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GUATEMALA'S PRESIDENT APPEARS TO HAVE WEATHERED POLITICAL CRISIS, BUT STILL NO PROGRESS ON ROSENBERG MURDER.

Article Excerpt
"If I were a weak president, I'd have fallen," said Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom. Probably so. Since attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg was murdered shortly after producing a video accusing Colom of his impending assassination, the president has taken a hammering from opponents (see NotiCen, 2009-05-28). At the same time, he has seen impressive support from constituents and also from an international community interested in preserving governmental continuity. But, in the absence of any real progress in the investigation, the case has become the forum for any and all to vie for political advantage by whatever means.

Rosenberg was murdered May 10. A month later, despite local efforts and the weighty assistance of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the UN's Comision Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (CICIG), officials had little to show, but Colom was less concerned with his own image than with that of the country. He told reporters that his image had actually improved in his rural strongholds and declined only slightly in the capital. "The major image problem is overseas, as a country. The truth is that a lot of work has to be done, but first we have to wait for a result from the Ministerio Publico and CICIG," he said.

No progress, no patience

But patience is in short supply in Guatemala. Vitalino Similox, once a running mate of...