Central American is again being hit by devastating floods, in a rainy season that has wreaked destruction across the isthmus. Officials in Guatemala have called off the search for 15 people missing after deadly landslides, fearing fresh mudlsides after the heaviest rains in 60 years. The decision by the Guatemalan disaster response agency CONRED Sept. 7 came as rescuers resumed their grim task of digging for corpses in a ravine next to the Pan-American Highway in Santa Ana Mixta, Sololá department.

Honduran police have blamed street gangs linked to Mexican drug cartels for the killing of at least 18 employees in a shoe factory in the northern industrial city of San Pedro Sula on Sept. 7. Up to four men armed with assault rifles burst into the factory and opened fire on the workers. All the victims were said to be young men. Several others were wounded. San Pedro Sula's police chief, Hector Mejia, said the attack was part of an escalating dispute between the rival Mara Salvatrucha and Mara 18 gangs. "This massacre is linked to the drugs the gangs receive as payment from the Mexican and Colombian cartels for helping to move drugs through the country," Mejia told Reuters. (BBC News, Reuters, Aug. 17)

A Guatemalan judge ruled Sept. 8 that three soldiers charged in connection with a 1982 peasant massacre that left more than 260 dead will face trial. Of the 17 soldiers accused in the case, three were captured in Guatemala and four others have been detained in the US by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for illegally concealing their past military service and involvement in the killings on US immigration forms. The charges against the soldiers are based on the findings of a Truth Commission investigation monitored by the UN and completed in the late 1990s, which uncovered vast human rights abuses. The trials are the first for massacre crimes committed during the civil war years.

Here we go again. From the Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8:

Self-styled communists helped fuel Westlake clash with police
When the Los Angeles Police Department faced hundreds of protesters on the streets of the Westlake District, some were people drawn to the event from other parts of the city for political reasons.

Twelve people were injured Sept. 8 when a bomb went off in front of the local office of the Administrative Security Department (DAS), Colombia's secret police agency, in the southern city of Pasto, capital of Nariño department. According to a witness, the bomb was in a package placed in front of the agency's offices. Three suspects were arrested by DAS officials just after the bomb exploded at 4 PM. Among the injured are a young boy and a pregnant woman. Authorities have not said if any of the country's known illegal armed groups are believed responsible for the attack. (Colombia Reports, Sept. 8)

The US military pact with Colombia faces an uncertain future following a ruling of the Andean nation's Constitutional Court last month. On Aug. 17, in a case brought by opposition politicians, the court sent the agreement back to President Juan Manuel Santos to seek congressional approval for the pact. The government of Santos, who took power 10 days earlier, has a majority in the country's congress. (Reuters, Aug. 17)

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Sept. 8 affirmed a district court's dismissal of a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against a Boeing subsidiary in connection with its alleged role in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "extraordinary rendition" program.

From the NY Times' City Room blog, Sept. 8:

Officer Resigns, Then Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter
An off-duty police officer who struck and killed a woman in Brooklyn in 2009 pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday to second-degree vehicular manslaughter. According to the terms of the plea agreement, the officer, Andrew Kelly, will serve 90 days in jail and receive five years probation.