Guatemala

Guatemala's Prez issues natural disaster declaration amid 44 forest fires

Guatemala's president issued a natural disaster declaration Wednesday as 44 forest fires continue to burn across the Central American country. President Bernardo Arvalo said that 80% of the fires were started by people. Farmers often burn stubble and grass in their fields around this time of year in preparation for planting. The current situation is not a coincidence, 80% of those fires were set, Arvalo said. Authorities canceled classes across three central provinces to protect students from the prevailing smoke. One of the largest fires is near a suburb of Guatemala City, the capital. The declaration frees up funding for fire fighting efforts. Guatemala is more accustomed to dealing with its restive volcanoes than forest fires.

Updated On : 11 Apr 2024 | 6:53 AM IST

Arvalo faces obstacles as Guatemala's new president to deliver on change

Bernardo Arvalo was sworn in early Monday as Guatemala's new president. Many doubted they would ever see the day as powerful interests aligned against his anti-corruption campaign and authorities threw various legal challenges at him and his party. Arvalo is now president, but those disputes will continue and with little support in Congress he will be hard-pressed to deliver the deep changes in Guatemalan government and society that fuelled his support and a surprise electoral victory. He's considered a political moderate with a background in conflict resolution, skills that should serve him well in Guatemala's current polarization. WHO IS GUATEMALA'S NEW PRESIDENT? Arvalo is the 65-year-old son of former Guatemalan President Juan Jos Arvalo. The elder Arvalo was credited with implementing fundamental protections for workers and spaces for the country's Indigenous population. Bernardo Arvalo was born in Uruguay, where his father was in exile following the ouster in a 1954 CIA-bac

Updated On : 16 Jan 2024 | 7:21 AM IST

Bernardo Arevalo sworn in as Guatemala's president despite challenges

Bernardo Arevalo was sworn in as Guatemala's president on Monday minutes after midnight despite months of efforts to derail his inauguration, including foot-dragging and rising tensions right up until the transfer of power. Arevalo arrives in the presidency after winning August's elections by a comfortable margin. But nothing has been straightforward since, with Attorney General Consuelo Porras and the establishment forces observers say she represents throwing one legal challenge after another at Arevalo and his party. Despite hundreds of Arevalo's supporters pressuring lawmakers to follow the constitution, even clashing with riot police outside the congress building on Sunday, the inauguration process dragged for hours into the night before he took the oath of office just past midnight. A progressive academic-turned-politician and son of a Guatemalan president credited with implementing key social reforms in the mid-20th century, Arevalo takes office with expectations of confrontin

Updated On : 15 Jan 2024 | 12:43 PM IST

Indians now third-largest population of illegal immigrants in US: Report

The influx of undocumented Indians in the US has been climbing since the Covid restrictions were lifted, with 30,662 apprehended in FY21 and 63,927 in FY22

Updated On : 21 Nov 2023 | 10:43 PM IST

Pakka setting up $250 mn bagasse-based packaging paper plant in Guatemala

Regenerative packaging solutions firm Pakka is setting up a 400 tonne per day bagasse-based packaging paper plant at an investment of USD 250 million (around Rs 2,065 crore) in sugarcane-rich Guatemala, South America. The company, began as Yash Papers in 1981, is also nearly doubling its capacity of the Ayodhya plant with around Rs 550 crore of investment from 130 tonne/day to 230 tonne/day. The Ayodhya-based company is into regenerative packaging solutions for the food packaging and serving segments. The paper-based food packaging industry or those making compostable packaging solutions, is highly fragmented and is led by Ecoware, Fomex, Dine Earth and Pakka, among others. "We have finalised a plan to set up a 400-tonne per say bagasse-based plant in the Latin American country of Guatemala at an investment of USD 250 million. We are in the process of identifying the land. We need around 90 acres for a Greenfield plant of this scale," Jagdeep Hira, the company's managing director,