Weekly Report - 15 January 2009 (ISSN 1741-7422)

The interior minister, Francisco Jiménez, was dismissed last week as President Alvaro Colom continued the high-level changes on the security front instigated at the end of last year. His departure follows that of the army top brass, including defence minister Marco Tulio Garcí­a Franco. Jiménez's successor, Salvador Gándara, a former deputy interior minister and three-time mayor of one of the most violent municipalities in the country, has been welcomed by the right-wing opposition Partido Patriota (PP) for his hard-line stance on crime. Human rights organisations were less enthusiastic.