Central America news round-up

On Thursday, former President Alfonso Portillo was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and to repay the $2.5 million that he allegedly received in bribes from Taiwan plus a $500,000 fine. Guatemala authorities are seeking to confiscate approximately 3 or 4 million Euros from Portillo's bank accounts in Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.

James Rodríguez of MiMundo.org has a photo essay of Friday's forced eviction around El Tamblor gold mine in Guatemala.

After two years and two months of peacefully blocking the entrance to U.S.-based Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) El Tambor gold mine, local residents of San Jose del Golfo and San Pedro Ayampuc were violently evicted by Guatemalan Police forces in order to introduce heavy machinery inside the industrial site. Led by the local women, members of the La Puya resistance prayed and sang until they were faced with tear gas. Numerous locals were injured and detained.

Alberto Arce has a story on Soccer helps some young Hondurans escape the gangs for the Miami Herald.

Last June, Luisito proposed a youth soccer program, telling parents, "training and practice have to defeat vice, and the violence of the gangs."

Days later, about 40 boys and girls turned out to sign up.

Luisito tells the kids soccer will keep them out of trouble, and they say that is what they want.

"A boy who becomes a gangster ends up killing," Maynor says. "Violence is the bad road, something that leads to your own death."

Luisito and the kids are careful when speaking of the gangs, and do not talk about them by name.

 Finally, El Salvador has experienced a very bloody few days. Tim has a good round-up of the events.

Twenty-nine people were murdered in El Salvador yesterday according to authorities in all regions of the country.  The murders included an attack on an intercity bus yesterday which left 6 dead.   The country's Attorney General Luis Martinez blamed the surge in murderous violence on a plan by the Barrio 18 gang.   He asserted that this was part of a plan to pressure the incoming government which takes office on June 1. The National Civilian Police declared an emergency and canceled all leave for its personnel.  The PNC reported that it had received threats that there would be a wave of attacks in the coming days. 

The death toll is reaching pre-truce levels.  A "tregua" or truce between El Salvador's leading gangs in March 2012 led to an immediate reduction in homicide rates of more than 50%.   But now  280 persons in El Salvador have been murdered during the month of May so far, an increase of 64% over May 2013.  The average number of murders per day in May exceeded 11.   More than 1300 have been killed this year.   93% of the victims were men. 

Much has been written about whether or not the truce has completely fractured and whether or not the government should negotiate with the gangs.  Various parties get blamed for the break down of the truce, and whether and how negotiations with gangs should be conducted is a matter of wide dispute.  Certainly this writer has no answers.  Incoming president Salvador Sánchez Cerén  will be expected to reverse things quickly, but there is little reason to think he will fare better than any of his predecessors.

And just a little north, Subcomandante Marcos is retiring as the public face of the Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico, or not.