Central American News
Start of a challenging year for Central American women as femicide cases continue to soar in the region
Hi readers,
Welcome back to another week of Central American News!
El Salvador continues to be under a state of exception and faces a rise in arrests of people unrelated to security issues. Nicaraguan migrant women continue to be victims of femicide while Honduras is already leading in the number of femicide cases in Central America just a few days into 2023. Meanwhile, Costa Rica has initiated a trial for a femicide case. Guatemalan authorities launched a diplomatic altercation with Colombia over opening investigations into Ivan Velasquez, former CICIG commissioner and now Defense Minister in Colombia. Belize’s unemployment rate has decreased to 5% but is confronting an increased inflation rate. Panama’s famous Jazz Festival prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Happy reading!
The Central American News team
Photo credit to @ricardoarduengophotos
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Headlines
Central America
📰 Miss Universe: Central America will be in the spotlight at the end of 2023 as President Nayib Bukele announced that El Salvador will be the host country for Miss Universe. In his speech, he stated that El Salvador is now the safest country in Latin America. This is happening at a time the country faces a rise in human rights violations because of the state of exception.
Nicaragua
📰 Femicides: Seven Nicaraguan women have been murdered in the first two weeks of 2023, five of them were migrants abroad. The feminist organization “Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir” (Catholic women for the right to choose) warns that the exodus Nicaragua is experiencing greatly exposes migrant women to gender-based violence and femicide.
📰 Diplomacy: According to presidential agreements published in “La Gaceta” (the official gazette of the Nicaraguan State) on January 11, the Nicaraguan government made the first moves with its diplomatic corps for 2023, withdrawing the appointments of its ambassadors to Chile, the European Union, Belgium, and Ethiopia.
📰 Economy: Nicaragua once again broke its record in remittances received from emigrants. The Central Bank reported that it received US$2,887.8 million in remittances between January and November 2022. Mostly from the US, Costa Rica, and Spain.
El Salvador
📰Environment: Five environmental defenders, who were a part of the historic campaign that led to the ban of metal mining in El Salvador in 2017, were detained after being accused of killing an army informant during the civil war. Critics say the accusation is politically motivated as a way to “neutralize the fight against mining.”
📰Peace Accords: On January 15, hundreds marched in San Salvador to mark the 31st anniversary of the signing of the 1992 Peace Accords. Marchers called for freedom and protested the current State of Exception.
📰State of Exception: Human rights organization Cristosal say they received 3,086 reports of human rights violations committed under the State of Exception with the majority being arbitrary detentions. // Ana Ramos, a unionized worker in the Mayor’s Office in Soyapango, was recently arrested after peacefully demonstrating for salaries owed to her and other municipality employees. Arrests have risen in Soyapango after President Nayib Bukele initiated Phase 5 of his Territorial Control Plan, which included deploying over 8,500 soldiers to Soyapango.
Guatemala
📰President: This weekend, President Alejandro Giammattei presented his report on his third year in office. In his speech, he presented his version of Guatemala and what his government has achieved. One of the various contradictions from the speech was his position regarding the fight against child malnutrition, a campaign promise. According to a verification made by Plaza Pública, in the three years of Giammattei's administration, key budgets that would have fought the problem have been cut.
📰Students: After more than eight months of denouncing electoral fraud within the university leadership and taking over the facilities of the University of San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), the only state university in the country, students from the Northwestern University Center (CUNOROC) handed over the facilities as part of an agreement with the university authorities. In the process, they denounced the idea that the rector Walter Mazariegos was rightfully elected.
📰Corruption: This week a journalistic investigation revealed the existence of links between Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, and Mario Leal, a businessman, former vice-presidential candidate for the UNE party, and a fugitive accused in a high-level corruption case. Leal would have offered to finance the construction of three markets in the Salvadoran capital.
📰 Velásquez: Guatemalan authorities announced that former anti-corruption body commissioner Iván Velásquez will be investigated for corruption within the Odebrecht case, thereby launching diplomatic tension with Colombia, as Velásquez is now Defense Minister in Colombia’s government. The Attorney General, Consuelo Porras, and Rafael Curruchiche, the prosecutor of the casa, are both sanctioned by the United States, which included them in the Engel List of democratic and corrupt actors.
Honduras
📰 Femicides: Honduras registered the violent deaths of 17 women just 15 days into 2023. According to the National Commission of Human Rights (CONADEH), women between the ages of 20 and 39 are among the most affected by violence. The impunity of those responsible for the crimes continue to strengthen the cycle of violent deaths against women in the country.
📰 State of Sanitary Emergency: Honduras declared a state of sanitary emergency for 90 days, following the high presence of avian influenza detected among pelicans. Out of 123 cases registered, 109 animals were found dead. The nation aims to prevent its spread and has not reported cases of the virus in domestic birds.
📰 Environment: President Xiomara Castro launches an environmental program called “Padre Andrés Tamayo,” amidst the country’s reported loss of 10% of its forests in just 11 years. Honduras possessed nearly two million pine forests before they were plagued by the Southern Pine Beetle, a phenomenon linked to climate change. The initiative will combat forest fires and support the reforestation of 150 municipalities within Honduras. In early January, two environmental defenders part of the Guapinol community have been killed.
Panama
📰 Cerro Patacón: The concession of the company that manages the San Miguelito and Panama sanitary landfill, known as Cerro Patacón, ends March 23, and the uncertainty of what will happen worries national authorities and citizens. // Environmentalists and human rights defenders describe Cerro Patacón as an ecological disaster.
📰 Politics: Last week, the National Assembly approved to discuss a bill that would sanction those who speak about politics without being political scientists with a fine of up to $5,000. The proposal states that those who speak as political scientists must have a university degree in political science issued by accredited universities.
📰 Jazz Festival: The Panama Jazz Festival, a cultural event that brings together hundreds of musicians, students, and jazz listeners, will celebrate its 20th anniversary from January 16 to 21.
Belize
📰 Economy: The Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) reported a national inflation rate of 6.2% for the year 2022. Orange Walk Town registered the highest inflation rate for January to November of the same year at 8.5%, while Belmopan showed the lowest rate at 4.8%. // Belize’s unemployment rate was down to 5% as of mid-October 2022, according to recent data issued by the SIB.
📰 Human Trafficking: On January 11, 2023, the Transportation Leaders Empowered through Education, Awareness, and Effective Policy Change on Human Trafficking program in Belize (TLEADP) was launched. The program intends to address the persons being trafficked in the country, and RET International funding from the Central American Region Security Initiative of the United States government is implementing it.
📰 Water shortage: The Corozal Free Zone will be connected to the Belize Water Service after 25 years of relying on wells for water.
Costa Rica
📰 Presidential Pushback: President Rodrigo Chaves defended Health Minister Joselyn Chacón over alleged payments to online personality Alberto Jesús Vargas Zúñiga, better known as Piero Calandrelli, in exchange for creating content to attack journalists who criticized the president. Chacón claims that payments were “charity” to Zúñiga who was facing a financial crisis.
📰 Campaign Finance Investigations: Deputies, along with the Investigative Commission for the Financing of Political Parties, are considering using the national police to bring 25-year-old Shen Lin Huy to appear in front of the committee. Lin Huy was one of the biggest donors for the campaign of the current president Rodrigo Chaves.
📰 Femicide Trial: The trial of Dr. Carlos Pérez began on Monday, January 16, 2023, for the femicide of María del Carmen Tacsan Ulat. Tuscan was killed in September 2020 in her home in San Rafael de Herdia; her death was initially disguised as a suicide.
Central American Art
Photo credit to makeupbyclau_r
Salvadoran makeup artist Claudia Rodrigue participated in Miss Universe for the second consecutive time by beautifying the new Miss Universe 2022. She is originally from Caserio Joya Galana (Nejapa) and migrated to the United States at the age of sixteen.
Good Reads
📌El Salvador: The battle for the third root in El Salvador: The Afro-descendant community in the country continues the search for recognition and inclusion within the Constitution. (La Prensa Grafica)
Good News
✨Sincerely Sicily: Congratulations to Panamanian author Tamika Burgess on publishing her new book, Sincerely Sicily. As detailed in the book summary, it focuses on Sicily Jordan “a Black Panamanian fashionista who rocks her braids with pride—who learns to use her voice and take pride in who she is while confronting prejudice in the most unexpected of places.” (Twitter)
Central American Studies
🎓 Significance of Mural Art Across Central America: In this thread from the Central American Voices (CAV) Podcast, Fatima Moran details the significance of mural art.
Photo credit to Fatima Moran from the CAV Podcast
“Let us build societies that are able to coexist in a dignified way, in a way that protects life. Let us come together and remain hopeful as we defend and care for the blood of this earth and its spirit.”
- Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environmental activist
Events
📅Afro-Latinx Festival: The Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California is hosting an Afro-Latinx Festival on Feb. 25 to highlight “the importance of African legacy in Latin America through food, art workshops (and) live performances.” Submissions for artworks by Afro-Latinx artists are also currently being accepted.
📅 The Panama Jazz Festival: The concert is scheduled for the 19th-20th of January at the Teatro Ateneo, the City of Knowledge, and the Teatro Anayansi in the Atlapa Convention Center. Tickets for the concerts are now available on the Panama Jazz Festival website.
History
📰 BBC news article highlights the UNICEF funds used for Guatemala schools created through ABBA’s song “Chiquitita.” Its royalties have been used for domestic and sexual abuse prevention through mental health support and workshops for primary-school-aged children, many of whom are victims of abuse and young mothers under the age of 16.
Photo credits to BBC news
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