GUATEMALA CITY – The streets of the Guatemalan capital’s Zona 4 are a mix of quirky cafes and bars, graffiti, mechanics, parking lots and boarded-up buildings. At one end, passing cars are surrounded by shuco hustlers – men selling Guatemalan-style hot dogs – while on the other, dilapidated paint work stands beside new apartment buildings and office spaces.
When Mario López Estrada was head of Guatemala's state telecommunications monopoly in the 1980s, making a phone call in the war-ravaged Central American nation was a hopeless endeavor. Almost three decades later, Guatemala ranks No. 1 globally in mobile network coverage, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the presidents and foreign ministers of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala prepare for Friday’s White House roundtable with President Barack Obama, experts here met to discuss how to stem the influx of Central American children that has overwhelmed U.S. border officials, sparking a humanitarian crisis.
It's nice to see the United States paying attention to Central America again. Too bad it took tens of thousands of desperate children pouring across the border to attract our interest.
Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís added his signature to a declaration expressing solidarity with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras for the “humanitarian crisis” of unaccompanied child migrants traveling to the United States.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Obama administration toughened its border policies Friday, hoping to stem a surge of women and children into the United States by sending a stronger message that unauthorized migrants will be turned away.
MCALLEN, Texas – Behind the beige brick facade and the barbed wire of the Border Patrol station here, crowds of Central American women and children are sleeping on concrete floors in 90 degree heat.
The high fuel prices are due in part to Costa Rica's 29 percent gas tax, which goes directly to the National Roadway Council (CONAVI) for roadwork, but the tax revenue hasn't been able to improve the country's roads.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, 24,668 unaccompanied minors were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexican border in fiscal 2013. Officials expect the annual number will jump to nearly 60,000 by the end of fiscal 2014.
CHALATENANGO, El Salvador – With no job or education, Mirna Meléndez paid a smuggler to help get her out of El Salvador. As she left, she told her four children: "You will have to go without my love here, but not without support."
