Menchu calls for a purge

(First Edition)

Guatemala's new President, Ramiro de Leon Carpio, must live up to expectations and purge those responsible for the recent crisis, the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu says, AFP reports from Guatemala City.

Ms Menchu said that Mr de Leon must prosecute those involved in former president Jorge Serrano's seizure of near-dictatorial powers which plunged the country into confusion two weeks ago, as well as those who toppled him a week later.

'If there is no purging I think the president will see people take to the streets pretty soon,' said Ms Menchu, who described recent events as 'the worst crisis the country has ever seen'.