EL SALVADOR/ HONDURAS/ GUATEMALA: Oppenheimer On Obama's Biggest Challenge.

                                      M.HERALD/ A.OPPENHEIMER / OPINION    


     U.S. officials believe that as mush as 50% of narco traffic now passes thru Central America, aka the
"Northern Triangle".
     OPPENHEIMER:   "Fifteen years after the end of Central America’s civil wars, this region is once again becoming the world’s most violent place, and a major source of drug trafficking, organized crime and illegal immigration to the United States.
    According to United Nations estimates, more than 15,000 people a year are dying in drug and human trafficking-related violence in Central America.
    Honduras is already the world’s most violent country, with a homicide rate of 67 per 100,000 people a year, four times higher than Mexico’s, the weekly The Economist reported recently."

FOR MORE:  B. Booth reports on how the three governments are creating a multinational security plan to cope with narco traffickers...and what they want from the USA.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/obama-to-visit-region-beset-by-drug-smuggling/2011/03/19/AB94PH2_story.html

CENTRAL AMERICA: Mexico's Dead Migrant Body Count Is... Just Beginning.

AP/ DIEGO MENDEZ /      Hundreds of people visited Central American governmental offices after news of the massacre of 72 migrants in Mexico, looking for missing relatives who had left hoping to reach the U.S. Some 21 bodies have been identified as Hondurans, 19 are of other nationalities, and 32... are unidentified.
"The true number of undocumented migrants killed in Mexico in recent years may never be known, but they would almost certainly dwarf the number discovered last week. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission said there were witness accounts of 198 mass kidnappings involving 9,758 migrants in a six month-period in 2009."

GUATEMALA: 2ND UPDATE: "Agatha's" Agony Continues.

LAHT/ NEW LINK/3 Junio/    Rescue crews are still digging out bodies from mudslides after Tropical Storm Agatha ravaged Central America, killing at least 184 with 90 missing, 87 injured and nearly 200,000 evacuees. Agatha deposited more than 3 feet of rain in Guatemala's mountainous west and in El Salvador, threatening the coffee crops in both nations. The storm may have caused wider material damage in Guatemala than Hurricane Mitch did in 1998, said a Red Cross official.

Human Rights Group Blames 14 Deaths On Honduran Government.

LAHT/
A human rights group says 14 politically motivated killings have taken place in Honduras since the June 28 departure of former president Manuel Zelaya.
The group says that some arrested for their opposition to the coup have been burned with cigarettes, while others have been sodomized with police batons.
Also that some of the torturers were from the army’s 3-16 Intelligence Battalion, blamed for 184 deaths during the early 1980s.

The Honduran Mystery... How Did Zelaya Sneak Into Country?

NYTIMES/
"Various reports have emerged of Zelaya’s convoluted journey, which may have involved the help of other countries. After initially insisting that Zelaya was not in Honduras at all but was in a luxury hotel in Nicaragua, Micheletti said he had learned that the ousted leader had gone through various Central American countries, apparently in an effort to disguise his movements, before entering Honduras."

EU Won't Send Observers To Honduran Election.

LAHT.
The EU will not send observers to the November general election in Honduras because it says the conditions do not exist for the vote to be held in a framework of democracy and freedom.

Feminists Allege Honduran Rape Spree By Cops.

LAHT.

Feministas de Honduras en Resistencia claim it has documented 19 instances of rape by police officers since the June 28 coup that ousted President Mel Zelaya and that more cases have not been reported because reprisal fears.

Acting Honduran Leader Admits Error In Exiling President.

BLOOMBERG.

"Acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said it was a mistake to force deposed leader Manuel Zelaya into exile, a admission that may help revive talks aimed at ending weeks of political crisis and international isolation.

“There was an error by a certain sector,” Micheletti, 66, said yesterday in an interview in Tegucigalpa. “It wasn’t correct. We have to punish whoever allowed that to happen. The rest was framed within what the constitution requires.” "

Honduran Economy To Shrink 2% From Crisis.

Bloomberg.

Conservative Noriega Hired To Lobby For Honduran Putsch.

From NarcoNews.com

Roger Noriega, a former high-ranking U.S. diplomat in the George W. Bush administration, has been hired to lobby for Honduran maquiladores.

Honduran Stand-off Shows Limit Of Chavez's Influence.

Analysis from Associated Press.

US Revokes Visas Of 4 Defacto Honduran Officials.

From Reuters.

Zelaya Supporters Block Honduran Roads To Demand His Return.

From the LAHT.

Honduran Police Detain 6 TV Journalists.

From Bloomberg.

Six journalists connected with Venezuela had their passports confiscated...and told to leave the country.

The Cult Of The Caudillos: Zelaya, Chavez and more.

From The Wall Street Journal.

Excellent longer-form journalism returns again to the Weekend edition of the WSJ, this time explaining the rise and role of caudillos in Latin American politics and the current Honduran power struggle.

Honduran Negotiations Update.

From The NYTimes.

Honduran Political Struggle Polarizes US Politicians.

From Bloomberg.

Honduran Power Struggle Divides Friends.

An excellent report from Mark Lacey of the NYTimes on divided loyalties in the power struggle in Honduras.

Honduras Showdown Shifts To US Soil.

Photos From Honduras :Protests Peaceful and Bloody.