BY CATHERINE ELTON
                      Special to the Herald

                      GUATEMALA CITY - Thousands of demonstrators marched peacefully to the presidential palace Wednesday to
                      protest alleged corruption following a long series of accusations of illicit enrichment against President Alfonso
                      Portillo and prominent members of his government.

                      Press accounts here and in Panama claim that the president, vice president Francisco Reyes López, and others in
                      and out of government opened 13 bank accounts and created four companies in Panama in 2001 that may have
                      handled deposits of as much as $900,000 per month.

                      The protesters demanded that the president and vice president surrender immunity from prosecution and that the
                      president's special secretary, who also reportedly had an account, be removed from public office.

                      The scandal over the bank accounts is considered the last straw in a nation many feel is becoming increasingly
                      tense due to economic problems and allegations of corruption that have plagued the government ever since
                      Portillo took office two years ago.

                      ''The crisis is hitting rock bottom,'' said Miguel Albizures, a protest organizer and member of the nongovernmental
                      Alliance Against Impunity. ``The government has done nothing to improve the economic situation. When you add
                      to this all the corruption and impunity, it just pushes society's patience to the limit.''

                      In an effort to learn more about the Panama bank accounts, Congress set up an investigative commission whose
                      members include Jose Cojt, a leader of the opposition.

                      ''All we know right now is that there are accounts in Panama,'' he said. ``Our investigation has to determine
                      where the funds in the accounts came from. We are concerned because we know the way this administration has
                      been handling government resources has not been correct.''

                      The prosecutor's office and the attorney general have also opened investigations.

                      The ''Panama Connection,'' as it is being called, broke after a year of allegations of multimillion dollar corruption
                      in various ministries, including interior, agriculture, and communications and infrastructure.

                      In the weeks before the Panama scandal broke, the central bank president was kidnapped in a high-profile
                      abduction. He was eventually freed, but the government's virtual silence on the details of the incident increased
                      public suspicion that it was politically motivated.

                      In an earlier incident, a government printing office employee was murdered. He was one of the witnesses who
                      alleged that the vice president had ordered the government printing office to print defamatory leaflets against one
                      of the country's business leaders, which appeared strewed all over the capital in August.

                      The wave of scandals occurs against a backdrop of heightened social tension. Famine plagues a nation suffering
                      the dual disaster of drought and dwindling coffee prices. Landless peasants have staged a number of farm
                      takeovers in the past weeks amid claims that the government has failed to fulfill its promise to address
                      Guatemala's pressing problem of land tenure.