Latin American progressive leaders are increasingly being backed into a corner on organized crime by pressure from the Trump administration and their own voters, who point to the results from El Salvador's war on gangs.

A judge is blocking the Trump administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country.

A federal judge is temporarily keeping measures in place to prevent the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan migrant children in government custody.

A federal judge is temporarily keeping measures in place to prevent the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan migrant children in government custody.

A reconstruction of the aborted deportation of dozens of Guatemalan children on Labor Day weekend illuminates the latest clash between the administration’s desire for mass deportations and longstanding legal protections for migrants.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport more than 70 Guatemalan children during a late-night operation over the holiday weekend.

The Homeland Security secretary is praising Florida for coming forward with an idea that’s been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” because it would house immigration detainees in a facility being built in a Florida swamp.

An altar from the Teotihuacan culture, at the pre-Hispanic heart of what became Mexico, has been discovered in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, the center of Mayan culture, demonstrating the interaction between the two societies.

As the United States government works to effectively extend its border security objectives south into Central America, countries like Guatemala have come under renewed scrutiny and pressure to step up their own border enforcement.

Hours before dawn, Julio Arrivillaga and Catalina Pérez Molina boarded a bus with other residents in the center of the humble village of Santo Domingo Los Ocotes in Guatemala for what should have been an hour-long ride to Guatemala’s capital.

Hundreds of Guatemalan faithful found the sounds and colors of their tropical homeland during the biggest-yet celebration of the Black Christ of Esquipulas in the heartland farming town of Worthington, Minnesota.

United States and Guatemalan authorities have announced the arrest of six people charged with human smuggling linked to a semi-trailer truck crash in Mexico in 2021 that killed more than 50 migrants.

The family of a Guatemalan journalist has celebrated his transfer to house arrest following his jailing for over two years amid his newspaper’s anti-corruption investigations.

The world’s greatest stage is the sprawling Midtown Manhattan complex where leaders meet each year to discuss humanity’s future.

Federal officials on Thursday announced the indictment of a Guatemalan national who they say helped coordinate a human smuggling effort that ended with 53 migrants dead and 11 injured in a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio.

U.S. authorities have announced the indictment of a Guatemalan suspect who they say helped coordinate a human smuggling effort that ended with 53 migrants dead in a sweltering tractor-trailer in San Antonio.

Guatemalan police have arrested seven Guatemalans accused of having smuggled 53 migrants from Mexico and Central America who died of asphyxiation in 2022 in Texas after being abandoned in a tractor trailer in the scorching summer heat.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has thanked Guatemala for helping nearly 600 Mexicans who have crossed into Guatemala to escape drug cartel violence.

Catholic Church leaders in southern Mexico have made a desperate plea for the Mexican government to protect communities from drug cartels that extract protection payments and use locals as human shields near the border with Guatemala.

The White House says President Joe Biden discussed migration with President Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala after the Central American leader held similar talks with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Guatemalan Migration Institute reports that a caravan of some 500 migrants that departed northern Honduras in hopes of reaching the United States has dissolved after crossing the border into Guatemala.

The U.S. State Department has barred former Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei from entering the United States, accusing him “significant corruption” just- three days after he left office.

Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Guatemala’s Attorney General’s office has formally requested that President-elect Bernardo Arévalo and his vice president be stripped of their immunity so it can investigate them for allegedly encouraging the student occupation of the country’s only public university.

Patrick Hamilton, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War who covered civil wars in Central America as a photojournalist for The Associated Press,and later worked at Reuters covering the first Gulf War in Iraq, has died after a long struggle with cancer.

Four months after a fire at an immigration detention center on the United States border, eight badly burned survivors are stuck in their rooms at a Mexico City hotel.

Guatemala sank deeper into political turmoil as prosecutors targeted a progressive presidential candidate who proved to be surprisingly popular.

Guatemalans have sent two presidential candidates from opposite sides of the political spectrum to an Aug. 20 runoff, giving hope to many disenchanted voters that change may be possible.

Electoral workers are slowly tallying ballots across Guatemala, and early counts are giving no indication of which two candidates from a huge field of presidential contenders will advance to a runoff.

Guatemalan police arrested the country’s prosecutor for crimes against migrants Friday, accusing him of alleged abuse of authority.

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a transgender Guatemalan woman who is fighting deportation on the grounds that she would face persecution if returned to her native country.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei have toured the archaeological site of Tikal during a trip by Tsai that aims to shore up the self-governing island’s ties with its remaining allies in Central America.

Migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico, starting a fire that killed at least 40 people.

A judge has ruled that the director of a Guatemalan investigative newspaper will stand trial on charges of money laundering, influence peddling and blackmail.

Former hurricane Julia has dissipated, but is drenching Guatemala and El Salvador with rain after reemerging in the Pacific.

Hurricane Julia hit Nicaragua’s central Caribbean coast and dumped torrential rains across Central America before reemerging over the Pacific as a tropical storm.

The search for a mother and daughter whose car plunged into a huge sinkhole in Guatemala has changed to a recovery effort, three days after they disappeared.

The Department of Justice’s Joint Task Force Alpha announces international arrests of top Guatemalan human smugglers.

Authorities have released the names of two children who were among the dozens of people killed after being left in an abandoned tractor-trailer on the Southwest Side last Monday in San Antonio.

Families of the more than 60 people packed into a tractor-trailer and abandoned in Texas have began to confirm their worst fears.

An Indigenous migrant who was accused of kidnapping and jailed in a northern Mexico border city has returned to her homeland of Guatemala as a free woman after spending more than seven years in prison without a trial.

A Guatemalan judge considered key in fighting corruption in the Central American country has resigned and announced that she has decided to leave the country.

About 100 migrants who trekked on foot north from the Guatemalan border have gathered in Mexico City to mark International Migrants Day and remember fellow travelers who have died on the journey.

Guatemalan families awaiting word on the fate of relatives involved in a deadly migrant smuggling accident in southern Mexico are now also living with the terror of extortionists telling them their loved ones have been kidnapped.

Anxiety is high in Guatemala amid uncertainty about loved ones who may have been on the tractor-trailer that crashed in southern Mexico while jammed with smuggled migrants, killing 55 people and injuring more than 100.

The Guatemalan government has declared a month-long, dawn-to-dusk curfew and banned pubic gatherings in the northern coastal province of Izabal, following two days of protests against a mining project.

Hundreds of Central American migrants _ many families with young children _ expelled by the United States on flights deep into southern Mexico have been dropped this week at this remote jungle outpost on the Guatemalan border.

Anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval has fled Guatemala, arriving in neighboring El Salvador just hours after he was removed from his post.

A recent Supreme Court ruling has given some immigrants renewed hope that they can have their deportation cancelled because they didn’t receive proper notice of the court proceedings.

With Kamala Harris visiting Guatemala and Mexico on her first foreign trip as vice president, the Biden administration is expected to announce new measures to fight smuggling and trafficking, and hopes to announce additional anti-corruption efforts as well on Monday.

For over a year, the AP's “One Good Thing” series has highlighted good deeds done by individuals to brighten others’ days during trying times.

Vice President Kamala Harris has told Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei that the U.S. is planning to increase relief to the Northern Triangle region and “strengthen our cooperation” to better manage the steep increase in migration at the U.S. southern border.

The Biden administration has struck an agreement with Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to temporarily surge troops to their borders in an effort to reduce the tide of migration to the U.S. border.

(AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)SAN PEDRO SULA – A few hundred Honduran migrants set out for the Guatemalan border before dawn Tuesday in hopes of eventually reaching the United States, but by afternoon they had largely dispersed. There were three checkpoints before the border on the Honduras side where authorities checked documents, especially for those traveling with children. That caravan, which grew to a few thousand migrants, was eventually dissolved by authorities in Guatemalan using tear gas and riot shields. Mexico last week began restricting crossings at its southern border to essential travel and stepped up operations to intercept migrants, especially families, in the south. The Northern Triangle countries — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have accounted for the majority of migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border in recent years.

Migrants disembark on the Mexican side of the border after crossing the Usumacinta River from Guatemala, in Frontera Corozal, Chiapas state, Mexico, Wednesday, March 24, 2021. Guatemala issued a similar decree in January to stymie a previous caravan, arguing it represented a public health risk amid the coronavirus pandemic. During the previous attempt in January, Guatemalan police and soldiers launched tear gas and wielded batons and shields to stop a group of about 2,000 Honduran migrants at a roadblock. AdSeveral caravans of mainly Honduran migrants have tried to cross Guatemala and Mexico to reach the U.S. border, though none has succeeded since 2019. U.S. authorities reported more than 100,000 encounters on the southern border in February, the highest since a four-month streak in 2019.

Mexican immigration agents stop people who crossed the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, to see their identification documents as they enforce limits on all but essential travel near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Monday, March 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)MEXICO CITY – Mexico announced Monday that several top U.S. advisers on border and immigration issues will meet with Mexican officials on Tuesday to discuss migration and development in Central America. The talks come as a surge of migrants has hit the U.S. southern border. AdU.S. border patrol officials had encountered more than 29,000 unaccompanied minors since Oct. 1, nearly the same number of youths taken into custody for all of the previous budget year, according to administration officials. Officials say migrant traffickers are encouraging people to make the trip by claiming the U.S. border is open to migrants, while Biden administration officials have stressed that the border is not open.

Guatemalan travelers cross the Suchiate River, border between Guatemala and Mexico, into Mexico aboard a raft near Ciudad Hidalgo, Sunday, March 21, 2021. Mexico sent hundreds of immigration agents, police and National Guard officers marching through the streets of the capital of the southern state of Chiapas to launch an operation to crack down on migrant smuggling. Dozens of immigration agents lined the riverside asking those who landed on the giant innertube rafts that carry most of the cross-border traffic for documentation and turning many back. AdAfter a negotiation, immigration agents allowed her sister and another relative to pass, but they had to leave their IDs with agents while they shopped. On Friday, hundreds of National Guard troops and immigration agents paraded through the capital of the southern state of Chiapas.

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)COMITANCILLO – Families of some of the 16 Guatemalan migrants killed near the Mexico-U.S. border in late January began burying their remains Saturday in the town of Comitancillo, where 11 of the victims were from. The migrants' charred bodies arrived Friday night to the region near Guatemala's border with Mexico after being sent from the other side of Mexico, Reynosa, just across the U.S. border from Texas. “We are seeing his coffin, we will not see his face anymore,” reflected Magdalena Dalila Miranda, the young man's sister. Because the bodies had been burned, it took weeks for positive identifications through DNA samples, but the families in Guatemala had already started mourning. The massacre raised memories of another migrant massacre in Tamaulipas in August 2010, when members of the Zetas cartel killed 72 migrants near the town of San Fernando.

He believes his daughter Santa is one of the charred corpses found in a northern Mexico border state on Saturday. The killings revived memories of the gruesome 2010 massacre of 72 migrants near the town of San Fernando in the same gang-ridden state. “In the aforementioned acts of Jan. 22, at least 12 state police officers participated,” Barrios Mojica said. In December, one of the four victims so far identified in the January massacre claimed the vehicle from immigration authorities. But Barrios Mojica said the state police officers charged in the killings knew their shell casing might give them away, so probably picked them up.

A Honduran migrant child is helped off a Guatemalan army truck after being returned to El Florido, Guatemala, one of the border points between Guatemala and Honduras, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. (AP Photo/Oliver de Ros)EL FLORIDO – A once large caravan of Honduran migrants that pushed its way into Guatemala last week had dissipated by Tuesday in the face of Guatemalan security forces. They were passed from Guatemalan border agents to their Honduran counterparts and then boarded buses that would take them back to their hometowns. Guatemalan forces effectively dissolved multiple migrant caravans last year.

Guatemalan soldiers and police block Honduran migrants from advancing toward the US border, on the highway in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Some migrants threw rocks while authorities launched tear gas and pushed the migrants with their riot shields back down the highway. Their ranks have reduced through attrition as some migrants have agreed to be bused back to the Honduran border. In total, some 8,000 to 9,000 Honduran migrants were believed to have entered Guatemala in the year’s first caravan after departing from San Pedro Sula, Honduras early Friday. “We are proposing that they seek a dialogue with the migrants, in Honduras, Guatemala,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday.

Honduran migrants clash with Guatemalan soldiers in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Sunday, Jan. 17, 2021. Guatemalan authorities estimated that as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants crossed into Guatemala as part of an effort to form a new caravan to reach the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Sandra Sebastian)VADO HONDO – Guatemalan police and soldiers launched tear gas and wielded batons and shields against a group of Honduran migrants that tried to push through their roadblock early Sunday. The roadblock was strategically placed at a chokepoint on the two-lane highway to Chiquimula in an area known as Vado Hondo. The security forces beat them back and deployed tear gas.

Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. border rest on the side of a highway, as soldiers patrol the road in Vado Hondo, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021. Guatemalan authorities estimated that as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants crossed into Guatemala as part of an effort to form a new caravan to reach the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Sandra Sebastian)GUATEMALA CITY – Guatemalan soldiers blocked part of a caravan of as many as 9,000 Honduran migrants Saturday at a point not far from where they entered the country seeking to reach the U.S. border. On Friday night, two groups of more than 3,000 Honduran migrants each pushed their way into Guatemala without registering, part of a larger migrant caravan that had left the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula before dawn. The Honduran migrants are trying to cross Guatemala to reach Mexico, driven by deepening poverty and the hope of a warmer reception if they can reach the United States border.

Before the large breach, Guatemalan authorities had reported picking up only small groups of Hondurans and returning them to the border. Mainor Garcia, a 19-year-old laborer from San Pedro Sula, carried a purple knapsack as he walked along the highway early Friday. In recent caravans, Guatemalan authorities have stopped small groups of migrants at roadblocks and returned them to Honduras. Other attempted caravans last year were broken up by Guatemalan authorities before they reached Mexico. __Escalon reported from San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

About 200 Honduran migrants resumed walking toward the border with Guatemala early Thursday, a day before a migrant caravan was scheduled to depart the city of San Pedro Sula. That first group set out Wednesday but paused at night before reaching some 75 police officers, dressed in riot gear, who waited along the highway on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula. By Thursday, more migrants arrived at San Pedro Sula's bus terminal. On Thursday, Mexico's National Immigration Institute posted videos showing hundreds of agents and National Guard members drilling on the southern border. The decree noted the threat of migrants entering without required documentation and without following pandemic-related screening at the border.

Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020 defended Mexicos restrictive immigration policy, which has prevented many Central American migrants from crossing Mexico to reach the U.S. border. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)MEXICO CITY – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday defended Mexico’s restrictive immigration policy, which has prevented many Central American migrants from crossing Mexico to reach the U.S. border. Mexico has sent National Guard officers and immigration agents to the southern border with Guatemala to prevent migrant caravans from entering Mexico and detain those who do manage to cross. “We have protected migrants, there have been no violations of their human rights," López Obrador said. “It was our own decision, that we made, foreign governments do not impose anything on us,” the president said.

Members of search and recovery teams search for survivors in the debris of a massive, rain-fueled landslide in the village of Queja, in Guatemala, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Eta. The storm was expected to hit Cuba by early Sunday, and approach the Florida Keys and south Florida late Sunday or Monday. Tropical storm warnings were issued for central Cuba, southern Florida and the Florida Keys. South Florida started emptying ports and a small number of shelters opened in Miami and the Florida Keys for residents in mobile homes and low lying areas. The storms’ threat comes as many streets across South Florida have been inundated by heavy rains and unusual King Tides.

A barefooted woman makes her way around debris brought on by a landslide on a road blocking traffic, in the aftermath of Hurricane Eta, in Purulha, northern Guatemala Friday, Nov. 6, 2020. In a news conference, President Alejandro Giammattei said he believed there were at least 100 dead there in San Cristobal Verapaz, but noted that was still unconfirmed. Her home in La Lima, a San Pedro Sula suburb, is 150 feet from the roiling Chamelecon river and only a short way from the international airport’s runway. It said rescues were happening Friday in San Pedro Sula and La Lima, but the need was great and resources limited. The U.S. State Department said in a statement Friday that four U.S. helicopters from the Soto Cano Air Base near Tegucigalpa had flown to San Pedro Sula to participate in rescue operations.

A pregnant woman is carried out of an area flooded by water brought by Hurricane Eta in Planeta, Honduras, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Delmer Martinez)TEGUCIGALPA – The rain-heavy remnants of Hurricane Eta flooded homes from Panama to Guatemala Thursday as the death toll across Central America rose to at least 57, and aid organizations warned the flooding and mudslides were creating a slow-moving humanitarian disaster across the region. Eta had sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph) and was moving north at 8 mph (13 kph) Thursday. When what’s left of the storm wobbles back into the Caribbean it will regain some strength and become a tropical storm again, forecasts show. “Whatever comes out (of Central America) is going to linger awhile,” said Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Early Saturday, hundreds of migrants who had entered Guatemala this week without registering were being bused back to their country's border by authorities after running into a large roadblock. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)RIO DULCE – Hundreds of U.S.-bound Honduran migrants who had entered Guatemala this week without registering were being bused back to their country's border Saturday by authorities who met them with a large roadblock. Police said that hours earlier, migrants had boarded buses and army trucks to be taken back to the border. They heard about the caravan that formed earlier this week in San Pedro Sula via WhatsApp and Facebook. I don’t know to whose benefit, but we’re not naive.”The new group was reminiscent of a migrant caravan that formed two years ago shortly before U.S. midterm elections.

A new caravan of about 2,000 migrants set out from neighboring Honduras in hopes of reaching the United States. But further ahead on the highway through northern Guatemala, about 1,000 migrants met a police and army roadblock late Friday that prevented them from advancing. On Thursday, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei vowed to return the migrants to Honduras, citing efforts to contain the pandemic. Hundreds of migrants crossed into Mexico, were allowed to walk for several hours up a rural highway and then detained. Even if the migrants were allowed to cross Mexico without interference, the U.S. has essentially closed its border to legal immigration and entering illegally is as difficult as ever.

Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off with countries celebrating independence days.

Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off with countries celebrating independence days.