Amid mounting opposition, President Alfonso Portillo last month canceled a Guatemalan company’s contract to explore for hydrocarbons in Guatemala’s largest lake. The Atlantic Petroleum Company (CPA) of Guatemala still holds a contract for a second, contiguous concession that runs to the Sarstun River on the border of Belize. Environmentalists and residents are demanding that the government give the lake permanent protected status and also cancel the second contract on grounds that it endangers the Sarstun. “There was a revolt here over the contracts and the president did the right thing,” says Ricardo Solis, of the environmental organization Madre Selva. “But if he wants to be the friend of the environment he said he would be in his presidential campaign, he needs to finish the job... [Log in to read more]