President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed drastically slashing U.S. foreign aid spending in Mexico and Central America, which are struggling with drug violence, graft and poverty.  2018 Mexican aid of $87.66 million, down more than 45 percent from the 2016 outlay. The budget proposes scrapping most U.S. money for the Mexican military, along with counterterrorism funds and some governance programs. In Guatemala, U.S. aid would drop almost 40 percent from 2016, to $80.66 million, while in Honduras and El Salvador it would fall nearly a third.

Many who speak Q’eqchi never learned to read or write it. And even if they did, it’s Spanish that’s the lingua franca at colleges, employers, and any other opportunity for economic growth. In turn, the nonprofit Choice Humanitarian–backed by Microsoft’s Edge team and the agency Pixel Lab–has launched a pilot program called Accent to teach 18 women from Chulac, Guatemala, how to read and speak Spanish.

President Tsai Ing-wen arrived Jan 12. in El Salvador on the final leg of her nine-day tour of four Republic of China (Taiwan) Central American diplomatic allies [...] According to Tsai, her visit is made in the spirit of mutual assistance, and she anticipates Taiwan and El Salvador jointly developing more plans and projects en route to expanding cultural, economic and people-to-people exchanges.

President Tsai Ing-wen and her Guatemalan counterpart, Jimmy Morales, reaffirmed their commitment to relations and cooperation between the two countries Wednesday, with Tsai saying that Taiwan will continue to support a Guatemalan highway expansion project, a proposal put forward by Morales. Tsai received a military salute hosted by Morales at the National Palace of Culture. 

Located in Guatemala’s Western Highlands, Lake Atitlan is a tourist-friendly area rich in Mayan culture. [...] Panajachel, known as Pana, is home to several restaurants featuring local and international cuisine, coffee shops, street food vendors and more. 

Rebeca Lane is spitting verses in the name of feminism. The Guatemalan hip-hop artist […] is using her music to spotlight sexism and the abuse that many women face in her country. She touches on topics that range from the more insidious, like catcalling, to the more severe, including the alarmingly high murder rates.