Rescue workers today searched for victims of a mudslide near a volcano-ringed lake popular with tourists in Guatemala, as the death toll from flooding sparked by heavy rains climbed to 79 across the country and 65 in neighbouring El Salvador.

A judge in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas has released six paramilitary members convicted of taking part in the 1997 massacre of 45 rebel sympathisers, sparking fear among refugees who had fled the bloodbath.