Twenty two Guatemalans en route to the United States drown off the coast of the Mexican State of Oaxaca. Guatemalan Congress approves Industrial Property Rights law. British American Tobacco Central America Inc. The merging companies include Costa Rica's Tobacco Company, El Salvador's Cigarrer a Moraz n, Guatemala's Tabacalera Nacional, Honduras' Tabacalera Hondure a, Nicaragua's Tabacalera Nicaraguense, and Panama's Tabacalera Istme a. 16. Mench has requested charges against eight members of Guatemala's armed forces for genocide and terrorism against Guatemala's civilian population during the country's 36-year internal conflict. Arango announced April 12 that his office would provide the Court with information his office has collected during investigations into massacres detailed in Mench 's petition.
Fuel importing companies announce an additional reduction in gasoline prices.
Roberto L pez C lix, representative of the World Bank in Guatemala, publishes a critical evaluation of the recently approved Industrial Property Rights law. The bill, passed May 4 by the US House of Representatives, provides greater duty preference access to US markets for more than 70 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Central America. US Ambassador to Guatemala, Prudence Bushnell, expresses concern that the recently approved Industrial Property Rights law does not meet international standards. Four newspaper reporters and a pilot survive helicopter crash in the Department of Quich in north central Guatemala. An outbreak of meningitis at a hospital in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala's second largest city, leaves 13 newborns dead and five others seriously ill.