KEY POINTS:
Centre-leftist Alvaro Colom narrowly led Guatemala's presidential election yesterday against a retired general who wants to use the Army and emergency laws to fight a brutal crime wave.
Colom, a textile businessman, had a lead of 3 percentage points over General Otto Perez Molina with 70 per cent of polling stations counted.
The Central American country has been plagued by violent drug cartels and youth street gangs since the end of its civil war in 1996.
Colom, 56, on his third bid to win the presidency, has accused Perez Molina of seeking to take Guatemala back to the days of the Cold War.
The Army ruled Guatemala for decades until the mid-1980s and committed hundreds of massacres in 36 years of civil war that left more than 200,000 people died.
Perez Molina wants to put more troops on the streets and use capital punishment to fight crime.
- Reuters
