Central American News
Migration restrictions, State of Exception, and films
Dear readers,
Welcome back to Central American News! After our break, we are thrilled to start our coverage of Central America again and get back in touch with you.
We have plenty of ideas for Central American News this year as well as new team members. For example, we are welcoming Robert Zuniga who will cover Central American films on a monthly basis. You can already find his curation in this newsletter. You’ll also get Central American News’ classics: the week in headlines.
Happy reading!
The Central American News team
In Brief
The U.S. administration recently announced a measure that prohibits migrants and asylum seekers from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti (on top of Venezuela) from asking for help at the border, as they would be turned away. Instead, they must do paperwork from their home country and hope to be among the 30.000 people accepted by the United States from these countries. This will affect Nicaragua, which has become the country with the second most emigrants seeking asylum after Afghanistan. Honduras and El Salvador are still under a state of exception, while Costa Rica is investigating anti-journalist troll activity during its presidential campaign. Belize increases its minimum wage, Panama launched its much-awaited census, and Guatemala is gearing up for its general elections in 2023.
Seeking volunteers
Want to join a growing team of Central Americans passionate about Central America? We are now seeking a migration news curator (2h per week) and an Instagram officer (3h per week). Please send over your CV and a few paragraphs of why you want to join the project to centralamericannews@gmail.com.
Headlines
Migration
📰 Title 42: In late December, the US Supreme Court ruled to keep Title 42, which was a Trump-era measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
📰 Tightening U.S. asylum: The Biden administration announced a capping of 30.000 migrants from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba under certain conditions. More information under the Nicaragua headline.
📰 “Three Amigos”: Presidents from the U.S, Mexico and Canada met in Mexico City this week to discuss migration, drug trafficking, manufacturing and trade.
Nicaragua
📰 Politics: The US Administration announced that it will extend the Parole Process for Venezuelans to migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, and Haiti, and allow entry for up to 30,000 migrants per month. Individuals must have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks to be granted entry for two years and receive work authorization. Anyone who seeks to irregularly cross the border will be ineligible for the program and expelled to Mexico.
📰 Migration: Nicaragua was marked by an unprecedented exodus in 2022 with 328,443 Nicaraguans leaving their homeland. Experts highlighted that this migration is the “main and most visible symptom of the latent socio-political and human rights crisis in Nicaragua.” Since 2018, at least 604,485 Nicaraguans have left the country.
📰 Civil Society: In 2022, the Nicaraguan regime closed 3,108 NGOs, directly affecting vulnerable groups in the country such as women, victims of violence, indigenous people, youth, and children.
El Salvador
📰 Security: El Salvador extended its State of Exception for the ninth time on December 14, 2022. According to the government, the number of murders has been reduced by 56.8%.
📰 Human Rights: Human rights organizations reported that the National Civil Police is responsible for 38% of violent deaths since the State of Exception was imposed. // A University of El Salvador student, accused of being a “gang collaborator,” was released after being captured by the police on December 9, 2022. His mother believes he was arrested because of a tattoo on his leg.
📰 Water activists: In September of 2022, seven environmental activists in La Labor were acquitted of accusations made by the real estate company Fénix SA de CV. They had accused the company of illegally extracting water extraction in October 2021. In a special hearing on December 20, the Court of Ahuachapán reimposed several measures against the defenders.
📰 Reforms: At the end of 2022, the Salvadoran congress approved reforms to increase pensions and to create State supervision for the retirement income system. However, critics say this doesn’t address structural problems in the pension system.
Guatemala
📰 Elections: On January 21, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Guatemala will make the general call for presidential, congressional, and more than 300 mayoral elections.
The political parties have presented their pairings:
VAMOS has nominated Manuel Conde, current congressman, and Luis Suárez, an economist;
Valor and Unionista parties have nominated Zury Ríos, former congresswoman and daughter of Efraín Ríos Montt, who was convicted of genocide in 2013, and also Héctor Adolfo Cifuentes.
The party The Movement for the Liberation of the People, which brings together thousands of indigenous people, has nominated Thelma Cabrera, a former candidate for the presidency, and Jordán Rodas, former ombudsman.
Sandra Torres is running for office for a third time as a presidential candidate for the National Unity of Hope (UNE) party. Torres’s running mate is Romeo Guerra, an evangelical pastor unknown in the political world, as a vice-presidential candidate. Guerra was nominated despite the fact that the Constitution prohibits religious ministers from running for office.
Honduras
📰 State of emergency: Honduras extended its state of emergency that was set on December 6, 2022, for another 45 days and affecting 75 municipalities. The state of emergency, introduced by President Xiomara Castro, challenges constitutional rights and allows security forces to detain people associated with crimes.
📰 Corruption: Internal police network grants driver’s licenses to the public without having to pass any exams. They tend to groups of 20 to 50 people a day in exchange for payments of up to $7,500 Lempiras. This is all happening at a time when the National Directorate of Roads and Transportation claims to lack sufficient materials to print legal licenses, allowing citizens to drive with expired licenses.
📰 Migration: In 2022, Honduras received 94,339 deported Hondurans, surpassing the number of deportees in 2021 by 27.5%. The United States alone sent back 46,393 Hondurans in 2022, 13,329 of them being unaccompanied children and adolescents.
Panama
📰 Population census: On January 8, the long-awaited population and housing census, which should have been carried out in 2020, kicked off. More than 8,000 census enumerators will be deployed throughout the country until March 4 of this year.
📰 Día de los Mártires: January 9th marks the 59th anniversary of the 1964 battle between Panamanians and U.S. residents of the Canal Zone. The dispute began after students from the National Institute attempted to raise the Panamanian flag inside the Canal Zone, which at the time was controlled by the U.S. government.
📰 Migration: From January to December 24, 2022 the Migration Directorate counted more than 244 thousand irregular migrants who crossed through Panama to the United States. The figure doubles the number that entered last year and sets a new record in the history of the country.
Belize
📰 Territorial Disputes: Representatives from the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs turned in their Reply to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning the counter-memorial submitted by Belize to resolve Honduras’ claim over the Sapodilla Cayes.
📰 Wage Increase: The Ministry of Labour announced in a press release that they have made amendments for an official increase in the minimum wage to $5 hourly from $3.10 effective January 1, 2023.
📰 HIV Prevention: PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) medication, designed to prevent infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), is now available for free at all public health facilities countrywide. An estimated 5,000 persons in Belize live with HIV, and only half of these individuals are aware they carry the virus.
Costa Rica
📰 Presidential Campaign Scandal: The Attorney General's Office opened an investigation against the Minister of Health, Joselyn Chacón Madrigal, for paying trolls to attack journalists and the media. Deputies are calling on Chacón, along with presidential adviser Mayuli Ortega Guzmán, to explain payments made to the online troll personality Piero Calandrelli. Calandrelli claimed he was paid to attack journalists who didn’t support the president on social media.
📰 Public Health: The National Nursing Union is accusing the president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) Marta Esquivel of an alleged breach of duties and “stating ideological falsehoods.” This comes a week after five CCSS directors and its former president were accused of making illegal appointments in the department in charge of the nation’s public health sector.
Central American Films in 2022
Buenas! Robert Zuniga here. This year we will be diving into the realm of Central American Cinema and how it has cemented itself in Latin American and U.S. Latinx film culture. Today let’s highlight Central American films that made it on the list of Cinema Tropical’s Best Latin American Films of the Year (2022).
El Silencio del Topo (The Silence of the Mole)
Anaïs Taracena, Guatemala
A powerful film about infiltration in Guatemala’s repressive government during the 1970s featuring the character of Elias Barahona, a journalist who became “The Mole” as he leaked information from the government to aid the resistance.
Clara Sola
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén, Costa Rica
A narrative that depicts Clara Sola, a woman who lives in rural Costa Rica with her mother. After many years of repression by the hand of her mother, society, and religion, Clara experiences an awakening in all aspects of life.
Para su Tranquilidad, Haga su propio Museo (For your Peace of Mind, Make your own Museum)
Ana Endara Mislov and Pilar Moreno, Panamá
A portrait documentary about the world of the intricate and small things found in a museum made by artist Senobia. Senobia’s museum impacts many women in her rural town in Panama.
Central American Studies
“Central American Studies gains popularity on California campuses”
“More than a class: Students explore cultural background, identity in Central American courses”
“I’m always going to go back to Central American Studies regardless of where I am…It’s something that I’ve always carried with me. It doesn’t matter what class I’m in. It always feels like I have to have a conversation about the Central American community. (…) Who’s going to talk about the experiences and traumas if not the Central American Studies students?”
- Yoselin De Leon-Lazo, a student at Cal State University
Central American Writer Retreats
A community of Central American Isthmian writers from across the diaspora invites you to their writer meet-ups. Register here.
The Team
Editorial team: Mindrid Tesucum and Vanessa Lobo-Gradiz
Coordinating team: Karla Saenz Porras, Kayla Alamilla, Shahrazad Encinias
Social media: Abigail Galvez-Aguirre
News curators: Candice Gillett (Belize), Pablo Arauz (Costa Rica), Jody García (Guatemala), Kirsten Cintigo (El Salvador), Luna Cordóba (Nicaragua), Rodrigo Medina and Joan Collins (Panama), Allison Aguilar (Honduras)
Film curator: Robert Zuniga