On March 12 hundreds of Honduran soldiers, police and agents of the National Criminal Investigation Directorate (DNIC) removed thousands of families from some 200 manzanas (about 340 acres) of land they were living on in the Montes de León, La Mesa, Santa Rosa and Loarque Sur neighborhoods in Comayagüela, Tegucigalpa's twin city. Deputy Police Commissioner Leandro Osorio said the operation was in compliance with an eviction order issued by a Tegucigalpa court. According to authorities, the land belongs to the Social Fund for Housing (FOSOVI) and was occupied illegally. After the residents were removed, bulldozers destroyed their homes, built mostly from materials like sheet metal and pieces of wood.

After lengthy negotiations on Feb. 26, Guatemala's new education minister, Dennis Alonzo, and Joviel Acevedo, head of the 80,000-member National Teachers Assembly (ANM), reached an agreement settling a wage dispute that had set off a series of militant actions starting Feb. 22. Thousands of teachers tied up traffic throughout the country and occupied a central plaza in Guatemala City to push their demand for a 16% pay increase this year, including an 8% raise the government had failed to provide in 2009.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended a five-day tour of Latin America March 5 with a stop in Guatemala, where she promised the assembled Central American leaders more Drug War aid—and repeated her call for them to recognize the new government of Porfirio Lobo in Honduras. "We support the work that President Lobo is doing to promote national unity and strengthen democracy," Clinton said at a news conference, announcing that the US will restore aid to Honduras. Lobo himself attended the meeting—seeming to signal a step toward normalizing relations with Guatemala and El Salvador. Costa Rica and Panama, also in attendance, have already recognized the Lobo government. The Nicaraguan government of Daniel Ortega, who did not attend the meeting, is unlikely to do so. Also on hand were the presidents of Belize and the Dominican Republic. (NYT, CSM, March 5)

Guatemalan union leaders and their families filed a lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan against Coca-Cola Co., accusing the world's biggest beverage company of complicity in violence against labor leaders. Lead plaintiff José Armando Palacios says he was repeatedly targeted in attempts on his life after he joined the union at a Coca-Cola processing plaint in Guatemala City, owned by Industria de Cafe or Incasa, in 2004. Thugs he charges were hired by Coke invaded his home, held his wife and family at gunpoint, and threatened to shoot them. Palacios fled to the United States in 2006, where he was later joined by his family.

Guatemalan police forces, together with army troops and DEA agents, destroyed 319 million opium plants and 250,000 marijuana plants, together valued at an estimated $780 million, in a four-day operation last month in Ixiguan and Tajumulco municipalities of San Marcos department, near the border with Mexico. The National Civil Police said San Marcos is considered to be a "sanctuary" of opium cultivation. (EFE, Feb. 5)

Guatemalan authorities March 2 arrested three top anti-narcotics officials—days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit the Central American nation to discuss Drug War strategy. Baltázar Gómez Barrios, chief of the National Civil Police (PNC), was detained along with "Drug Czar" Nelly Judith Bonilla and her advisor Fernando Carrillo at the Division of Anti-Narcotics Analysis and Information (DAIA). They are accused of running a corruption ring linked to a gun-battle last April between traffickers and police over a 700-kilo consignment of confiscated cocaine in Amatitlán. Five DAIA agents were killed in the gun-fight, and 13 have been since been arrested in connection with it. (NYT, FT,* Siglo XX1, Guatemala, March 3; El Periodico, Guatemala, March 2)

Thousands of Guatemalan public school teachers blocked roads on Feb. 22 to push their demand for the government of President of Alvaro Colom to give them a 16% pay raise this year. According to Joviel Acevedo, head of the 80,000-member National Teachers Assembly (ANM), the protesters obstructed highways connecting Guatemala with Honduras, El Salvador and México, and blocked roads accessing Guatemala City. Amilcar Montejo of the Municipal Transit Police (PMT) told reporters the blockages had caused chaos in various routes leading to the center of the capital. A group of unionists including Acevedo occupied the Education Ministry (Mineduc).

The new Honduran government of President Porfirio Lobo brought fresh corruption charges last week against the exiled Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted as president by last June's coup d'etat. Prosecutors charged Zelaya with diverting $1.5 million in welfare funds to his campaign for a referendum on reforming the constitution. Zelaya said in a statement from the Dominican Republic that the charges "seek personal revenge and worsen the political persecution against me, forgetting national reconciliation." (AP, Feb. 27)