a hundred thousand Mayans lived in the area of Tikal (meaning "the place where spirit voices are heard"). It was abandoned after some 15 hundred years of continuous habitation.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)

250-900   The classic period of Maya culture.
   (SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)

300       The city of Cancuen was already established by this time. Ruins of the city were discovered in 1999.
   (SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)

378       Tikal saw the establishment of a new line of kings following its military victory over many cities of the Maya Lowlands. The 1st king was Nuun Yax Ain (Green Crocodile) and he claimed descent from a Teotihuacan lord that scholars later dubbed Spear-thrower Owl.
   (Arch, 9/00, p.27)

562       Tikal in Guatemala was conquered possibly by the Mayans of Calakmul city in Mexico. Calakmul is one of the largest of Mayan cities with more than 6,000 structures. It was the capital of a widespread hegemony of Lowland Maya kingdoms during the Late Classic (600-900).
   (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.G)(Arch, 9/00, p.27)

682-721   Ah Cacaw (Lord of Cocoa) ruled over Tikal during this period. His burial tomb was later found deep inside the 145-foot height Temple of the Great Jaguar.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)

740       Tah ak Chaan began a 50 year rule over the city of Cancuen in what later became Guatemala.
   (SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)

765-790   The Mayan palace of Cancuen, one of the largest in Guatemala, was built by King Taj Chan Ahk.
   (AP, 4/23/04)

795       Taj Chan Ahk, the Mayan ruler of Cancuen (Guatemala), died.
   (SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)

796       A 600-pound limestone altar was carved to honor a treaty in the Mayan city of Cancuen (Guatemala). It was uncovered in 2001 and soon stolen. It was retrieved in 2003.
   (USAT, 10/30/03, p.12D)(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A11)

800       About this time unidentified conquerors destroyed the Mayan palace at Cancuen (Guatemala) and killed the members of the court. Archeologists in 2005 reported that King Maax, son of Taj Chan Ahk, was found buried in full regalia.
   (SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)

1200-1330   A Mayan city in Peten state, the “El Pajaral” site, dated to the post-classic period of this time. The ruins were found in 2000.
   (SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)

1522       Guatemala was conquered by Spanish armies.
   (TL-MB, p.12)

1524       Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Cortez, marched into the Guatemalan highlands. He played the local Indian tribes against one another and won a major battle fought at a river in western Guatemala against warriors of the Quiche tribe led by Tecun Uman.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.790)

1541       A volcano crater filled with water cracked and a mud slide engulfed the capital town of Ciudad Vieja. Over 1,000 people were buried. The volcano was named Agua from that point on.
   (SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)

1543       The town of Antigua was built by the Spanish.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.32)

1543-1773   The Palacio de los Capitanes in Antigua was the center for Spanish rule over Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua during this period.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.32)

1549       A Spanish royal mansion was built in Antigua that later became the Café Condesa.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.32)

1550s       The Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche-Maya, was written. It later disappeared.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.33)

1636       The Antigua mansion, later known as Casa Popenoe, was built. It was purchased in 1931 by the American botanist Dr. Wilson Popenoe.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.32)

1642       In Antigua a Dominican monastery was built.
   (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.32)

1773       A large earthquake destroyed so much of Antigua that the Spanish moved away and built a new capital on a plateau 30 miles away that became Guatemala City.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.798)(SFEM, 6/13/99, p.33)

19th cent   Maria Encarnacion Rosal, a 19th century Guatemalan nun, was beatified in 1997 by Pope John Paul II.
   (SFC, 5/5/97, p.A8)

1821       Sep 15, A junta convened by the captain-general in Guatemala declared independence for its provinces Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua San Salvador and Chiapas.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.781)(AP, 9/15/97)(EWH, 1968, p.843)

1823       Jul 1, The United Provinces of Central America (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and San Salvador) gained independence from Mexico. The union dissolved by 1840.
   (PC, 1992, p.393)(ON, 12/99, p.5)

1839       Apr 17, Guatemala formed a republic.
   (MC, 4/17/02)

1839       Oct 3, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood departed NYC for Central America. They arrived in Guatemala 3 weeks later.
   (ON, 12/99, p.5)

1839       Nov 30, John Lloyd Stephens left Copan for Guatemala City to locate the government of the United Provinces of Central America.
   (ON, 12/99, p.8)

1840       Apr 7, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood left Guatemala City and traveled north into Mexico where they explored Palenque.
   (ON, 12/99, p.8)

1859       A treaty between Britain and Guatemala defined the boundaries of Belize.
   (SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)

1898-1920   Pres. Manuel Estrada Cabrera was one of the first Latin dictators to create his own secret police. He plundered the treasury, expanded the standing army and systematically oppressed his opponents.
   (WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A18)

1902       Oct 25, Santa Maria, Guatemala, was hit by an earthquake and about 6,000 died.
   (MC, 10/25/01)

1904       The Postal Code created the General Administration of Mail and Telegraphs (GAMT). The system grew to become very inefficient and in the 1980s private delivery businesses began to spring up.
   (WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A15)

1913       Sep 14, Jacobo Guzman Arbenz (d.1971), president of Guatemala (1951-54) was born. He was overthrown by the CIA. Arbenz, soldier and nationalist politician and president Guatemala, was the son of a Swiss pharmacist who emigrated to Guatemala, Arbenz joined a group of army officers that overthrew dictator Jorge Ubico in 1944. Arbenz became president with the support of army and leftists, including the Communist Party. His radical policies, especially regarding expropriation of portions of the United Fruit Company holdings, led to a U.S. backed coup in 1954 and his fleeing to Mexico. Arbenz died in 1971 in Mexico City.
   (NG, 10/1988,)(HNQ, 1/14/00)(http://www.bookrags.com/biography/jacobo-arbenz-guzman/)

1931-1944   Jorge Ubico took over Guatemala as dictator. He liked to ride around the country in his motorcycle and had all the potholes fixed. He ended debt peonage for Indians and clamped down on corruption.
   (SFEC, 11/24/96, zone 1 p.2)(WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A18)

1940       Guatemala declared the 1859 treaty void and reasserted its claim to Belize.
   (SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)

1944       A revolution in Guatemala occurred against the eccentric strongman Jorge Ubico.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.781)(HNQ, 1/30/99)(WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A18)

1951-1954   Jacobo Guzman Arbenz (1913-1971) served as president of Guatemala. Arbenz became president with the support of army and leftists, including the Communist Party. Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, aroused rightist opposition by allowing Communists in positions of power among peasants, labor unions, even the government itself. His radical policies-especially regarding expropriation of portions of the United Fruit Company holdings-led to a U.S. backed coup in 1954 and his fleeing to Mexico.
   (HNQ, 1/30/99)(WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A18)

1954       Jun 27, CIA-sponsored rebels overthrew the elected government of Guatemala. A US supported force of Guatemalan mercenaries invaded from Honduras. Pres. Arbenz was toppled and replaced by 30 years of military rule. He spent much of his exile in Cuba. Arbenz died in 1971 in Mexico City. It was disclosed in 1997 to have been motivated by US economic interests with 58 Guatemalan politicians put on a list of potential targets for political killing. In 1982 “Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala” by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer, was published by Doubleday.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.783)(NG, 10/1988, member’s forum)(SFC, 5/24/97, p.A1)(HNQ, 1/30/99)(WSJ, 3/3/99, p.A18)(SC, 6/27/02)

1954       Jul 8, Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala became president. He was assassinated in 1957.
   (WUD, 1994, p.1685)

1957       Jul 26, Pres. Carlos Castillo Armas was assassinated.
   (WUD, 1994, p.1685)

1959       Belize and Guatemala signed a border treaty
   (AP, 9/19/02)

1960       Jul 14, Fire raging through a Guatemala City, Guatemala, insane asylum and 225 were killed with 300 severely injured.
   (MC, 7/14/02)

1960       Oct 30, Guatemala's "La Hora" reported a plan for the invasion on Cuba.
   (MC, 10/30/01)

1960       Nov 14, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered U.S. naval units into the Caribbean after Guatemala and Nicaragua charged Castro with starting uprisings.
   (HN, 11/14/98)

1960       In Guatemala rebellious army officers took to the hills and began the long attempt to overthrow a tyrannical regime.
   (SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)

1960       The Central American Common Market was set up by a treaty between El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and later Costa Rica. It fell apart by the end of the decade.
   (Econ, 5/14/05, p.41)(www.bartleby.com/65/ce/CentrACM.html)

1960-1996   During the civil war some 150,000 people fled to Mexico for refuge and as many as 50,000 hid out in the mountains and jungles for years.
   (SFC, 7/13/00, p.A12)

1961       A long civil war began. The military retained power and the first Marxist guerilla organization took up arms.
   (WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A13)

1966       Jan 4, A US State Dept. security official wrote a memo describing how a safe house was set up in the presidential palace for use by Guatemalan security agents and their US contacts.
   (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)

1966       Mar 6, Security forces arrested 32 people suspected of aiding Marxist guerrillas. They all disappeared. A later CIA cable identified 3 of the missing as terrorists executed by Guatemalan authorities on Mar 6.
   (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)

1966       The US sent in the Green Berets to help “train” the Guatemalan armed forces in counter-insurgency techniques.
   (SFC, 1/3/97, p.A26)

1967       Oct 23, A secret US State Dept. cable reported that covert Guatemalan security operations included "kidnapping, torture and summary executions."
   (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A12)

1970       In Guatemala Gen. Carlos Arana Osorio (d.2003), a hard-line conservative of the National Liberation Movement, was elected president and served to 1974. He expanded efforts to bring armed rebels under control and prosecuted student radicals. He declared a state of siege in his 1st year.
   (AP, 12/6/03)(SFC, 12/8/03, p.A20)

1976       Feb 4, A 7-5-7.9 earthquake hit Guatemala and Honduras. Some 23,000 Guatemalans, mostly Mayan Indians, were killed. It destroyed 58,000 houses in the capital and 300 villages.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.785,797)(SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)(AP, 2/4/01)(AP, 6/22/02)

1976       The government announced a plan to relocate Achi Indians near Rabinal to make room for a hydroelectric dam along the Chixoy River.
   (SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)

1978-1982   Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia served as president.
   (SFC, 6/14/01, p.15)

1979       Soldiers protecting the Chixoy River dam project attacked the villagers of Rio Negro, the only village of 15 that refused to move without adequate compensation.
   (SFC, 7/14/00, p.A11)

1980       Jan, In Guatemala the Spanish Embassy was attacked and 37 people were killed. The dead included the father of Rigoberta Menchu, who later filed charges in Spain against Rios Montt, 5 Guatemalan generals and 2 civilians for war crimes. Peasant, labor and student activists had taken over the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City to protest the rule of Pres. Lucas Garcia (1925-2006).
   (SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12)(AP, 5/29/06)

1980       Villagers from Xococ near Rabinal volunteered to join the army and were recruited to help kill rebels.
   (SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)

1980s       Hundreds of residents from central Guatemala fled to the region north of Chajul and declared themselves neutral to the war. They organized themselves into the Communities of People in Resistance (CPR) and secretly cultivated their lands.
   (SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)

1981       Nov 8, In San Martin Jilotepeque Virginia Tubac’s husband left for the market and never returned. His body was identified in a mass grave in 1997.
   (SFC, 6/17/97, p.D1)

1981       Fifteen cooperative leaders in Cuarto Pueblo were killed by government troops.
   (SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)

1981-1983   In central Guatemala 4,411 people were killed in the area of Rabinal during the civil war.
   (SFC, 1/18/99, p.A10)(Econ, 11/8/03, p.35)

1982       Feb 13, In Guatemala 73 men and women from Rio Negro were ordered by the local military commander to report to Xococ, a village upstream from the reservoir zone which had a history of land conflicts and hostility with Rio Negro. Only one woman out of the 73 villagers returned to Rio Negro, the rest were raped, tortured and then murdered by Xococ's Civil Defense Patrol, or PAC, one of the notorious paramilitary units used by the state as death squads. The Guatemalan army invaded Santa Maria Tzeja and massacred 13 people. Villagers fled their homes following the massacre. In 2004 Beatriz Manz authored "Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of courage, Terror and Hope."
   (http://tinyurl.com/34hubh)(SSFC, 2/14/04, p.M3)(www.rightsaction.org/articles/1095a.htm)

1982       Mar 13, In Guatemala at the Massacre of Rio Negro 177 Achi Maya women and children were killed by Xococ patrolmen. On Nov 30, 1998, three Xococ pro-government fighters, Carlos Chen, Pedro Gonzalez and Fermin Lajuj, were sentenced to death for their war crimes in the massacre. In 2003 the PBS documentary "Discovering Dominga" told the story of a Mayan girl who survived the massacre and her struggle to discover what happened to her family.
   (SFC, 12/1/98, p.A11)(SFC, 1/18/99, p.A11)(SFC, 7/14/00, p.A11)(SFC, 7/4/03, p.E3)

1982       Mar 14, In Cuarto Pueblo 309 villagers were killed over three days by government troops.
   (SFC, 12/9/96, p.A18)

1982       Mar 23, Gen’l. Efrain Rios Montt seized power from Pres. Lucas Garcia. Under his 17-month rule the army burned Indian villages and killed thousands of suspected leftists. Montt established the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG).
   (SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)(SFC, 11/8/99, p.A10)(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A15)

1982       Jun, The village of Chacalte was attacked by guerrillas and an estimated 120 people were killed. The attack was for apparent collaboration by the village with the military’s armed civil patrols.
   (SFC, 9/3/97, p.C3)

1982       Jul 18, In Guatemala soldiers and paramilitary troops massacred 267 people in the remote hamlet of Plan de Sanchez. In 2001 local communities filed genocide charges against congressional head Efrain Rios Montt, who was the dictator at the time of the massacre. In 2005 Guatemala apologized for the government-directed massacre of 226 people in Plan de Sanchez.
   (SFC, 6/6/01, p.C3)(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A15)(AP, 7/19/05)

1982       Aug 22, Alfonso Portillo, a Guatemalan professor at Mexico’s Guerrero Autonomous Univ., shot and killed 2 political adversaries outside a party. In 1999 Portillo ran as a presidential candidate for the Guatemalan Republican Front and said he had acted in self defense.
   (SFC, 9/8/99, p.A15)(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3335/is_200001/ai_n8048120)

1982       Sep 27, In San Martin Jilotepeque Maria Concepcion spoke with her husband for the last time. He was dragged from his bed by more than 40 soldiers and never seen alive again. In 1997 his body was identified in a mass grave.
   (SFC, 6/17/97, p.D1)

1982       Oct 13, Guatemala’s army surrounded the mountain village of Santa Anita Las Canoas. 24 men were taken inside a church, where they were chained, tied with ropes and tortured all the night, their screams heard throughout the village. The following morning, 6 men were taken from the group, tied to the barbwire fence of the church and executed in front of the community.
   {Guatemala, Atrocities}
   (SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)(www.law.wisc.edu/news/index.php?ID=567)

1982       Dec 4, Guatemalan Pres. Rios Montt met with US Pres. Ronald Reagan in Honduras. Reagan dismissed reports of human rights abuses in the region and lifted an arms embargo to resume sales to military rulers.
   (SSFC, 2/14/04, p.M3)(www.consortiumnews.com/2007/012907.html)

1982       Dec 6-1982 Dec 8, In Guatemala a government massacre wiped out the village of Dos Erres. In 2000 two witnesses gave evidence that some 300 men, women and children were killed, tortured and raped by specialists called kaibiles.
   (SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C14)

1982       The Guatemalan civil war reached its peak. The Civilian Self-Defense Patrol was activated under dictator Gen’l. Efrain Rios Montt.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.776)(SFEC, 10/20/96, A14)
1982       Guatemala’s Civilian Self-Defense Patrol was activated under dictator Gen’l. Efrain Rios Montt.
   (SFEC, 10/20/96, A14)
1982       Guatemala’s army surrounded the mountain village of Santa Anita Las Canoas and killed a number of fleeing villagers.
   (SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)

1983       Aug 8, In Guatemala Gen’l. Efrain Rios Montt (b.1926) was overthrown and the military government of Gen. Humberto Mejia Victores took power.
   (SFC, 7/5/96, p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efra%C3%ADn_R%C3%ADos_Montt)

1983       Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemalan-born Mayan Indian and human rights activist, authored her book “I, Rigoberta Menchu.” In 1992 she won the Nobel peace Prize. In 1998 David Stoll, a US anthropologist, authored “Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans.” He asserted a number of inaccuracies in Menchu’s original book.
   (SFEC, 1/19/97, Par p.5) (SFC, 12/15/98, p.C20)

1983       On the eve of Pope John Paul’s visit Gen’l. Montt had 6 rebel suspects executed.
   (SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)

1983       The Peace Brigades Int'l. program began with volunteers standing in support of Nineth Montenegro, the leader of a group of relatives of the disappeared.
   (SFC, 6/11/99, p.A12)

1983-1986   On May 20, 1999, a document was made public that listed the execution of some of the people that disappeared during this period.
   (SFC, 5/20/99, p.C2)

1984       In Guatemala Cival, about 25 miles east of the much better known city of Tikal, was discovered. Cival was abandoned about 100 CE. Artifacts at the site dated from 500-300 BCE.
   (LAT, 5/5/04)

1985       Mar, Nick Blake, a free lance US journalist, and photographer Griff Davis were shot and killed by Guatemalan civil militia. Their remains were found in 1992.
   (WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A23)

1985       Aug 8, In San Martin Jilotepeque the army stormed the home of Maria Alisa Camei, beat her husband and took him away. He was not seen alive again. In 1997 his body was identified in a mass grave.
   (SFC, 6/17/97, p.D1)

1985       Dec 2, The 2nd round of free elections in Guatemala gave a decisive majority of almost 70% to the centrist Christian Democratic Party candidate, Vinicio Cerezo (b.1942). The army still held much behind-the-scenes power.
   (NG, 6/1988, p.779)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Vinicio_Cerezo_Ar%C3%A9valo)

1986       Jan 13, In Guatemala just before turning over power to Pres. Cerezo, Gen. Humberto Mejia Victores issued a blanket self-amnesty for acts committed during the 3-year rule of the military government.
   (SFC, 7/5/96, p.A13)(www.cidh.org/annualrep/85.86eng/chap4.a.htm)

1986       Jan 14, In Guatemala, Vinicio Cerezo (b.1942) began serving as president.
   (SFC, 7/5/96, p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinicio_Cerezo)

1987       Aug 7, The presidents of 5 Central American nations, meeting in Guatemala City, signed an 11-point agreement designed to bring peace to their region.
   (AP, 8/7/97)

1988       Pres. Cerezo declared another blanket amnesty, approved by congress, that covered government acts from 1982-1988.
   (SFC, 7/5/96, p.A13)

1989       Nov 2, Sister Diana Ortiz was raped and tortured in Guatemala. She has claimed that a man called Allejandro appeared in charge and that he spoke colloquial English and spoke of contacts with the US Embassy. The US government has denied any connection.
   (SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)

1990       cJun, The bodies of 2 teenage boys and 2 slightly older adult friends, all of whom had lived on the streets, were found on the outskirts of Guatemala City. Police officers implicated in their abduction and killing were cleared of charges. In 1999 an int'l. court ruled that the government failed to protect the victims and the case was expected to reopen.
   (SFC, 12/6/99, p.A14)

1990       Sep 11, In Guatemala City sociologist Myrna Mack was stabbed 27 times to death. Gen’l. Edgar Augusto Godoy and Colonels Juan Valencia Osorio and Juan Guillermo Oliva ordered Noel de Jesus Beteta, a soldier, to kill Mack. Beteta later received a 30 year sentence for the crime. The officers in 1997 sought amnesty under a new treaty. Myrna Mack was an anthropologist working on the ecological effects of the nation’s refugee policies and the genocide of Maya Indians. The officers were ordered to stand trial in 1999. In 2002 Beteta recanted his confession. In 2003 an appeals court freed Col. Juan Valencia.
   (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/21/97, p.A18)(SFC, 4/28/98, p.A8)(SFC, 1/30/99, p.A14)(AP, 9/18/02)(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A14)

1990       Oscar Berger was elected mayor of Guatemala City and served until 1999.
   (SFC, 12/30/03, p.A11)

1990       Norwegian church groups brought the government of Guatemala and rebels together for peace talks in Oslo.
   (SFC, 12/5/96, p.C1)

1990       American innkeeper Michael Devine was murdered in Guatemala. Allegations have been made that Guatemalan colonel, Julio Roberto Alpirez on CIA payroll, was involved. A review in 1996 showed that Alpirez was on the CIA payroll from 1988-1992 and that he was involved in the cover-up of the murder of Devine and had participated in the interrogation and likely torture of Efraim Bamaca, a captured Guatemalan guerrilla married to an American lawyer.
   (SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)

1991       Guatemala recognized the independence of Belize and established full diplomatic relations.
   (SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)

1991       Rebel guerrillas sacked and burned most of the productive wells of Basic Petroleum in the northwest corner of the Peten.
   (WSJ, 12/26/96, p.A1)

1991       The US Bush administration requested the extradition of Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa Ruiz on cocaine trafficking charges.
   (WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A11)

1992       Mar 12, Efraim Banaca Velasquez, a guerilla leader in Guatemala married to an American lawyer (Jennifer Harbury), disappeared and was later murdered. Secret US government files later disclosed that the Guatemalan colonel, Julio Roberto Alpirez, oversaw the interrogation and debriefing and that he was on CIA payroll. A suit filed by Harbury in 1995 against a list of US officials was dismissed in 1999 and reinstated in 2000 on appeal.
   (SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.C13)(SFC, 3/18/97, p.A10)(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A4)

1992       Oct 16, The Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian who spoke on behalf of indigenous people and victims of government repression.
   (SFC, 10/12/96, p.A13)(AP, 10/16/97)

1993       Judge Gonzalez Dubon declared unconstitutional the imposition of martial law by Pres. Jorge Serrano.
   (WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A11)

1993       May 25, President Jorge Serrano Elias engineered a “self-coup.” He moved to live in Panama and faced extradition attempts. After the failed coup the Congress designated Ramiro de Leon Carpio as president and Arturo Herbruger as vice president to serve to Jan 1996.
   (SFC, 7/24/97, p.A11)(SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)

1993       Rightist civil patrols killed peasants in Colotenango. 12 members of the paramilitary unit were later arrested, tried and sentenced in 1999 to 25 years in prison. They were sprung from jail a day after being sentenced.
   (SFC, 5/1/99, p.B1)

1993       Enron Corp. started building electric power plants on barges with a project in Guatemala.
   (WSJ, 5/22/96, p.B-1)

1994       Mar, The first of a series of 12 pacts to deal with procedures for recognizing and dealing with violations of human rights was signed.
   (WSJ, 12/13/96, p.A15)

1994       Apr 1, Judge Gonzalez Dubon was assassinated. He had recently signed an order to extradite to the US former Army Lt. Col. Carlos Ochoa Ruiz on drug trafficking charges.
   (WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A11)

1994       Sep, A 440-member UN human rights mission was installed.
   (SFC, 5/14/96, A-10)

1994       Diane Weinstock, an American tourist, was beaten into a coma in San Cristobal by a mob that suspected her of trying to steal a baby.
   (SFC, 5/1/00, p.A14)

1995       Mar, Sen. Robert Torricelli of the US House Intelligence Oversight Committee accused the CIA of a cover-up in 2 Guatemalan murders. A review in 1996 showed that Alpirez was on the CIA payroll from 1988-1992 and that he was involved in the cover-up of the 1990 murder of Michael Devine and had participated in the 1992 interrogation and likely torture of Efraim Bamaca, a captured Guatemalan guerrilla, killed in captivity and married to an American lawyer.
   (SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-6)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.A13)

1995       Sep 27-Oct 6, Hurricane Opal caused at least 50 deaths in Guatemala and Mexico and 20 deaths in the United States. The storm hit Central America before striking Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and North Carolina.
   (AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)

1995       Oct 5, In Xaman village, Guatemala, 11 war refugees were killed by government soldiers. In 1999 25 soldiers were convicted for homicide. 12 soldiers were sentenced to 5 years in prison and the rest to 4 years already served. In 2004 an officer and 13 soldiers were each sentenced to 40 years in prison for the Xaman massacre of recently returned civil war refugees.
   (SFC, 8/14/99, p.C1)(AP, 7/9/04)

1995       Oct, The government army led a massacre in the region of Chajul.
   (SFC, 9/8/97, p.A9)

1995       Gavin Barker, a social worker from London, founded Quetzaltrekkers, a Guatemala trekking program aimed at funding street children in Xela.
   (SSFC, 11/9/03, p.D3)

1995       Archeologists of the Basic Pete Oil Co. discovered the Mayan city of La Joyanca.
   (WSJ, 12/26/96, p.32)

1996       Jan, Pres. Ramiro de Leon Carpio disbanded the paramilitary Civil Self-Defense Patrols.
   (SFC, 6/18/02, p.A9)

1996        Jan, In a low turnout for presidential elections, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen, a conservative former foreign minister, beat Alfonso Portillo, backed by ex-dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, by less than 3 %.
   (WSJ, 1/8/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A7)

1996       Mar, The new president ordered the army to halt counterinsurgency operations against leftist guerillas, matching a cease fire offer by the Guatemalan national Revolutionary Unity (URNG) rebels who have fought a 35-year civil war.
   (WSJ, 3/22/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)

1996       May 7, Guatemala’s leftist guerrillas and the government signed a key accord in negotiations to end 35 years of civil war. A Land Fund that would help poor peasant farmers acquire arable land was agreed upon.
   (SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)

1996       Jun 13, Guatemala ratified a UN pact on tribal peoples. The pact calls for respect of its indigenous people, the Mayans, and consultation with them on decisions affecting their economic and social development.
   (SFC, 6/14/96, p. A16)

1996       Sep 15, Crime boss Alfredo Moreno, a former army intelligence officer, was arrested on charges of an enormous smuggling operation.
   (SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)

1996       Sep 17, In Guatemala 2 generals and 16 officials were fired in a probe of black-market corruption.
   (SFC, 9/19/96, p.A10)

1996       Sep 19, The government and leftist guerillas under Ricardo Arnoldo Ramirez signed a peace accord that called for a 33% troop and budget reduction from 43,000 by 1999.
   (SFC, 9/20/96, p.A15)(SFC, 9/15/98, p.A22)

1996       Sep 24, The government fired 12 National police officers including 5 regional chiefs implicated in a corruption scandal.
   (SFC, 9/25/96, p.A9)

1996       Oct 5, An ongoing program to de-activate some 200,000 citizen soldiers included ceremonious weapons returns.
   (SFEC, 10/20/96, A14)

1996       Oct 16, Soccer fans at a World Cup qualifying match trying to squeeze into Mateo Flores National Stadium in Guatemala City stampeded, killing [83] 84 people. 180 were injured.
   (SFC, 10/17/96, A1)(AP, 10/16/97)

1996       Oct 19, Rafael Augusto Valdizon, rebel commander, was captured in connection with the kidnapping of 86-year-old Olga Novella, wife of a cement company owner, in September. He negotiated his freedom in exchange for her release. She was released and he disappeared.
   (SFC, 10/29/96, p.A8)(SFC, 10/31/96, p.A12)

1996       Oct 28, Peace talks were cancelled due to the Oct 19 incident.
   (SFC, 10/29/96, p.A8)

1996       Nov 1, A Brazilian-made turboprop crashed near Flores in Peten province and 14 people enroute to the Mayan site of Tikal were killed.
   (SFC, 11/2/96, p.C1)

1996       Nov 11, Gen’l. Roberto Letona, the military attaché in Washington, was ordered home after being linked to the Moreno smuggling operation that cheated the government out of some $2.7 billion in taxes and duties over 15 years.
   (SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)

1996       Nov 11, Pres. Alvaro Arzu and the rebel alliance separately announced a peace agreement to be signed Dec 29.
   (SFC, 11/12/96, p.A13)

1996       Nov 14, Villagers in Momostenango broke into the town jail where 4 men were jailed on charges of assault and robbery of bus passengers. They were beat, doused with gasoline and burned to death. It was later learned that the victims were 2 artists, a dentist, and a minister from a neighboring state hunting rabbits.
   (SFEC, 12/1/96, p.T9)(SFC, 12/3/96, p.E1)

1996       Dec 4, A truce was signed in Oslo, Norway. Two more accords were left to be signed and the final treaty was scheduled to be signed in Guatemala City on Dec 29.
   (SFC, 12/5/96, p.C1)

1996       Dec 29, In Guatemala City the Accord on the Firm and Lasting Peace was signed at the National Palace ending 36 years of civil conflict during which some 200,000 people died or disappeared. One rebel unit in Quezaltenango, the Organization of the People in Arms, refused to take part. The accord included provisions for education in 23 regional languages with Spanish. The peace accord mandated a report by a UN "Historical Clarification Commission." The report was completed and made public in 1999. In 2000 Susanne Jonas authored “Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala’s Peace Process.”
   (WSJ, 12/13/96, p.A15)(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A7)(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A12) (AP, 12/29/97)(SFC, 2/26/99, p.A17)(SFEC, 3/7/99, p.A22)(SFEM, 6/13/99, p.33)(SFEC, 8/20/00, BR p.12)

1996       Guatemala enacted a General Telecommunications Law that changed a state ownership and allocated radio spectrum from the bottom up. This allowed for a large increase in phone penetration.
   (WSJ, 12/27/02, p.A11)

1996       The New York based Kroll Associates reported that 900 kidnappings took place in Guatemala in 1996.
   (SFC,11/21/97, p.A15)

1997       Jan 6, Three officers accused of ordering a 1990 assassination sought amnesty under terms of the new treaty.
   (SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)

1997       Jan 30, More than 1,000 military police seized their own headquarters and demanded at least $7,000 severance pay each when the 4,000 member military police is dissolved later in the year.
   (SFC, 1/31/97, p.A12)

1997       Jan, Bonifassi de Botran (80), the heir to a liquor distillery fortune, was kidnapped in Guatemala City. A ransom was paid but she was found dead. Two members of the kidnapping ring, Los Pasaco, escaped from prison but Luis Amilcar Cetino Perez and Tomas Cerrate Hernandez were executed in 2000.
   (SFC, 6/22/00, p.A12)(SFC, 6/30/00, p.D2)

1997       Jun, A feud erupted between neighboring Maya villages near Totonicapan and 10 people were massacred and 10 homes were burned down.
   (SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)

1997       Jul 4, Pres. Alvaro Arzu fired 2 top military officials, after they had helped negotiate a peace treaty. They were known as moderates and the hard-liner Gen’l. Hector Barrios took over as the new defense chief.
   (SFC, 7/5/97, p.A10)

1997       Guatemala divided some 1.2 million acres of forest land into 13 logging concessions that required sustainable harvesting. 2 concessions were granted to logging companies and 11 to local communities.
   (WSJ, 11/25/05, p.A9)

1997       A large Mayan site was discovered at the Rio San Pedro Martir drainage in the Peten region of northern Guatemala.
   (AM, Jul/Aug ‘97 p.19)

1997       Sep 8, It was reported that a new rebel group emerged in the Chajul region calling itself the Guerrilla Command Force ‘97.
   (SFC, 9/8/97, p.A8)

1998       Jan 6, Danita Gonzalez Plank de Orellana (32) of Philadelphia was kidnapped with her 6-month old daughter near Quezaltenango. the baby was soon found in a cardboard box. The mother’s body was found 8 days later. Police alleged that a gang under Rigoberto Antonio Morales (23) was responsible. Morales was recaptured 4 days after escaping from prison in June.
   (SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A13)

1998       Jan 16, In Guatemala 13 college students and 3 faculty members from St. Mary's College of Maryland were robbed and 5 women were raped after their bus was ambushed near Santa Lucia. 4 suspects were later arrested and 3 more were sought by police. In 1999 three men, Cosbi Gamaliel Ortiz (38), Rony Leonel Polanco Sil (29) and Reyes Guch Ventura (25), were convicted and sentenced to 28 years in prison.
   (SFC, 1/19/98, p.A8)(SFC, 2/9/99, p.A8)

1998       Jan, Pres. Alvaro Arzu awarded a 5-year concession to administer government postal services to Int’l. Post Services, a subsidiary of Canada Post.
   (WSJ, 6/5/98, p.A15)

1998       Apr 24, The Human Rights Office of the Guatemalan Catholic Church issued a report called “Guatemala: Never Again,” that said 200,000 people died or disappeared during the 36 year civil war that ended in 1996.
   (SFC, 4/25/98, p.A8)

1998       Apr 26, In Guatemala City Bishop Jose Gerardi (75) was killed. He oversaw the recent report: “Guatemala: Never Again.” Marks on the bishop’s body were made by a dog. In July a priest and a cook, Rev. Mario Leonel Orantes Najera and Margarita Lopez, were arrested in connection. In Oct. US forensic experts said that at least 2 attackers were responsible for the bishop’s killing and described it as a political crime. In Oct Rev. Mario Lionel Orantes was charged with the killing. Orantes was released in Feb 1999. In 1999 Prosecutor Calvin Galindo resigned and fled the country in fear of his safety. Two judges had already quit the case. Three army suspects were arrested in Jan 2000. In 2000 Rev. Mario Orantes was again charged with the murder. In 2001 Col. Disrael Lima Estrada (60), Capt. Byron Lima Oliva (31) and Sgt. Jose Obdulio Villanueva (36) and Rev. Orantes were found guilty of the murder of Bishop Gerardi. The officers were sentenced to 30 years in prison and Orantes was sentenced to 20 years. Villanueva was killed during a prison riot Feb 12, 2003.
   (SFC, 4/28/98, p.A1,8)(SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)(SFC, 10/7/98, p.A10)(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)(SFC, 10/8/99, p.D3)(WSJ, 1/24/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/11/00, p.A9)(SFC, 6/9/01, p.A8)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A9)

1998       May 23, It was reported that the Pacaya volcano had erupted and covered Guatemala City with a half-inch of grit.
   (SFC, 5/23/98, p.A5)

1998       May, Bishop Mario Rios Montt, the brother of former dictator Gen’l. Efrain Rios Montt, was appointed head of the human rights office.
   (SFC, 7/31/98, p.D3)

1998       Jul 12, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador agreed to join forces to build a $2 billion railroad network to link Central America with Mexico.
   (SFC, 7/13/98, p.A8)

1998       Jul 14, Sebastiano Crestani, an Italian priest and chaplain of the army, was attacked gangland-style. Three weeks later his family sent him to Italy.
   (SFC, 8/19/98, p.C16)

1998       Sep 11, Ricardo Arnoldo Ramirez (67), aka Rolando Moran, a former leftist guerrilla commander, died.
   (SFC, 9/15/98, p.A22)

1998       Oct 1, Guatemala sold 95% of its phone monopoly for $700 million to Luca, a consortium of Guatemalan and Central American financial institutions.
   (WSJ, 10/2/98, p.A10)

1998       Oct 20, In Guatemala the former rebels of the National Revolutionary Unity (URVG) asked to be recognized as a political party.
   (SFC, 10/21/98, p.C2)

1998       Oct 22-1998 Nov 9, Hurricane Mitch was one of the Caribbean's deadliest storms ever causing at least at least 9,000 deaths in Central America. The storm hit Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Jamaica, and Costa Rica. Later reports put the death toll in Honduras to 6,076. In Nicaragua the deaths reached 4,000, in Guatemala it was157, and in El Salvador it was 222. The storm parked over Honduras and rain poured for 6 days straight. Aid of $66 mil was ordered from the US, $8 mil from the EU, $11.6 mil from Spain along with pledges from other countries and private organizations.
   (SFC, 11/4/98, p.A9)(SFC, 11/6/98, p.A14)(AP, 9/11/04)(www.wunderground.com)

1998       Nov 1, In Guatemala 10 Americans were killed when their C-47 cargo plane crashed while on a mission to distribute medicines and medical care.
   (SFC, 11/3/98, p.A11)

1999       Feb 25, A 100-page summary of a 3,600 page report by the UN mandated Historical Clarification Committee was released. It indicated that the US government and US corporations played a key role in maintaining the right-wing military governments during most of the 36 years of civil war in Guatemala. The report documented a genocide against Mayan Indians with a death toll of some 200,000. The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (UNRG) was responsible for 3% of the atrocities. The Guatemalan Army was blamed for 93% of the human rights abuses.
   (SFC, 2/26/99, p.A1,17)(WSJ, 2/26/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/13/99, p.A13)

1999       Mar 10, Pres. Clinton visited Guatemala and apologized for US support of rightist regimes that ruled the country for 3 decades.
   (SFC, 3/11/99, p.A1)

1999       Apr 30, In Guatemala some 600 peasants stormed a police station in Huehuetenango and freed 12 former paramilitary members who had just been sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing peasants in Colotenango in 1993.
   (SFC, 5/1/99, p.B1)

1999       May 13, In Guatemala Roberto Belarino Gonzalez (40), ass't. sec. gen'l. for the opposition Democratic Front for the New Guatemala (FDNG), was shot and killed as he left his home.
   (SFC, 5/14/99, p.D5)

1999       May 16, A referendum was scheduled on a package of 50 constitutional reforms that included recognition of the rights of the Indian majority and modernization of the army. Voters rejected the referendum 77% to 23%.
   (SFC, 5/14/99, p.D5)(SFC, 5/17/99, p.A10)

1999       May 20, A document that cited the activities of a Guatemalan military unit that kidnapped, tortured and killed suspected subversives from 1983-1986 was made public by human rights officials. The document indicated that 100 of 183 listed people were executed.
   (SFC, 5/20/99, p.C2)

1999       Jul, Carlos Ochoa Ruiz, a former Army Lt. Col., was sentenced to 14 years in prison for cocaine trafficking by Judge Marco Tulio Molina Lara.
   (WSJ, 8/13/99, p.A11)

1999       Aug 3, A human rights officer asked prosecutors to investigate former president Gen'l. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores over his role in the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of scores of people during his rule.
   (SFC, 8/5/99, p.A14)

1999       Oct 25, Arturo Herbruger, former vice president, died at age 87.
   (SFC, 10/26/99, p.B4)

1999       Nov 3, In Guatemala City two campaigners for Alfonso Portillo Cabrera were killed by gunmen.
   (SFC, 11/4/99, p.A18)

1999       Nov 7, In Guatemala Alfonso Portillo of the Guatemalan Republican Front (FRG) was in a close race for the presidency with Oscar Berger of the governing National Advancement (PAN). With 97.5% counted Portillo had 47.8% of the vote vs. 30.3% for Berger. The FRG won 61 0f the 110-seat Congress. Portillo was declared the winner with 68% of the vote.
   (SFC, 11/8/99, p.A10)(SFC, 11/9/99, p.A13)(SFC, 11/11/99, p.A22)(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A14)

1999       Dec 21, In Guatemala City a Cubana de Aviacion DC-10 skidded and crashed on landing. At least 26 people were killed.
   (SFC, 12/22/99, p.C9)

1999       Belize troops killed 2 Guatemalan civilians in a disputed border area.
   (SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)

2000       Jan, The Pacaya Volcano south of Guatemala City erupted and injured over 50 people with falling lava.
   (SFC, 1/22/00, p.A6)

2000       Apr 30, In Guatemala villagers in Todos Santos Cuchuman stoned to death a Japanese tourist, Tetsuo Yamahiro (40), and his tour’s bus driver, Edgar Castellanos (35), in the belief that they had come to steal children. The driver was cremated with gasoline.
   (SFC, 5/1/00, p.A14)

2000       May 11, Mexico reached a free-trade agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
   (SFC, 5/12/00, p.D2)

2000       May 15, It was reported that archeologists had found the remains of a large Mayan city in Peten state. The “El Pajaral” ruins dated to the post-classic period from about 1200 to 1330.
   (SFC, 5/15/00, p.A13)

2000       Jul 8, Some 200 Indian villagers in Xalvaquiej burned alive 8 men suspected of kidnapping a raping a young girl last year.
   (SFC, 7/12/00, p.A12)

2000       Jul, The legislature passed a 20% tax on alcoholic beverages. Rios Montt, head of Congress, was later accused of changing the tax to 10%.
   (SFC, 8/25/00, p.D2)

2000       Nov 28, Angry Q’eqchi’ Indians burned to death 5 men, aged 16-18, suspected in the fatal shooting of a local man during a robbery in Las Conchas.
   (SFC, 11/30/00, p.C7)(SFC, 12/1/00, p.D2)

2000       Dec 20, The Congress approved the use of the US dollar for everyday business.
   (SFC, 12/21/00, p.C6)

2000       Dec 24, Thieves stole equipment in Guatemala City that included computer files of the “Out of the Dump” project begun in 1991 by Nancy McGirr.
   (SFC, 12/31/00, p.B10)

2000       Guatemala officials claimed that the British mistakenly awarded to Belize some 4,739 square miles of Guatemalan territory.
   (SFC, 11/2/00, p.A12)

2001       Mar 12, In Guatemala Judge Hugo Martinez of Senahu was hacked to death and burned by a mob after he ruled that there was not sufficient evidence to hold 2 rape suspects.
   (SFC, 3/14/01, p.C12)

2001       Mar 21, The highest court ordered former dictator Efraim Rios Montt and 5 ruling-party lawmakers to give up their congressional posts to face impeachment charges.
   (SFC, 3/23/01, p.D2)

2001       May 5, Barbara Ann Ford (62), a member of the Sisters of Charity of New York, was shot and killed in an apparent robbery.
   (SFC, 5/7/01, p.C4)

2001       Jun 8, In Guatemala 3 soldiers and a priest were found guilty of the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi. The officers were sentenced to 30 years in prison and Rev. Orantes was sentenced to 20 years. An appeals court in 2002 granted a new trial.
   (SFC, 6/9/01, p.A8)(AP, 10/8/02)

2001       Jun 12, A judge ordered investigations into criminal charges against ex-President Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia and Efrain Rios Montt.
   (SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)

2001       Jun 13, Pres. Portillo fired the top 4 officials of the Communications, Infrastructure and Housing Ministry following a report of $51 million of improper or unjustifiable spending.
   (SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A12)

2001       cAug 12, Two professional soccer players were killed when lightning hit a metal rail and electrified all who sat on it. 10 people were badly burned.
   (WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1)

2001       Aug 18, It was reported that a month-long drought ravaged Central America. Honduras lost 80% of its basic grains, El Salvador lost 80% of grains in its eastern provinces, Nicaragua lost 50% and Guatemala lost 80% of its beans in the eastern provinces. Hundreds of thousands of peasants were affected.
   (SFC, 8/18/01, p.A1)

2002       Jan 9, In Guatemala City the interior minister fired the civil police chief and replaced him with Luis Arturo Paniagua, chief of the military academy from 1980-1993.
   (SFC, 1/10/02, p.A7)

2002       Feb 10-11, A 2,100 foot stretch of lava flowed down from Volcano del Fuego near Antigua.
   (SFC, 2/16/02, p.A26)

2002       May 21, It was reported that scientists in Guatemala had found the source of jade deposits used by the Olmecs and Mayans.
   (SFC, 5/22/02, p.A2)

2002       Jun 10, Economic Minister Arturo Montenegro unveiled a sweeping economic stimulus package Monday designed to double the country's 3 percent annual growth rate.
   (AP, 6/10/02)

2002       Jun 15, In Guatemala despite accusations that he oversaw massacres in the 1980s and corruption scandals in the 1990s, durable former dictator Efrain Rios Montt won yet another term as leader of the ruling party.
   (AP, 6/15/02)

2002       Jun 17, In northern Guatemala about 8,000 ex-paramilitary fighters, wielding machetes and clubs, blocked roads, demanding payment from the government for their services during the country's 36-year guerrilla war. They were disbanded in 1996.
   (AP, 6/17/02)(SFC, 6/18/02, p.A9)

2002       Jul 19, In eastern Guatemala a passenger bus slammed head-on into a semi truck, killing 16 people.
   (AP, 7/19/02)

2002       Jul 29, Pope John Paul II arrived in Guatemala. Thousands of young people packed into a soccer stadium and spent the night waving candles and chanting "John Paul II, Guatemala loves you.
   (AP, 7/30/02)

2002       Jul 30, In Guatemala City Pope John Paul II canonized his 463rd saint, Pedro de San Jose Betancur, a 17th century Spanish missionary.
   (SFC, 7/31/02, p.A2)

2002       Aug 6, Surgeons in LA completed a 22-hour operation on Guatemalan twins, Maria de Jesus Quiej Alvarez and sister Maria Teresa, joined at their heads. UCLA doctors donated their services in the $1.5 million operation. They returned to Guatemala Jan 13, 2003.
   (SFC, 8/7/02, p.A1)(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A3)(SFC, 2/7/03, p.A12)

2002       Sep 1, President Alfonso Portillo announced plans to cut the size of Guatemala's armed forces by 20% and convert the extra military installations into schools.
   (AP, 9/1/02)

2002       Sep 8, In Guatemala local media reported that anthropologists digging under a school in Rabinal, in Guatemala's northern highlands, had unearthed the remains of 47 people killed during the country's 1960-1996 civil war.
   (AP, 9/8/02)

2002       Sep 9, In El Salvador a small plane crashed into the slopes of a mountain, killing four prominent Guatemala businessmen and the pilot.
   (AP, 9/9/02)

2002       Sep 12, In western Guatemala heavy rains loosened a mountainside, burying about 30 homes and killing at least 17 people. Officials said that nearly two dozen others were missing.
   (AP, 9/13/02)

2002       Sep 11, The Guatemala Congress enacted a law that prohibited racial discrimination.
   (SFC, 9/13/02, p.A11)

2002       Sep 13, In Guatemala Miguel Angel Orozco (33), a policeman who had shot a woman, was seized and burned to death by an angry mob in Coatepeque. Radio stations quoted witnesses as saying Orozco had been drunk at the time.
   (AP, 9/14/02)

2002       Sep 17, The foreign secretaries of Belize and Guatemala announced a proposed border settlement in their countries. The proposal retains the border between the two countries established in a 1959 treaty, which Guatemala has rejected, and suggests a series of measures aimed at sharing resources.
   (AP, 9/19/02)

2002       Sep 29, In Guatemala a bus carrying at least 45 passengers plunged into the Selegua River, and 23 of them drowned.
   (AP, 9/30/02)(AP, 10/3/02)

2002       Oct 3, In Guatemala Col. Juan Valencia was found guilty of ordering the killing of human rights activist Myrna Mack in 1990 and sentenced to a maximum 30 years in prison. But two other military officials were acquitted.
   (AP, 10/4/02)

2002       Dec 24, A brutal riot by prisoners in a jail outside Guatemala's capital left 18 inmates dead over two days, including one person by decapitation and 14 others who were burned to death.
   (AP, 12/25/02)

2002       Richard Hansen, part-time archeologist and Idaho potato farmer, persuaded Pres. Alfonso Portillo to declare the Mayan site of El Mirador a protected area. Hansen hoped to help create a 525,000–acre Mayan national park.
   (WSJ, 11/12/05, p.A1)

2002       In Guatemala anti-drug forces led a bloody raid on Chocon, a corn-growing village. 2 locals were killed but no drug seizures were made. In 2003 16 members of the drug force were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the violent raid.
   (AP, 4/10/03)

2003       Jan 26, In Guatemala a security guard opened fire with a shotgun at thousands of people gathered for a political convention of the National Union of Hope party. Isaias Caal Ichich wounded 5 people.
   (AP, 1/27/03)

2003       Feb 8, Augusto Monterosso (81), Honduras-born Guatemalan writer, died in Mexico City. His work included “Perpetual Movement” (1972); “The Letter E: Fragments of a Diary” (1987); and “The Magic Word” (1983).
   (SFC, 2/10/03, p.B5)

2003       Feb 12, A bloody prison riot near Guatemala City left at least 6 inmates dead, and a man convicted in the high-profile murder case of Roman Catholic Bishop Juan Gerardi was among the dead.
   (AP, 2/13/03)

2003        Feb 26, In Guatemala striking teachers seized a pumping station on the nation’s only oil pipeline to press their demands for a hefty wage increase and better schools. About 60,000 of the country’s 80,000 teachers are striking to demand a near-doubling of salaries that now range from about $190 to $390 per month. They also seek improved school buildings, more books and better school lunches.
   (AP, 2/27/03)

2003       Apr 2, Guatemala City police raided the house of a suspected drug lord and found $14 million in cash.
   (SFC, 4/4/03, p.A18)

2003       Apr 23, A mudslide in western Guatemala killed seven people and left more than a dozen missing.
   (AP, 4/24/03)

2003       Jul 24, In Guatemala protesters demanding that former dictator Rios Montt be allowed to run for president touched off a wave of violence that paralyzed the capital.
   (AP, 7/25/03)

2003       Jul 30, Guatemala's highest court cleared the way for former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to run for president.
   (AP, 7/30/03)

2003       Sep 4, Mario Monteforte Toledo, Guatemalan writer and activist, died. His work included the 1952 novel "En Donde Acaban los Caminos" (Where the Roads End).
   (SFC, 9/5/03, p.A23)

2003       Oct 26, In Guatemala 4 journalists from the Prensa Libre newspaper were seized by ex-paramilitary members and apparently were being held to press the group's demand that the government pay them wages for their service in the 1980s.
   (AP, 10/26/03)

2003       Oct 28, Former Guatemala paramilitary fighters released four journalists and three other hostages after the government promised to pay the ex-soldiers for their services during the 36-year civil war.
   (AP, 10/28/03)

203       Nov 9, Guatemala held presidential elections. Polls showed that former Guatemala City Mayor Oscar Berger (57) was statistically tied with center-left engineer Alvaro Colom (52).
   (AP, 11/7/03)

2003       Nov 10, With 20 percent of the vote counted, former Guatemala City Mayor Oscar Berger had 47.6 percent of the vote compared with 26.4 percent for center-left candidate Alvaro Colom and 11.2 percent for retired Gen. Efrain Rios Montt.
   (AP, 11/10/03)

2003       Nov 28, AIDS in Guatemala was reported to kill an estimated 10 people a day.
   (SFC, 11/28/03, p.C2)

2003       Dec 6, Guatemala former president and Gen. Carlos Arana Osorio (85), a hard-line conservative who ruled from 1970 to 1974, died in a Guatemala City military hospital.
   (AP, 12/6/03)

2003       Dec 7, Former Guatemala Pres. Arnoldo Aleman, dogged by corruption allegations for years, was convicted of embezzling millions of dollars from his impoverished country and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
   (AP, 12/8/03)

2003       Dec 17, The Bush administration reached a free-trade deal with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua for immediate duty-free access to half of all US farm exports and 80% of consumer goods.
   (WSJ, 12/18/03, p.A1)

2003       Dec 28, Guatemala's presidential polls opened in a runoff featuring a former Guatemala City mayor popular with the country's elite facing an engineer backed by former leftist rebels.
   (AP, 12/28/03)

2003       Dec 29, Oscar Berger, the pro-business former mayor of Guatemala City won an easy victory in the presidential run-off, four years after he left politics and swore he would never come back. Berger won 54% vs. 46% for Alvaro Colom.
   (AP, 12/29/03)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.24)

2003       Dec, Jane Fonda traveled to Guatemala to attract media attention to the cases of over 700 women slain since 2001. Legal investigations had only produced 32 arrests and 11 convictions.
   (SFC, 12/30/03, p.E1)

2004       Jan 7, Guatemala signed an accord to let UN prosecutors handle organized crime and human-rights cases.
   (AP, 1/8/04)(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A1)
2004       Jan 7, In southwestern Guatemala men with automatic weapons hijacked a minibus carrying 13 American tourists, killing one passenger. In 2005 Henry Giovanny Vicente (27), and Marvin Sebastian Berganza (29) were convicted by a 3-judge panel of being accomplices in the killing of Brett Richards, a 52-year-old architect from Ogden, Utah, who died during a confrontation with bandits who hijacked a bus of Mormon tourists visiting Mayan ruins.
   (AP, 1/8/04)(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/30/05)

2004       Jan 8, A Guatemalan court ordered the government to stop providing back pay to members of civilian defense patrols for their services in the 36-year civil war.
   (AP, 1/9/04)

2004       Jan 14, Rios Montt lost his parliamentary immunity when he had to give up his seat as president of the Guatemalan Congress.
   (WPR, 3/04, p.26)

2004       Jan 17, In Guatemala Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu said she will become one of new President Oscar Berger's top officials in charge of monitoring adherence to the U.N.-brokered peace accords that ended 36 years of civil war.
   (AP, 1/18/04)

2004       Jan 31, Pres. Oscar Berger said Guatemala will distribute 970 tons of food to some 77,000 people in a bid to alleviate hunger in poverty-stricken towns.
   (AP, 1/31/04)

2004       Mar 3, Guatemala's Congress fired Oscar Dubon, the government's chief accountant, after he fled the country amid allegations of political corruption.
   (AP, 3/4/04)

2004       Mar 18, In northeast Guatemala a bus collided with a tractor-trailer, killing at least 14 people.
   (AP, 3/19/04)

2004       Apr 1, Pres. Oscar Berger said Guatemala will cut its army in half and slash the military budget to comply with peace accords that ended a 36-year civil war.
   (AP, 4/1/04)

2004       Apr 21, Otto Herrera (39), a Guatemalan man described by U.S. authorities as Central America's most-wanted drug smuggler, was captured by Mexican agents at Mexico City's Juarez Int'l. Airport. Mexico made the arrest at the request of U.S. authorities who had offered a $5 million reward for his capture.
   (AP, 4/22/04)

2004       Apr 22, Guatemala Pres. Oscar Berger joined the heads of Congress and the Supreme Court in publicly acknowledging government responsibility in the 1990 killing of human rights leader Myrna Mack.
   (AP, 4/22/04)

2004       May 28, US officials and 5 Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) signed a free trade pact (CAFTA), to be later approved by Congress. The Dominican Republic would be included later.
   (SFC, 5/29/04, p.A4)

2004       Jul 28, Francisco Reyes, former Guatemalan vice president (2000-2004), was arrested on charges of illegally taking over a government property worth $2.4 million.
   (AP, 7/29/04)

2004       Jul 31, In Guatemala the number of murders for the year reached close to 2,000.
   (Econ, 7/31/04, p.32)

2004       Aug 31, In southern Guatemala landless farm workers resisted police attempts to remove them from a farm they had occupied and at least four police officers and three farmers died in the battle.
   (AP, 8/31/04)

2004       Sep 7, Hundreds of angry farmers seized Guatemala's largest hydroelectric dam, threatening to shut off power to large parts of the country unless the government agrees to return nearby lands to them.
   (AP, 9/7/04)

2004       Dec 3, In western Guatemala 2 buses collided head-on along a mountain highway, and one toppled into a nearby ravine, killing 21 people and injuring at least 20.
   (AP, 12/4/04)

2004       Dec 10, President Oscar Berger said Guatemalan academics will create a university dedicated to rescuing and developing the ancient knowledge of the country's Mayan cultures.
   (AP, 12/10/04)

2004       In Guatemala 527 women were murdered. Methods used in the murders were reminiscent of those employed against the guerrillas and the residents of rural indigenous villages during the 1960-1996 civil war.
   (IPS, 6/22/05)

2005       Feb 4, Guatemala's highest court said it cannot try soldiers charged with participating in a wartime massacre of more than 300 civilians until a separate court determines if the country's postwar reconciliation law bars such prosecution.
   (AP, 2/4/05)

2005       Mar 1, In Guatemala City some 8,000 protesters, most of them teachers, demonstrated in the capital against a pending free-trade agreement between Central America and the US.
   (AP, 3/2/05)

2005       Mar 3, The seven Central American nations (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama) agreed to create a rapid-response force to combat drug trafficking, terrorism and other regional threats.
   (AP, 3/3/05)

2005       Mar 8, In Guatemala City hundreds of protesters blocked lawmakers from voting on a free-trade agreement between Central America and the US and authorities said they were prepared to send troops if the demonstrations continued.
   (AP, 3/8/05)

2005       Mar 14, Protesters across Guatemala denounced a regional free trade deal with the US closed schools, blocked highways and clashed with police in confrontations that left 19 people injured and two arrested.
   (AP, 3/14/05)

2005       Mar 24, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld announced the US will release $3.2 million in aid to Guatemala for its progress in overhauling a military once blamed for human rights abuses.
   (AP, 3/24/05)

2005       Mar 31, A UNESCO team arrived in Guatemala to push forward the candidature process of El Mirador archaeological site as a World Heritage Site. In the spring Pres. Oscar Berger repealed a 2002 decree by Pres. Alfonso Portillo declaring the Mayan site of El Mirador a protected area.
   (WSJ, 11/12/05, p.A5)(http://tinyurl.com/beeku)

2005       Apr 25, In San Pedro Sacatepequez, Guatemala, gunmen killed Jose Victor Bautista Orozco, a judge who ruled on drug smuggling cases, shooting him as he left his home for work.
   (AP, 4/26/05)

2005       May 20, In Guatemala an angry mob in the remote settlement of Cruz Chich set fire to 6 people accused of forming a band of robbers, killing 4 as authorities tried to stop the violence.
   (AP, 5/23/05)

2005       Jun 15, In Guatemala a rain-sodden hillside gave way and buried houses in seven neighborhoods of a rural town, killing at least 21 people.
   (AP, 6/16/05)

2005       Jun 18, In Guatemala huge explosions rocked a weapons storehouse on a military base north of Guatemala City. There were no casualties.
   (AP, 6/19/05)

2005       Jun 30, In Honduras Central American leaders agreed to create a regional special forces unit to fight drug trafficking, gang violence and terrorism within their borders. The 2-day regional meeting included the presidents of Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.
   (AP, 6/30/05)

2005       Jun, In Guatemala City police files were discovered by human rights prosecutors while they searched for explosives in a musty police building. The new files were expected to shed light on details of the abuses and possibly help relatives learn what happened to some of the estimated 40,000 people who disappeared during the war, most between 1975-85.
   (AP, 12/07/05)

2005       Jul 18, Under orders from an international court, Guatemala apologized for the government-directed massacre of 226 people in Plan de Sanchez on July 18, 1982.
   (AP, 7/19/05)

2005       Jul 19, In Guatemala a judge issued an arrest warrant for former President Alfonso Portillo (2000-2004) in connection with the alleged misuse of millions of dollars during his tenure. Portillo, who fled to Mexico, is accused of authorizing the transfer of $16 million from the finance department to the defense department, where investigators allege much of it was converted to cash and pocketed by officials close to Portillo.
   (AP, 7/19/05)

2005       Aug 15, Near-simultaneous attacks and riots at 7 Guatemalan prisons left 31 inmates dead. They showed the organizational power of Central America's gangs, whose members communicate between prisons through cell phones and visitors.
   (AP, 8/16/05)

2005       Sep 6, Dominican Republic legislators overwhelmingly approved a free-trade agreement with the US and five Central American countries, rejecting arguments that the pact would devastate the domestic sugar industry. The other five countries are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Costa Rica and Nicaragua had not yet ratified the pact.
   (AP, 9/6/05)

2005       Sep 8, El Salvador said that “Operation International” simultaneous raids this week in El Salvador, the US, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico netted 660 dangerous gang members.
   (AP, 9/9/05)

2005       Sep 10, In Mexico 7 Guatemala men were caught near the Guatemalan border with six large-caliber rifles and 1,600 rounds of ammunition. They faced charges of weapons trafficking.
   (AP, 9/30/05)

2005       Sep 19, In Guatemala gang members armed with guns and grenades burst inside a youth prison and slaughtered 12 inmates, leaving behind a gruesome, bloody scene. Members of the Mara Salvatrucha launched a well-organized attack on imprisoned members of the rival Mara 18 gang as they slept at Etapa II, or Phase II prison.
   (AP, 9/20/05)

2005       Oct 5, Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in southeastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing more than 65 people in Central America. Officials in El Salvador said 49 people had been killed, mostly due to two days of mudslides sparked by rains. 9 people died in Nicaragua, including six migrants believed to be Ecuadorians killed in a boat accident. Four deaths were reported in Honduras, three in Guatemala and one in Costa Rica.
   (AP, 10/5/05)

2005       Oct 6-2005 Oct 8, In Guatemala rescue workers searched for victims of a mudslide near Lake Atitlan, a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists. Panabaj and Tzanchaz were entombed by a mudflow half a mile wide. The death toll in the region from flooding sparked by Hurricane Stan soon climbed to 617 with 42 dead in Mexico, 72 dead in El Salvador and 11 dead in Nicaragua.
   (SFC, 10/7/05, p.A3)(AP, 10/9/05)(Econ, 10/15/05, p.43)

2005       Oct 9, A frantic search for about 1,400 people believed to be buried alive by a mudslide in the Maya village of Panabaj, Guatemala, was continuing as the death toll from massive floods throughout Central America and Mexico rose to a staggering 618.
   (AFP, 10/9/05)(WSJ, 10/11/05, p.A1)

2005       Oct 10, Guatemalan officials said they would abandon communities buried by landslides and declare them mass graveyards as reports of devastation trickled in from some of the more than 100 communities cut off from the outside world after killer mudslides.
   (AP, 10/10/05)

2005       Oct 13, Authorities said the number of people missing in Guatemala after last week's flooding and mudslides rose to 828, while the confirmed death toll held steady at 654.
   (AP, 10/13/05)

2005       Oct 22, At least 20 Guatemalan inmates considered to be extremely dangerous escaped from a high-security prison through a tunnel 50 miles south of Guatemala City.
   (AP, 10/23/05)

2005       Oct 29, In Guatemala City a group of gang members opened fire on a prison truck, killing two guards as they were leaving work at the end of their shift and wounding a third.
   (AP, 10/29/05)

2005       Nov 6, Adan Castillo, Guatemala's top anti-narcotics investigator, said he plans to step down in December, after just six months on the job. Castillo said his country's anti-drug agents are no match for some 4,000 smugglers operating in Guatemala.
   (AP, 11/6/05)

2005       Nov 15, Guatemala police found five packages of cocaine and thousands of dollars in cash in the office of Adam Castillo, the country’s top anti-drug cop, shortly after he was lured to America and arrested on charges of conspiring to ship cocaine into the US. Deputies Jorge Aguilar Garcia and Rubilio Palacios were arrested with Castillo.
   (AP, 11/17/05)

2005       Dec 14, The US deported Junior Vinicio Abadio Carrillo (32), the son of Guatemala's former tax chief, to face charges of embezzling millions of public dollars.
   (AP, 12/15/05)

2005       In Guatemala 624 women were murdered this year up from 213 in 2000.
   (Econ, 11/18/06, p.42)

2006       Jan 1, The Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) failed to start due to legal and regulatory reforms. Juan Carlos Paiz of the Guatemalan Union of Nontraditional Products blamed the US in large part for the delay, saying Washington was requiring too much of its poorer partners. The 6 participating nations included, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua,
   (AP, 1/1/06)

2006       Jan 23, Ugandan rebels killed eight Guatemalan peacekeepers in Congo in an ambush near the border with Sudan. The gunbattle also left 15 attackers dead.
   (AP, 1/23/06)

2006       Feb 2, Guatemalan police said they have arrested 7 Christian fundamentalist vigilantes who extorted travelers and may have killed five people they believed were criminals.
   (AP, 2/2/06)

2006       Mar 30, In western Guatemala 4 people were killed and 12 others were injured in an explosion at a home-based fireworks factory.
   (AP, 3/30/06)

2006       Apr 3, In western Guatemala 4 young men accused of trying to rob a school were whipped by their parents in a sentence dictated by Mayan elders.
   (AP, 4/3/06)

2006       Apr 6, In Guatemala Mario Pivaral, an opposition congressman, was shot to death as he stepped out of his party's headquarters, the 2nd lawmaker assassinated in the past two years.
   (AP, 4/6/06)

2006       Apr 19, In Guatemala a mob burned a man and a woman to death after accusing them of several child abductions in the predominantly Mayan town of Sumpango, where residents have long claimed youngsters are snatched and the police do nothing.
   (AP, 4/19/06)

2006       Apr, Archeologists unearthed a major Maya Indian royal burial site in the Guatemalan jungle, discovering jade jewelry and a jaguar pelt from more than 1,500 years ago. The tomb, found by archeologist Hector Escobedo contained a king of the El Peru Waka city.
   (Reuters, 5/4/06)

2006       May 27, Romeo Lucas Garcia (81), former Guatemalan President (1978-1982), died in Venezuela. His rule was marked by a bloody police raid on the Spanish Embassy.
   (AP, 5/28/06)

2006       Jun 30, A US free-trade agreement with Guatemala took effect.
   (SFC, 7/1/06, p.A3)

2006       Jul 7, A Spanish judge charged two former Guatemalan dictators with genocide and issued international warrants for their arrest. National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz issued warrants on charges of genocide, torture, terrorism and illegal detention against Gen. Efrain Rios Montt, Gen. Oscar Humberto Mejia Victores and six other men.
   (AP, 7/7/06)

2006       Jul 11, Central American presidents agreed on a plan to ease border controls and install a common customs system on the way to negotiating an eventual free-trade agreement with the EU. The agreement signed by Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize would allow residents to cross borders without passports or visas.
   (AP, 7/11/06)

2006       Aug 28, Gunmen opened fire with assault rifles in a Guatemala pool hall, killing eight people including a 17-year-old boy. The attack occurred in the poor Guatemala City suburb of Ciudad Quetzal.
   (AP, 8/29/06)

2006       Sep 7, Gunmen held up a truck in a restricted area of Guatemala City's international airport and made off with $8 million of $22 million that was to be shipped from the Bank of Guatemala to the U.S. Federal Reserve.
   (AP, 9/7/06)

2006       Sep 25, Security forces took over a Guatemalan prison controlled for more than 10 years by inmates who produced drugs, lived in spacious homes with luxury goods and even rented space for stores and restaurants. 7 prisoners died when 3,000 police and soldiers firing automatic weapons stormed the Pavon prison just after dawn.
   (Reuters, 9/25/06)

2006       Oct 8, In northern Guatemala an overcrowded passenger bus driving in heavy rain plunged off a cliff, killing at least 34 people.
   (AP, 10/9/06)

2006       Oct 16, Guatemala topped Venezuela in the first round of voting for a UN Security Council seat, but it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority to win a two-year term on the decision-making body. The 192-nation General Assembly elected South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium for the four other open seats in a secret ballot. 10 rounds of voting failed to anoint a winner to fill the spot reserved for Latin America.
   (AP, 10/16/06)(AP, 10/17/06)

2006       Nov 1, Venezuela and US-backed Guatemala agreed to withdraw from the race and support Panama, a compromise reached after voting in the UN General Assembly dragged through 47 rounds of balloting.
   (AP, 11/2/06)

2006       Nov 20, In Guatemala City an enormous fire broke out at Central America's largest open-air market killing 15 people, including three minors.
   (AP, 11/21/06)

2006       Dec 12, A UN-backed commission was established to investigate rampant organized crime in Guatemala, which authorities say has become a key point of transit for smugglers bringing drugs into the United States.
   (AP, 12/12/06)

2006       Dec 24, In Guatemala 80 residents of a drug and alcohol treatment center escaped and 13 others were injured in a rebellion that started when patients were told they could not leave to celebrate Christmas.
   (AP, 12/24/06)

2006       Pentecostalism was reported to be sweeping across Guatemala.
   (Econ, 12/23/06, p.49)
2006       In Guatemala the police force numbered some 20,000 officers with the population at around 13 million. 1.5% of the country’s farmers owned 62.5% of the farmland.
   (Econ, 11/18/06, p.42)
2006       In Guatemala nearly 600 women were killed this year.
   (SSFC, 3/25/07, p.E3)

2007       Jan 14, Guatemala's Pres. Oscar Berger declined to read his state-of-the nation speech to Congress, instead sending a written version to lawmakers after violent clashes erupted between protesting teachers and police outside the legislative building.
   (AP, 1/15/07)

2007       Jan 26, Inmates rioted at a prison on the outskirts of Guatemala City, leaving at least one person dead before 3,000 riot police and soldiers stormed the penitentiary.
   (AP, 1/26/07)

2007       Feb 12, In Guatemala Rigoberta Menchu, Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced the formation of an Indian-led political movement whose primary aim is to back her probable bid for the presidency this fall.
   (AP, 2/13/07)

2007       Feb 19, Police found the charred bodies of three Salvadoran representatives to the Central American Parliament and their driver on a rural road outside Guatemala City.
   (AP, 2/20/07)

2007       Feb 21, Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu announced that she will run for the presidency of Guatemala in the country's September elections, a move likely fuel talk about an Indian resurgence in Latin American politics.
   (AP, 2/21/07)

2007       Feb 22, In Guatemala a top police official and three other officers were arrested in the killings of three Central American Parliament members, including the son of the alleged founder of El Salvador's death squads.
   (AP, 2/23/07)

2007       Feb 23, In Guatemala a 330-foot-deep sinkhole killed two teenage siblings when it swallowed about a dozen homes and forced the evacuation of nearly 1,000 people in a crowded Guatemala City neighborhood. A 3rd body was found the next day.
   (AP, 2/24/07)

2007       Feb 25, Four imprisoned Guatemalan policemen were killed in their cells, days after being arrested in connection with the deaths of three Salvadoran politicians. Rioting inmates also took the warden and other prison officials hostage.
   (AP, 2/26/07)

2007       Feb 28, The fifth of six former Guatemalan police officers suspected in the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver turned himself. Prosecutors said the ex-officer allegedly bought the gasoline used to burn the victims.
   (AP, 2/28/07)

2007       Mar 6, Guatemala's president ordered the national police to clean out corrupt officers and upgrade training after six members of the force were accused of killing three Central American Parliament members.
   (AP, 3/6/07)

2007       Mar 17, Officials in Guatemala City said China is seeking to join the Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America's largest financing institution, as a way to fuel its economic development and increase its influence in the region.
   (AP, 3/18/07)

2007       Mar 20, Guatemala police arrested 4 people on suspicion of being among those who orchestrated the killings of three Salvadoran politicians and their driver in Feb 19.
   (AP, 3/21/07)

2007       Mar 21, In Guatemala a top human rights official said a newly created international council of experts will oversee and protect extensive police archives exposing atrocities committed during Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
   (AP, 3/21/07)

2007       Mar 26, Guatemala's interior minister resigned in the wake of a scandal over police investigators' alleged involvement in the grisly murder of three Salvadoran politicians last month. Rioting gang members fired dozens of gunshots, killing three inmates, and took two guards and two food service workers hostage in a southern Guatemala prison.
   (AP, 3/26/07)(AP, 3/27/07)

2007       Mar 27, Guatemala named Adela Camacho de Torrebiarte (57), an anti-crime crusader, as its first female interior minister.
   (AP, 3/27/07)

2007       May 22, Guatemala ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions, an international adoption treaty, committing to bring adoptions under government regulation and make sure babies are not bought or stolen.
   (AP, 5/23/07)

2007       Jun 13, A magnitude 6.8 earthquake hit Guatemala, but casualties appeared light.
   (WSJ, 6/14/07, p.A1)

2007       Jun 15, In Guatemala villagers in Muyurco killed a woman and attacked two others after accusing them of kidnapping a 9-year-old girl who was later found dead.
   (AP, 6/17/07)

2007       Jul 2, About 1,500 residents of a remote Guatemalan village rioted over the purported kidnappings of two children, burning down a police station and holding their mayor and another man hostage.
   (AP, 7/2/07)

2007       Jul 10, A Pittsburgh railroad company plans to shut down Guatemala's only train service after years of fighting thieves, squatters and government-backed lawsuits.
   (AP, 7/10/07)

2007       Jul 18, Guatemalan police rescued a two-month-old boy who had been stolen from his home and arrested four people who were allegedly preparing the baby for illegal adoption.
   (AP, 7/18/07)

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