Central American News

Mar 31, 2022

Dear Readers,

As El Salvador went through a spike in homicides last weekend -- the highest in decades --, the government put in place a state of emergency that hinders constitutional rights. The tension is particularly felt in low-resourced communities. More than 2000 people were arrested on gang-related charges in a matter of days. Their relatives and human rights defenders claim that many have been detained completely arbitrarily.

The killing spree is the latest in what appears to be a trend in El Salvador -- low official rates of homicides interrupted by short bursts of violence.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticized the government's measures limiting the human rights of prisoners. President Nayib Bukele responded with a belligerent discourse by threatening to leave international organizations.

Human rights organizations have pleaded the Salvadoran government for years to focus on integrating gang members and youth at risk into society by nurturing community relationships and tending to structural injustices in society. They claim mano dura techniques do not work.

See below for more news from the region, events, and good reads. Thanks for following Central American News!

Salú,

Melissa and the team

A recent image made viral on Salvadoran twitter of a soldier checking a child's backpack.

Headlines

Migration

📰 Title 42: The Biden administration is planning to lift the Title 42 border controls that authorities have relied upon during the past two years of the pandemic, but the restrictions will not end immediately.

📰 Changes in the System: The Biden administration has announced measures to reduce the backlog of immigration applications. The administration’s immigration budget reflects these shifts. // The administration also aims to reduce the number of detention beds in facilities. // The Biden administration will provide COVID-19 vaccines to migrants taken into custody at the southern border.

📰 At the Border: The Border Patrol chief and agency are anticipating record-breaking numbers of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border this spring. // Violence in Mexico and Central America is a key factor behind the rise in migration to the U.S. according to Red Cross. // The number of migrants crossing through Panama’s Darien Gap has tripled since 2021.

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Belize

📰 Indigenous Territory Mapping: Residents from Belize's southern communities of Sunday Wood and Conejo Creek met to sign a boundary agreement following the completion of a G.P.S. mapping exercise to delineate their respective territories. It’s part of an ongoing activity that is taking place among certain indigenous communities within the Toledo District.

📰 Education: Some sixty teachers expressed frustration to the Ministry of Education over unreliable and poor conditions of the bus service that transports them to their respective schools in rural Stann Creek. The Ministry of Education remedied the issue and the teachers were provided with more suitable buses. // Belize Government will roll out “Belize Education Upliftment Project,” win several Southside Belize City highschools. In addition to providing free tuition for students, the program will address the need for uniforms, books, digital devices, and adequate transportation.

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Costa Rica

Costa Rica news will return next week!

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El Salvador

📰 Violence: Last Sunday, El Salvador declared a state of emergency after a wave of violence shook the country, where 14 people were killed on Friday and 62 people on Saturday. These killings are credited as gang-related. This decree also suspends constitutional rights for 30 days, which can be extended at the discretion of authorities. In addition, prisons within the country are locked down, 2,163 people who are suspected of being involved with gangs have been arrested, and sentences for gang membership increased fivefold. On Tuesday, families of those recently detained gathered at the police cells in San Salvador to request information. On Twitter, President Nayib Bukele warned that if gang members don’t “stop killing now,” prisoners “will pay for it as well.” So far, organizations such as Cristosal, Human Rights Watch and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have denounced these moves.

📰 Anniversary: Last week, March 24 marked the 42nd anniversary of Monsignor Romero’s death. Saint Oscar Romero, a renowned human rights spokesperson, was assassinated in 1980 after celebrating mass in El Salvador.

📰 Femicide: On Monday, several civil society organizations in Mexico demanded justice for Victoria Esperanza Salazar, a Salvadoran migrant woman who was killed by police officers in Tulum, Mexico, in 2018.

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Guatemala

📰 Environment: In the second largest city in Guatemala, Quetzaltenango, an environmental crisis is developing due to the accumulation of tons of garbage in the streets. For three weeks a group of residents blocked the passage of garbage trucks to the municipal landfill, due to a protest over the implementation of municipal charges. The municipality declared that it is going through an "environmental disaster".

📰Mining: Communities of El Estor, Izabal, in the north of Guatemala, denounce pressure from workers of the mining company CGN-Pronico to collect signatures in support of transnational mining company Solway. In recent weeks, Solway has been involved in a scandal due to leaks of thousands of documents that detail the way the entity operates.

📰Gender-based Violence: Over the weekend, a video circulated showing security guards of a shopping center attacking girls who were asking for money. The Public Ministry announced that it is investigating the attack.

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Honduras

📰 Drug-Trafficking: The Honduran Supreme Court ratified the request for the extradition of former President Juan Orlando Hernández to the United States, thereby disregarding his appeal. The former president is accused of three charges associated with drug trafficking and use of weapons.

📰 Human Rights: The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights revealed that 70% of all crimes against human rights defenders in the last year were targeted against environmental defenders. // The court sentence reading in the case of one of the masterminds of Berta Caceres murder, David Castillo, was postponed once again.

📰 Inciting Hate: The Secretariat of Development and Social Inclusion filed a complaint with the Public Ministry against the evangelical pastor, Roy Santos, an ally of the former president Juan Orlando Hernández, for inciting hate against Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

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Nicaragua

📰 Massive Resignations: Nicaraguan ambassador to the OAS Arturo McFields denounced the Ortega’s regime as a “dictatorship” on a live session of the OAS General Assembly. An active ambassador denouncing his own country is an unprecedented event. He also requested a Temporary Protocol Status (TPS) for Nicaraguan immigrants and the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua. // Attorney Paul Reichler, who represented Nicaragua before the International Court of Justice in several international litigations, also resigned from his post for "moral conscience". He called Ortega a dictator “who seeks to impose a family dynasty”.

📰 Legal Reforms: A legal reform forces lawyers and notaries to report any “suspicious transaction” to the judicial system, breaking confidentiality with their clients. // The University of Central America (UCA) was excluded by the National Council of Universities. Also, this new Council will be able to review, approve or change education plans in all superior education institutions.

📰 Caribbean region: The government is proposing a “peaceful coexistence plan” in the Caribbean region to harmonize relations among settlers and Indigenous groups. This plan is part of a bigger project to assess climate change in the Caribbean region, but critics believe this is a scheme to legalize settler communities; Indigenous groups vow to resist and decide their own forms of government under Nicaragua's autonomous regions legal framework.

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Panama

📰 VIH: More than 500 people were diagnosed with HIV in the province of Bocas del Toro. Most of them are people from native communities and are men. They will be evaluated for personalized treatment, medications, tests and follow-up. There are some 20,000 HIV-positive people in Panama.

📰 Education: Beginning this week through April, more than 320,000 students will take a reading comprehension and literacy test in the 16 educational regions nationwide. The Aprendamos todos a leer tests aim at identifying their weaknesses and strengths.

📰 COVID-19: As of Monday, the use of face masks is no longer mandatory in open spaces, but their use is maintained in closed spaces and in open places where it is not possible to maintain a meter of physical distance between people. The use of face shields in public transportation was also eliminated. Mass religious activities are also allowed, but they must comply with biosecurity measures.

Salvadoran Families denounce abuse of authority

On March 27, 2022, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly declared a "state of emergency" that suspends for 30 days the rights to freedom of association and assembly and privacy of communications, as well as several due process guarantees. Relatives of captured youth denounce abuse of authority as more than 1400 people were detained in three days on gang-related charges.

Radio YSUCA 91.7 FM @ysuca91siete

Familiares de capturados denuncian abuso de autoridad. Los capturados son trasladados al Penalito mientras las madres llegan a pedir información.

Good Reads

📌State of Emergency: GatoEncerrado documents the case of a person who was arrested by the Salvadoran police during the current state of emergency, whose sister claims is a construction worker who was unjustly detained.

📌Political Persecution: According to Revista Factum, at least 50 people left El Salvador in the last year due to political persecution. Surveillance and court orders preceded the flight of these people.

📌 From Anti-Corruption to Persecution: Guatemala anti-corruption prosecution office (Feci) had been the unit that investigated the largest and most scandalous corruption cases in the country, but that changed. Plaza Pública details how this office went from persecuting corruption to the prosecutors who investigated it.

📌 Migration: Guatemala is a transit country for migrants seeking to reach the United States, but it is also a hub for those seeking refuge. The chances of receiving a positive response are slim, especially for the LGTBIQ+ community. Guatemala News Curator Jody Garcia reports for Agencia Ocote.

📌 Juveniles in the System: Syracuse University’s TRAC Immigration found that one third of detained immigrant people are minors between ages zero to seventeen.

Black Central American talent at the Oscars

Central American Art & Beauty compiled a list of Black Central American talent who attended this year’s Academy Awards.

Demi Singleton, @demisingleton, is half Garifuna, her family is from Honduras & Dominica 💛🤍🖤🇭🇳🇩🇲 She played young Serena Williams in the biopic, King Richard.

"Robo-dogs" at the U.S. border

Drones, artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance towers, and now military-grade 'robo-dogs,' might soon be deployed according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Todd Miller and Petra Molnar write in The Border Chronicles.

Todd Miller @memomiller

Robo-dog at the Border Security Expo. I wrote about this with @_PMolnar at The Border Chronicle. theborderchronicle.com/p/robo-dogs-an…

Events

📅 Traces of a South Central American: Forging Memory, Spanning Space & Identity Making: This event will be held on April 8. RSVP here.

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