Search for landslide victims abandoned

Guatemalan authorities abandoned efforts today to recover bodies from a deadly landslide that killed hundreds of people, and blocked villagers’ access to the site to prevent an outbreak of disease.

“We simply can’t do it anymore,” Santiago Atitlan Mayor Diego Esquina said, referring to efforts to recover more bodies from the nearby community of Panabaj, buried under a mudflow a half-mile wide and as much as 15 to 20 feet thick.