Central American News

Mar 17, 2022

Dear Readers,

After a week of protests from women, the LGBTQ community, and students in Guatemala, the Congress shelved the law that toughened prison sentences for abortion and prohibited same-sex marriage. Analysts believe that social pressure led the president to back down from his pro-life agenda.

Further south, the Honduran Supreme Court approved the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernandez on New York drug trafficking charges today.

Check out more headlines from this week, good reads on border walls and women's rights, and get to know Belizean woman Nora Parham and Waqxaqib’ B’atz’ (Lunar New Year) in Guatemala!

Salú,

Melissa and the team

Headlines

Migration

📰 Less migrant arrests: Immigration arrests declined by about 25% since the end of the Trump administration.

📰 Title 42: The Biden administration stated it will no longer deport unaccompanied minors using Title 42 after a recent court ruling. Migrant children will be eligible for asylum proceedings.

📰 Surveillance tech: The phone app SmartLink is helping immigration officials monitor migrants, sparking criticism from advocates. // Migrants participating in surveillance program Isap report feeling fear, frustration, and physical harm due to the surveillance technology.

📰 AMLO tour: Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he will travel to Central America and meet with the presidents of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Cuba in May to discuss migration.

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Central America

📰 War's impact: Inflation due to Russia's war against Ukraine threatens to drive more migration, poverty and insecurity in Central America.

📰 Women's rights: Central America is the region with the greatest gender inequality in Latin America, according to feminist sociologist María Teresa Blandón.

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Nicaragua

📰 Political prisoners: New report finds 179 political prisoners in Nicaragua. 169 opponents were captured after anti-government demonstrations in 2018. // Nicaraguan activist Cristiana Chamorro, a prominent opponent of President Daniel Ortega, has been found guilty of money-laundering and other charges, along with her brother, former lawmaker Pedro Joaquín Chamorro and three former employees of the Fundación Violeta Barrios Chamorro, which focuses on freedom of speech. She faces up to 13 years in jail.

📰 Diplomacy: Vatican city confirmed that their ambassador to Nicaragua was expelled and Colombia’s ambassador to Managua was also expelled in the previous week. Nicaragua withdrew their ambassador from Spain.

📰 COVID-19: University study finds that excessive deaths due to the pandemic in Nicaragua amount to 33,000 patients, 150 more times the official report by authorities.

📰 Corruption: Pro-government journalist Moises Absalon Pastora, now deputy, won $20,000 dollars in public contracts while being an elected official by using the name of his spouse as a “legal representative.”

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Costa Rica

📰 Public sector law: President Carlos Alvarado signed legislation into law that he said will bring “greater justice” between the public and private sector. The law is a key part of an agreement with the IMF and has been opposed by unions as the law prevents negotiating salary aspects in collective bargaining agreements.

📰 Presidential trip: President Alvarado will be in Europe for diplomatic visits to Spain and France at the end of March where he will meet with the Spanish president and leaders of the OECD to discuss business investment, development and decarbonization.

📰 Stench of corruption: Local elected officials of the town of Pérez Zeledón, in southern San José province, allegedly helped a criminal gang that’s being investigated for money laundering. The town council president and mayor ignored complaints when residents complained of a bad odor coming from a cattle farm owned by the gang’s leader.

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Belize

📰 Fuel: Members of the Belize Bus Association voted to stage a nationwide bus strike after seeing their profit margins repeatedly slashed over the past few months due to constantly increasing fuel prices. The decision is said to be a direct response to the government’s reluctance to offer relief to bus operators.

📰 Agriculture loan: The World Bank has approved financing of twenty-five million Belize dollars for the Belize Climate Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture Project. According to the bank, the project will provide seven thousand farmers "with weather data and technical information to help improve yields for crops and livestock and facilitate better planning". It also provides grants to over 3,700 farmers so they can adopt "climate-smart practices". Thirty percent of grants will be targeted to women farmers.

📰 Fisheries: Oceana Belize released its first annual Fishery Audit to start monitoring fishing and overfishing data in the country.

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El Salvador

📰 Jesuit Case: On March 11, a San Salvador court ordered the arrest of former President Cristiani, former Deputy Rodolfo Parker and four other defendants in relation to the 1989 Jesuit massacre. The Prosecutor’s Office is also calling in Walter Araujo as a witness in the case.

📰 Finance: Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya announced that El Salvador is planning to launch its bitcoin-backed bond between March 15 and March 20. The timing depends on the war in Ukraine. // The government announced the suspension of fuel taxes for three months and the reduction of import tariffs on 20 basic agricultural goods to cushion the impact of Ukraine's war.

📰 Women's Rights: Feminist organizations denounced the harassment, threats and hacking members have endured after criticizing influencer Yeik’s TikTok video where he advocated for the disclosure of intimate material.

📰 Spyware: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) will hold a hearing regarding the use of Pegasus spyware on Salvadoran journalists and civil society members.

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Guatemala

📰 Anti-abortion law: After a week full of protests from women, the LGBTQ community, and students, Congress shelved the law that toughened prison sentences for abortion, prohibited diverse sexual education and same-sex marriage. 119 deputies voted in favor of putting an end to the controversial law, while analysts believe that social pressure led the president to back down from his pro-life agenda. The law was riddled with legal and medical errors, experts said.

📰 Budget: Congress agreed to increase the budget for the construction of highways with Q3 billion. Opposition congresswomen denounce lack of transparency and risk of corruption.

📰 Justice: Judge Erika Aifán, who is in charge of the largest corruption cases in Guatemala, faces a complaint and a petition so that the Supreme Court of Justice withdraws her immunity. In this video, she explains what is behind this case and the persecution against her.

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Honduras

📰 Amnesty Decree: The Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (Copinh) warned that one of the masterminds of Berta Caceres’ murder, David Castillo, intends to benefit from the recently approved amnesty decree. Though the decree is meant to expunge criminal records of political prisoners, environmental defenders and former officials of the Manuel Zelaya administration, analysts worry that it will be used to benefit corrupt officials.

📰 Extradition for Drug-Trafficking : The Honduran Supreme Court approved the extradition of ex-President Hernandez on New York drug trafficking charges on March 17. In the same vein, the former director of the National Police, Juan Carlos "El Tigre" Bonilla, was given preventive detention as he awaits his trial for extradition to the United States. A total of 32 individuals have been requested for extradition, although some are not in the country, have already handed themselves in, or have passed away.

📰 Vaccines: People in the rural areas of Honduras have limited availability to COVID-19 vaccines. At least 1.5 million Hondurans do not have any vaccine shots.

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Panama

📰 Worker’s strike: Some 650 workers of sliced bread company Bimbo Panama went on strike in the seven centers operating nationwide since last week. The workers are seeking a salary increase proportional to the cost of the basic food basket and the economic growth of the company. The Industrial Union warned that because Bimbo is the main supplier of sliced bread in Panama, the country's supply could be at risk.

📰 Back to school: More than 143,000 middle and high school students returned to school last Monday after two years without on-site classes. According to data from the Ministry of Education (MEDUCA) 81% of the schools were ready for classes. MEDUCA estimates that some 30,000 students migrated from private schools to public schools during the pandemic years.

Nora Parham

A posthumous pardon is likely to be granted to Nora Parham, the only woman to have been hanged in Belizean history. The 36 year old mother of eight was a known victim of domestic violence and condemned to death for allegedly setting her husband on fire in 1963. Pleas for mercy on her behalf had been ignored. (Amandala)

Women's rights

Gato Encerrado, along with El Diario de Hoy y International Women's Media Foundation, investigated a series of cases of obstetric violence against women in El Salvador.

Global proliferation of border walls

Migrant Policy Institute released a report examining the increase in border walls globally in the last few years. "Seventy-four border walls exist across the globe, most erected over the last two decades; at least 15 others were in some stage of planning as of this writing."

Waqxaqib' B'atz' in Maya Q'eqchi' communities

"Last Tuesday, on March 15, Maya Q'eqchi' communities celebrated Waqxaqib' B'atz' (Lunar New Year) according to the Mayan Calendar. Waqxaqib' B'atz' follows the sacred calendar and that of the spiritual guides. The Ch'olq'ij calendar or Lunar Calendar has 260 days. It is not organized by months, but by spaces of 20 days, symbolized by glyphs. In this time, nine lunar phases are counted, referring to the nine months of human gestation and the growth of the harvest," writes Elías Oxom. See more on Prensa Comunitaria.

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