LatinNews Daily - 08 December 2010

Development: On 7 December the Guatemalan congress finally approved 'Law 55-2010', known as the 'domain extinction law' (LED).
 
Significance: The LED is intended to fight narco-trafficking and organized crime by allowing the government to expropriate assets (including monetary gains) found to have been obtained illegally and to make free use of them. The law had been stuck in congress for almost seven months amid concerns by legislators that it would be too invasive and that it could be used for political persecution if extended to public servants. However, pressure from civil society groups and more importantly from the US to introduce similar laws to those already in place in Mexico and Colombia persauded congress to approve the bill.      
 
Just days before the vote, various legislators denounced that they had received death threats from unidentified persons threatening to target them should they vote in favour of the LED. This raised serious questions about whether the initiative would be approved by congress.