Guatemala
It's a familiar calamity: Dad is in immigration jail, baby No. 4 is on the way, and Mom is struggling
Yibi Heras was standing at the sink of her modest East Oakland home one early morning in February when she noticed some cars driving slowly past. The neighbors raise chickens and ducks, which sometimes escape the yard. She figured the cars were slowing down for animals in the road.
A few minutes later, she saw seven men standing in front of her house, and just after that, she heard a knock on a kitchen window next to her refrigerator. Her partner, Maguiber Ramos, had just gotten into bed, having returned around 4 a.m. from his job cleaning restaurants.
“I got scared,” Heras told me Thursday morning. “I thought it was a gang or robbers.”
We sat in her kitchen, as two of...
Related "Guatemala" Articles
It's a familiar calamity: Dad is in immigration jail, baby No. 4 is on the way, and Mom is struggling
Yibi Heras was standing at the sink of her modest East Oakland home one early morning in February when she noticed some cars driving slowly past. The neighbors raise chickens and ducks, which sometimes escape the yard. She figured the cars were slowing...
Powerful '500 Years' doc concludes trilogy on Guatemalan resistance
Serving as the final chapter in her Resistance Saga trilogy of documentaries chronicling Guatemala’s human rights struggles, filmmaker Pamela Yates’ “500 Years” is a palpably passionate if somewhat less contained effort than the two films preceding it....
Former governor of Mexico's Veracruz state extradited from Guatemala to face corruption charges
A one-time rising star of Mexico’s ruling party who became the public face of suspected egregious corruption afflicting the country’s political system was extradited Monday from Guatemala to face a wide range of criminal charges.
Javier Duarte,...
Magnitude 6.9 earthquake triggers landslides, damages homes in Guatemala
A 6.9 earthquake in western Guatemala near the border with Mexico caused moderate damage to homes, triggered some landslides across highways and injured at least one person early Wednesday, officials said.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the tremor...
LACMA launches its first Kickstarter campaign, bringing an egg-shaped art museum to L.A. from Guatemala
In Guatemala City, there is a contemporary art museum housed in a small structure in the shape of an egg — a space that, on a good day, can accommodate a total of four people. In August, a replica of that egg will make the journey overland from...
Sisters from Guatemala claim Border Patrol agent sexually assaulted them
Two teenage sisters fleeing Guatemala became so desperately lost trekking across the Texas desert that when they saw a U.S. Customs and Border Protection truck, they waved for help.
But the sisters, age 19 and 17, claim that they were taken by a Border...
Firefighters say 19 dead in fire at Guatemala children's shelter
At least 19 people have been found dead at the scene of a fire in a shelter for children near Guatemala City, the spokesman for Guatemala's volunteer fire departments said Wednesday.
Mario Cruz told the Emisoras Unidas radio station that firefighters...
In Guatemala, Trump's Homeland Security chief contradicts new immigration directives
During a visit to Guatemala, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly contradicted deportation plans made public by the Trump administration just a day earlier.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday after meeting with Guatemalan President Jimmy...
Just say sí: A family spends a month in Guatemala trying to learn the language — but did it work?
In the shade of my thatch cabana classroom, I beamed as my children, ages 6 and 9, serenaded me.
Reid, my younger son, shook the maracas, his older brother, Liam, beat a colorfully painted drum made from an old paint can, and their Spanish teacher...
U.S. faces clear goal in pair of World Cup qualifiers
There are no complicated formulas, stupefying scenarios or difficult math facing the U.S. national team as it returns to CONCACAF World Cup qualifying against St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Win on Friday in a cricket stadium in Kingstown (12:30 p.m....
Tragedy bubbles to the surface of the vivid Guatemalan drama 'Ixcanul'
One of the first things you see in “Ixcanul,” a vividly observed debut feature from the Guatemalan-born writer-director Jayro Bustamante, is the face of a teenage peasant girl as she’s being dressed for a meeting with her future husband. Like almost...
Amid Central American violence, refugee rights must be respected
Add immigration enforcement to the list of jobs the U.S. has partially out-sourced to Mexico, a move that seems to have made life even tougher for unaccompanied minors fleeing violence and gangs in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
As the U.S. faced a...
U.S. falls to Guatemala, 2-0, in World Cup qualifier
The United States' path toward the 2018 World Cup became considerably more difficult when coach Jurgen Klinsmann made some puzzling lineup choices and the American defense self-destructed Friday night in a 2-0 loss to Guatemala in Guatemala City.
Edgar...
Published in Los Angeles Times on March 26, 2016 — Print headline: "Loss complicates U.S. World Cup bid"
Omar Gonzalez and Gyasi Zardes reunite on the U.S. national soccer team
Former Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez was among 26 players called up to the U.S. national soccer team Sunday, ahead of two World Cup qualifiers with Guatemala.
The team, which will gather for training in Miami, plays Friday in Guatemala City (7 p.m. PT...
The next two weeks will be big for the U.S. and Juergen Klinsmann
The next 10 days will be some of the most important in Juergen Klinsmann's dual tenure as coach of the men's national team and technical director for U.S. Soccer.
Sunday morning he'll reveal his roster for home and away World Cup qualifiers with...
U.S. takes common sense steps to stem Central American migration
The Northern Triangle countries of Central America — El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala — have long been among the most unstable and violent areas in the Western Hemisphere. Three decades after civil wars and insurrections roiled the region, murderous...
Published in Los Angeles Times on January 19, 2016 — Print headline: "The Central American surge"
How 'Ixcanul' director Jayro Bustamante found a feminist tale on a Guatemalan volcano
The film begins with a young woman's taciturn face: a teenager named María diligently being dressed by her mother for a social obligation she would rather avoid. María's family, indigenous Mayans who live in Guatemala's highlands, are attempting to wed...
CONCACAF bans seven indicted soccer officials
CONCACAF, the governing body for soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean, announced Friday that it has provisionally banned seven high-ranking officials from all soccer-related activities after they were named in a U.S. Justice...
Is Ohio case of migrant youth trafficking evidence of a 'systemic problem'?
The basics of the Trillium Farms case are shocking enough:
Human traffickers lured half a dozen teenage Guatemalan boys to central Ohio with the promise of schooling, prosecutors say, then confined them to dilapidated trailers and forced them to work...
Published in Los Angeles Times on November 15, 2015 — Print headline: "Youth trafficking probed - Ohio case casts a spotlight on federal sponsor system for young migrants."
Former TV comedian sweeps to power in Guatemalan presidential race
Jimmy Morales, a political neophyte and former TV comedian, swept into office as Guatemala's new president Sunday when more than two-thirds of voters backed him in a second round of polling in presidential elections.
Fed up with a political system...