Lopez-Diaz

MEMORANDUM **

Leonardo Lopez-Diaz, a native and citizen of Guatemala, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA”) decision dismissing his appeal from an immigration judge’s (“IJ”) order denying his applications for asylum and withholding of deportation. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1252 . We review for substantial evidence the BIA’s denial of an application for asylum on the ground that the alien has not established eligibility, see Meza-Manay v. INS, 139 F.3d 759, 762 (9th Cir.1998). We deny the petition for review.

*86 Lopez-Diaz testified that he feared persecution from guerrillas, but that they never threatened him personally and that he left Guatemala before any guerrillas tried to recruit him. Because forced recruitment by guerrillas, without more, does not amount to persecution, substantial evidence supports the BIA’s affirmance of the IJ’s order denying Lopez-Diaz’s application for asylum. See INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 481-82 , 112 S.Ct. 812 , 117 L.Ed.2d 38 (1992).

Additionally, the IJ properly relied upon a State Department Country Report to determine that conditions in Guatemala have changed such that Lopez-Diaz’s fear…