Thousands of Guatemalan campesinos blocked roads at seven or more sites on June 4 in a nationwide protest organized by the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA) to demand that the government carry out agrarian reform, provide agricultural products for about 25,000 campesinos, buy land for cultivation and forgive debts that some campesinos incurred by taking out bank loans to buy land. CODECA spokesperson Mauro Bay said the campesinos had been making these requests of President Alvaro Colom's government since Feb. 5, 2008 but had received no response. Presidential spokesperson Fernando Barillas said the government had offered to meet with CODECA leaders on the demands but CODECA turned down the offer.

On May 21 Assistant US Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat told a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the administration of US president Barack Obama won't seek the approval of Congress for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Panama until the president has established a new "framework" for trade. "It's clear that trade agreements in the last few years have been much too divisive," Eissenstat said. "We want to make sure that Panama doesn't contribute to that divisiveness." This was a reversal from the administration's plan in March to push for early approval of the pact; the change followed a statement by John Sweeney, president of the main US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, opposing the Panama FTA.

Tens of thousands of Guatemalans have taken to the streets since the May 10 slaying of a prominent lawyer who left behind a videotape saying that if anything happened to him it was at the behest of the country's president. "If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom with help from Gustavo Alejos," the president's private secretary, the lawyer, Rodrigo Rosenberg, said in the video. Rosenberg was shot while riding his bicycle near his home. In the tape, Rosenberg said officials might want to kill him because he represented a businessman who had refused to cooperate in a money-laundering operation sought by President Colom. The businessman, Khalil Musa, was killed with his daughter in April. Colom rejects the accusation, and has called for the FBI and UN-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) to investigate the case.

The Costa Rica-based Inter-American Human Rights Court (CIDH) of the Organization of American States (OAS) ruled on May 6 that the Honduran government shared responsibility for the murder of environmental activist Blanca Jeannette Kawas Fernández at her home in Tela on Feb. 6, 1995. Kawas Fernández, the president of the Foundation for the Protection of the Natural Resources of Lancetilla, Punta Sal and Texiguat (Prolansate), had accused timber companies of illegal exploitation of the Punta Sal peninsula and of plans for its illegal appropriation, along with damage to the National Park and other protected sites. She had also opposed several economic development plans in the region.

Canadian mining company Pacific Rim, acting through a US-based subsidiary, announced this week that it will sue the Salvadoran government over its refusal to issue mining permits for the El Dorado silver and gold mine in the department of Cabañas. The case will be heard by a special international arbitration court established by the 2006 US-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

Millionaire supermarket magnate Ricardo Martinelli of the conservative Democratic Change (CD) party easily won Panama's presidential election on May 3. With 80% of the ballots counted at around 10 PM, Martinelli had 60.62% of the votes, against 36.97% for Balbina Herrera of the governing center-left Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). Under current president Martín Torrijos, Panama has had economic growth rates approaching double digits, but growth has slowed with the global crisis. Media analysts note that Martinelli's victory goes against the recent trend in Latin America for voters to replace conservative governments with left or center-left governments. The PRD had been losing support from the left; at Panama's May Day celebrations, labor and activist organizations urged the thousands of participants to abstain from the voting or leave their ballots blank. Herrera was also hurt by her ties to former dictator Manual Noriega. (Reuters, May 3; La Opinión, May 2 from AP)

In a ceremony in Managua on April 24, Nicaraguan National Police director Aminta Granera and US ambassador Robert Callahan signed an agreement making Nicaragua a member of the Mérida Initiative, a program the US government started in 2007 ostensibly to fight drug cartels and organized crime. Nicaragua is to receive $1.5 million in US aid to improve the sharing of fingerprint information among Central American countries, develop a special investigations unit and equip agents better, according to a statement from the US State Department.

From April 2 to April 3 hundreds of indigenous Chortí blocked access to Copán archeological park, probably Honduras' most important ancient Mayan site, to press demands for land. Tourism minister Ricardo Martínez said the protesters agreed to leave after the government offered to start negotiations on April 15. An estimated 400 European and US tourists visit Copán a day, each paying a $15 entrance fee.