"Now I get supplies to feed my children, and I have a family garden where I grow carrots, onions and beets," Marta Quinilla, a native of Uspantán, an area northwest of the Guatemalan capital that was devastated by the 36-year civil war, says cheerfully.
The countries of Central America should adopt community policing as a strategy to fight organised crime, say experts in the region ahead of a key summit on security to be held Jun. 22-23 in the Guatemalan capital.
Guatemala will become a hub of connection and logistics for world trade when a highway-rail cargo transport corridor linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is completed.
"A year ago the river burst its banks; my house was ruined, I lost everything and I'm still waiting for help," Candelaria Peneleu told IPS from her modest home in Palín in the southern province of Escuintla, an area of Guatemala that was devastated last year by tropical storm Agatha.
The controversial acquittal of former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo of embezzlement charges was a new frustration for anti-corruption groups who are pushing for reforms to fight impunity in a country where 98 percent of crimes go unsolved.
"She got a divorce because of her ambition and love of money," shopkeeper Dulce Álvarez told IPS, about Guatemalan former First Lady Sandra Torres' decision to end her marriage in order to sidestep the legal bar to the president's family members running for the presidency.
The violence and the state of siege in the northern Guatemalan province of Petén, following the massacre and decapitation of 27 farm labourers, has been building up for years.
"If they come here to extract iron from the beach, it will mean the destruction of our natural wealth and the end of tourism," warned Leonel Palma, a hotel employee in Puerto de San José on Guatemala’s Pacific coast, where the government has granted mineral exploration licenses.
Small and medium-sized companies in Central America are the targets of foreign development aid programmes aimed at fighting the region's high poverty levels.
Poverty, lack of access to education and taboos about sexuality have hampered campaigns for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS among indigenous communities in Guatemala. These constraints have led to the development of new ways of communicating vital information, like theatre.
"If we could export our products, it would open up a lot of possibilities for us, but we don't have any direct support from the government, or training or credit facilities," said Efraín Patzán, a small-scale furniture maker in the central Guatemalan town of San Juan Sacatepéquez.
Soaring international prices for oil and gas are driving the expansion of renewable energies in Central America, a region that has plenty of untapped potential for producing hydroelectricity, wind power and geothermal energy.
Guatemala has been accepted as a candidate country by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the sector, and to reduce tensions between mining and oil companies and local people affected by their activities.
"My brother was murdered, and we're still the victims of threats and harassment, which is why we filed the petition" under the free trade agreement signed with the United States by Central America and the Dominican Republic, (DR-CAFTA), said Guatemalan trade unionist Noé Ramírez.
Thousands of small-scale fishers in Central America are fighting for survival in the face of free trade deals, transnational corporations, mega tourism projects and pollution that is harming marine life.
"We have nowhere to plant our corn, we have nothing," Jorge Chocoj told IPS while waiting with his wife and three children for the police to evict them from the land they farmed in northwestern Guatemala.
Most of the countries of Central America are lagging behind the rest of the tourist destinations in Latin America, despite their impressive natural and archaeological treasures. To turn this situation around, the area is increasingly focusing on alternatives like rural tourism.
Central America's security problems will be front and centre at a summit meeting between United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of seven countries, to be held Mar. 16 in the Guatemalan capital.
Concepción González, 42, never went to school. She remembers with frustration having to stamp her fingerprint because she couldn't sign official documents, and having to respond "I don't know" to her children's homework questions.
Amarilis Chilel, 15, left her hometown of Ixchiguán in northwest Guatemala to work as a domestic in the capital: a common story among rural girls and women in Central America. "I went to school up to fourth grade," she told IPS.
Central America is cautiously hoping that the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to El Salvador Mar. 22-23 will give tangible form to Washington's commitment to protecting immigrants and fighting organised crime in the region, analysts told IPS.