World IN BRIEF : GUATEMALA : Top Officials Aided Cover-Up, U.S. Says

The United States has concluded that top Guatemalan officials and other leaders helped cover up the 1990 killing of an American innkeeper there, the New York Times reported. U.S. officials now believe that former presidents Vinicio Cerezo Arevalo and Jorge Serrano, along with two defense ministers and top military officers paid by the CIA, covered up the death of Michael DeVine, the newspaper said. Rep. Robert G. Torricelli (D-N.J.) a year ago accused a Guatemalan colonel, Julio Alpirez, of being a paid CIA agent who ordered the deaths of DeVine and Guatemalan guerrilla Efrain Bamaca, the husband of American lawyer Jennifer Harbury. A presidential panel will soon present a report on the deaths.