Guatemala

Guatemalan inmates riot at three prisons, taking 46 people hostage

Inmates, some wearing jumpsuits but most in tank tops and shorts, their faces covered by masks improvised with pieces of clothing, watched from above, perched in the prison's patrol towers.

An inmate looks out from a security tower at the Renovacion 1 prison, as inmates at three Guatemalan prisons rioted on Saturday and took mostly prison guards hostage, authorities said, in Escuintla, Guatemala, January 17, 2026.
Elazar Rumpler, a senior leader within haredi cult Lev Tahor, appearing in the Jerusalem District Court for a hearing in 2020; illustrative.

Jerusalem court sends senior Lev Tahor cult leader Elazar Rumpler to prison in child abuse case

Lev Tahor member Yoel Alter, 35, is escorted by Guatemalan police officers after being arrested at court in Guatemala City on January 24, 2025.

Leader of ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor sect extradited to Mexico, charged with human trafficking

Police officers load the bodies of the victims who died in a road accident onto a truck at Cumbre de Alaska in Totonicapan, Guatemala, on December 27, 2025.

At least 15 dead, 19 injured in Guatemala bus accident


Guatemala's Giammattei: Time to recognize Jewish people's right to Israel

The president-elect, in town on an official visit and in support of the Israel Allies Foundation annual event, visited with local leaders and planted a tree through KKL-JNF in the Hula Valley.

Alejandro Giammattei plants a tree with KKL-JNF world chairman Daniel Atar

Statistics show apathy in Israel towards people with disabilities

Although there has been a significant improvement in attitudes towards people with disabilities, the statistics presented by Oren Helman's Sikuy Shaveh (Equal Chance) were troubling.

Israeli citizens with disabilities renew their protest to receive improved benefits.

Pres.-elect to 'Post': Guatemala will designate Hezbollah a terror org.

Giammattei also said that he would reconsider his country's policy on Israeli settlements, potentially aligning it with the new US policy: settlements are not illegal.

Guatemala's president-elect, Alejandro Giammattei, speaks at an Israel Allies Foundation conference, December 9 2019

Guatemalan president to Israeli president: Your enemies are my enemies

Rivlin asked Giammattei whether he would also be meeting with the Palestinian leadership during his visit, and the reply was a definite "no."

President Reuven Rivlin with President-elect Alejandro Giammattei of Guatemala, December 8, 2019.

Meet the Ambassador: Guatemala's Mario Bucaro

Bucaro is his country’s 21st ambassador to Israel, but the first to serve in Jerusalem in the second millennium.

Mario Bucaro

A Guatemalan asylum seeker is sheltered in a Washington state synagogue

Beth Hatfiloh is the only synagogue in the United States known to be sheltering an undocumented immigrant, according to T’ruah, a liberal rabbinic human rights group.

A girl looks at the camera during an event marking the Jewish holiday of Purim at the Bialik Rogozin school, where children of migrant workers and refugees are educated alongside native Israelis, in Tel Aviv, Israel March 10, 2017.

PM praises Guatemalan president-elect as ‘friend of Israel’

"He is a friend of Israel and I am convinced that together we will strengthen the excellent cooperation between the countries,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei of "VAMOS" political party talks to the media following the first round of presidential election, as he walks towards the official voting result center in Guatemala City, Guatemala June 17, 2019.

Guatemalan presidential hopeful: Israel’s enemy is Guatemala’s enemy

Israeli first-responder awarded Guatemala’s “Ambassador of Peace” reward.

Presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei of "VAMOS" political party talks to the media following the first round of presidential election, as he walks towards the official voting result center in Guatemala City, Guatemala June 17, 2019.

Ninth Guatemalan square commemorates 'Jerusalem as capital of Israel'

This is an initiative by the Ambassador of Israel to Guatemala Mattanya Cohen.

Guatemala president Jimmy Morales meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Guatemalan presidential candidate arrested in Miami in drug-related plot

The elections in Guatemala are only two months away.

A demonstrator holds a balloon with an image depicting Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales as a clown during a protest against Guatemala's his decision to not renew the mandate of the U.N.-backed anti-graft commission, the International Commission Against Impunity (CICIG), in Guatemala City, Guatema