GUATEMALA CITY – Francisco Palomo Tejada, an attorney for former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, is the latest in a number of high-profile legal professionals to be killed in Guatemala, a country with one of the highest violent crime rates in the world.
Alfonso Portillo left no doubt that he plans to jump into the country's election-year political scene, though not as a candidate. He said he wanted to seek a national agreement aimed at reforming the Guatemalan government.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Seven years ago, Costa Rican President Óscar Arias outraged Taiwanese officials by breaking diplomatic relations with the prosperous island nation and aligning Costa Rica instead with mainland China. Yet Costa Rica remains Taiwan’s largest Central American trading partner by far, with bilateral trade consistently outpacing the region’s other countries
Guatemala is seeking to confiscate European bank accounts linked to former president Alfonso Portillo, a court official said Friday, the day after a U.S. court sentenced him to nearly six years for corruption.
NEW YORK – Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was sentenced Thursday in New York to five years and 10 months in prison for a $2.5 million bribery scandal.
Taiwan will deliver next week a report on statements by ex-president Alfonso Portillo that he received millions of dollars in bribes from Taipei for diplomatic recognition, Guatemala said late Friday.
Alfonso Portillo, the former president of Guatemala, pleaded guilty in New York on Tuesday to conspiring to launder $2.5 million of public funds through a bank account in Miami, Florida. By entering the guilty plea and agreeing to repay to the United States $2.5 million, which he received in bribes from Taiwan, he hopes to avoid a maximum sentence of 20 years.
