Central America

El Salvador has released another woman imprisoned for aggravated homicide who after suffering an obstetric emergency was accused of aborting her pregnancy in a country where abortion under any circumstances is banned.

The community of Agua Caliente, one of 16 Maya Q’eqchi’ communities in the El Estor municipality, is demanding that the Guatemalan government give them title to their land and the right to determine how its natural resources are exploited.

Authorities in Buenos Aires reported that at least 24 people have died since Wednesday as a result of a contaminated batch of cocaine. Over 80 persons were said to have been hospitalized, with some requiring the life-sustaining support of mechanical ventilators.

Honduras’ first woman president, Xiomara Castro, was sworn in on Thursday at the national soccer stadium in Tegucigalpa. During her inaugural address, Castro expressed disdain for the outgoing administration’s “economic catastrophe.”

Many see Vice President Harris’ trip to Honduras as a sign that Washington intends to work closely with Honduras and other Central American countries to stem the flow of migration northward. But many Honduran immigrants living in the United States are hoping Washington does something more for their homeland.

Rank-and-file legislators of President Nayib Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, are showing the first signs of dissent for fear of U.S. sanctions and lack of budget, camera time, and access to decision-making. Some of them did not appear for key votes in recent weeks.

As of Monday afternoon, Honduras still had two parallel Congressional leaderships, both under suspicion of illegality, a sign that does not bode well for the stability for the first days of Castro’s presidency. 

The prospects of Honduras President-elect Xiomara Castro governing with the support of a solid congressional majority took a hit Friday when the selection of leaders for newly-elected lawmakers devolved into shouting and shoving among her own allies.

The Americas reported nearly 7.2 million new COVID infections and more than 15,000 COVID-related deaths over the past week, the Pan American Health Organization said Wednesday. Coronavirus infections across the Americas almost doubled between January 1 and January 8, from 3.4 million cases to 6.1 million, PAHO said.

On January 10, El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office raided the offices of the anti-corruption task forces that throughout 2020 and early 2021 investigated secret government negotiations with gangs and corruption in the current administration, increasing the perception that those who dare challenge the Bukele administration could face steep repercussions.

El Salvador and Guatemala just eclipsed 30 and 25 years, respectively, since the accords that ended their armed conflicts. Despite recent attacks on judicial independence in both countries and intense polarization surrounding the landmark agreements, the courts granted new openings for two watershed civil war-era cases.

An external analysis confirmed that at least 22 staff members at El Faro were hacked during the past two years using the Israeli spyware Pegasus, which is allegedly only sold to governments. The hacks, totaling 226 intrusions, matched the timeline of key El Faro investigations into corruption in the Bukele administration.

Then, as now, American journalists were overwhelmingly Euro-Americans, or we can say, simply middle-class white people, who grew up with the privileges afforded to those who lived in mainstream America. They could not see the world as I did.

As Daniel Ortega assumed his fourth consecutive presidential term on January 10, dozens of political prisoners remain behind bars, and those who visited them reported torturous conditions. The Nicaraguan leader still resists international pressure despite increasing isolation

In a fractured civil society, Indigenous authorities have become increasingly influential in the construction of broad-based political movements connecting Indigenous communities and campesino cooperatives with urban middle-class progressives. One such leader, Martín Toc, believes he can someday be president of Guatemala.

A decade ago, the controversial WikiLeaks offered an unprecedented window into the workings of the U.S. government in Central America. Now the possible extradition and trial of founder Julian Assange may set a dangerous precedent for the criminalization of commonplace news-gathering activities, press advocates say, and contradict moves by Biden to punish those seeking to harm journalists around the world.

The defeat of the National Party at the ballot box on November 28 set off a political earthquake—not only in the Presidential Palace in Tegucigalpa, but also in the far-flung provinces where drug traffickers reign.

CHEPOL, Guatemala (AP) — Anxiety was high Saturday in Guatemala amid uncertainty about loved ones who might have been on the tractor-trailer that crashed in southern Mexico while jammed with smuggled migrants, killing 55 people and injuring more than 100.

As world leaders met for Biden’s Democracy Summit, the U.S. delivered a major blow to the Bukele administration by sanctioning senior officials for leading covert gang negotiations and accusing his chief of cabinet of spearheading a “multiple-ministry, multi-million dollar corruption scheme.”

The “Sembrando Oportunidades” project will combine efforts from the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (Amexcid) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to focus on Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Honduras’ ruling party conceded defeat Tuesday in presidential elections held two days earlier, giving victory to leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro and easing fears of another contested vote and violent protests.