Guatemala Interior Minister Resigns

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Associated Press

Guatemala Interior Minister Resigns
The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 27, 2007; 12:37 AM


GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemala's interior minister resigned on Monday in the wake of a scandal over police investigators' alleged involvement in the grisly murder of three Salvadoran politicians last month.
(snip)

The charred bodies of three Salvadoran members of the Central American Parliament, which is based in Guatemala, were found along a rural road on Feb. 19. Autopsies determined that two were burned alive, while the third legislator and their driver died before their bodies were set on fire.

Officials have identified seven Guatemalan police officials as suspects, including four who were arrested but later killed in prison under circumstances that remain murky. Another officer is in custody, and two remain at large.

Four more people who prosecutors say were linked with drug trafficking were arrested Feb. 20 on suspicion of orchestrating the killings. But authorities still have not determined a clear motive for the crime.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032700194.html

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You may remember that the politicians included the son of the right-wing death squads leader, Eduardo d'Aubuisson, son of Roberto "The Torch" d'Aubuisson.

They were murdered, and the first four suspects were found in their jail cell, shot and stabbed to death.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Esteemed Houston surgeon hopes to be Guatemala's next vice president

March 26, 2007, 8:07AM
Esteemed Houston surgeon hopes to be Guatemala's next vice president


By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

It was 1976, and Dr. Rafael Espada couldn't wait to take back to his native Guatemala newly minted skills honed under the tutelage of legendary heart surgeon Michael DeBakey.

Young and full of idealism, Espada figured he could make a difference in the lives of countless Guatemalans in need of surgery. That was until Dr. Kenneth Mattox reminded him his homeland didn't exactly boast state-of-the-art facilities.

"Enjoy these big, bad cases you're performing now because you won't be doing them in Guatemala," said Mattox, now chief of staff at Ben Taub General Hospital but then a junior Baylor College of Medicine professor a few years removed from DeBakey's residency. "It'll be like you trained to become an astronaut and then went off to ride bicycles."

Espada decided to stay in Houston. Now, more than 30 years later, he's about to give up his practice at The Methodist Hospital and move back to Guatemala, where he hopes to help the country on an even larger stage: as its vice president.

Espada, 63, is running with Alvaro Colom, 2003's presidential runner-up, in that country's Sept. 9 election. Although Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu's recently announced candidacy has drawn international attention, the left-of-center Colom-Espada ticket holds a big lead in early polling. The campaign season officially begins in May.
(snip)

Espada's appeal is humanitarian. Observers describe him as something of a folk hero in Guatemala because in the past two decades he's traveled every month to the Central American country to perform free surgeries, thousands in all.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4660635.html

On edit, adding photo:



Espada, 63, seen here in this file photo, is running with Alvaro Colom, 2003's presidential runner-up, in that country's Sept. 9 election.