Deported to Guatemala

Aug 23, 2021

Dear Readers,

Welcome back to another week of Central American News.

In August, the Biden administration began deporting Central American people from the U.S. to Guatemala through a policy allowing fast-track expulsions for some families coming from Mexico. Mexico has also amped its efforts to fly migrants at the south of the country. These procedures aim at discouraging people from attempting going back to the U.S. by taking them further.

Many are not told where they are going and are left on their own in Guatemala. "When they get off the bus, they have no local currency, no place to stay and no-one to call for help," reports Reuters, as many people do not have a connection to Guatemala.

More than 200,000 people were caught at the U.S. border in July, more than 22,000 than in June. There also have been more unaccompanied children at the border.

Check out our curation of good reads and podcasts, they will for sure keep you busy learning about Central America throughout the week. Also, if you want to know more about the Indigenous-led protests in Guatemala, I'll be interviewing Ancestral Mayan Tz'útujil Authority Paulina González on Wednesday, among others, on Global Voices.

Salú,

Melissa

A migrant woman from Honduras reacts while speaking on a mobile phone after she and other Central American migrants were expelled by U.S. and Mexican officials, in El Ceibo, Guatemala August 15, 2021. REUTERS/Luis Echeverria

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Headlines

Migration

📰 “Remain in Mexico”: Migrant justice advocates decry a Texas judge’s decision to reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy. Before the ruling, officials in the Biden administration discussed reviving the policy with more “gentler” elements.

📰 Policy Shifts: A Biden administration policy intends to shift decision-making power over asylum cases from immigration judges to asylum officers to reduce backlog. Court rulings are influencing additional policies for the detainment of migrants and immigration enforcement.

📰 Deportations: In August, hundreds of Central Americans have been deported from the U.S. to El Ceibo, Guatemala. Many are not told where they are going and feel stranded in Guatemala.

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Belize

📰 COVID-19: The government is considering shutting down the Belize District because the number of COVID-19 cases is exploding country wide. Concerns are concentrated in Belize City which recorded the highest number of new cases.

📰 Guatemala: While giving an update on the International Court of Justice referendum concerning the Belize-Guatemala territorial dispute, the Belizean Minister of Foreign Affairs said that although there has been a "lessening of tensions" between the countries, he is still wary of assuming an agreement will be made regarding the territory. // Belize and Guatemala met to discuss strengthening trade relations under the Belize-Guatemala Partial Scope Agreement.

📰 Shyne in the US: Leader of the Opposition Shyne Barrow travelled to the United States for the first time since being deported twelve years ago. He met with US politicians with the hopes of strengthening Belize-US relations.

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Costa Rica

📰 Refuge for Afghans: Costa Rica’s Vice-President Epsy Campbell announced that the country is considering granting refuge to 48 Afghan women who worked for the United Nations as well as create a “humanitarian bridge” for Afghan women and girls.

📰 Aid for Haitians: Costa Rican authorities, with the help of Chile, sent a shipment of food and water to Haitians impacted by the recent earthquake. President Carlos Alvarado coordinated with the Chilean president to send the aid and urged the international community to provide support.

📰 Delta Variant: The delta variant is causing a new wave of COVID-19 infections which is expected to worsen in the next two weeks. While 60% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, health minister Daniel Salas insists that the population not fall into a “false sense of security”.

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El Salvador

📰 Constitutional Reforms: In a joint statement, nine organizations refused to meet with Vice President Felix Ulloa’s Ad-hoc team to view the proposed constitutional changes because of their concerns regarding the lack of transparency regarding the preliminary draft. As a result, Ulloa criticized the organizations’ decision stating that it was “an excess of arrogance.”

📰 FMLN: Mexico granted former Minister of Public Works, Gerson Martínez, refugee status amidst the investigation into him and other officials accused of receiving illegal bonuses. // Contradicting previous reports, Former FMLN official Violeta Menjívar, now detained and investigated for money laundering, claims that she is receiving medical care.

📰 Legal Affairs: Four soldiers were ordered provisional detention for the killing of an unarmed man on Aug. 12. // Reynaldo Vasquez, former president of El Salvador’s soccer federation, is expected to plead guilty to money laundering charges as a part of a corruption probe into FIFA and other soccer organizations. // HSBC has begun legal proceedings against El Salvador under the reasoning that the country has violated an investment treaty with the UK.

📰 Bitcoin: With the official implementation of the Bitcoin Law coming up on Sept. 7, the Minister of Finance stated that use of Bitcoin will be completely optional despite part of the law explicitly saying that use of Bitcoin is mandatory.

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Guatemala

📰 #ParoPlurinacional: This week’s anti-governmental protests were met with confrontation and aggression. Indigenous and ancestral authorities, accompanied by lawyer Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, had to file a criminal complaint against a group of terminal vendors that threatened protestors with knives and clubs on Aug. 19. President Giammattei stated that the social mobilizations were "dividing the country", and added a vaccination center where protests are held in the capital each Saturday. Yet, people are still gathering to demand President Giammattei and Consuelo Porras’s resignation.

📰 Press Freedom: On Aug. 21, the 'state of calamity' was modified. The press is obliged to "avoid publications that may cause confusion or panic”, and that the media must "assume the responsibilities that derive from it” if they do aggravate the situation. The Guatemalan Association of Journalists said that the intention is to "gag" the media and censor criticism against the government and the state of calamity. The Human Rights Ombudsman's Office called it an act of "visible censorship”.

📰 COVID-19: As of Aug. 19, there are 11,339 reported deaths from COVID-19 in Guatemala. This week, five variants of the virus were confirmed in the country as only 50% of available vaccines have been applied. The University of Washington projects that by Nov. 1, Guatemala could reach 200 deaths a day.

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Honduras

📰 Elections: The National Electoral Council summoned registered political parties, alliances, and independent candidates for the presidential election to attend the draw to find out the order in which they will appear on the ballot. However, the drawing was postponed after chaos broke out, including the forceful entry of militants from the National Party into the premises, the breaking of the ballot container, and confrontations between the National Party and the opposition parties. // The postponed drawing was met with protests by the opposition. Some journalists (including from Contracorriente) were forbidden by the military from entering after being told that only “news media that was previously enrolled could enter.” // This is the confirmed ballot order of political parties in the upcoming elections (photo).

📰 COVID-19: A new wave of COVID-19 infections is affecting Honduras, medical authorities informed. Hospitals are at-capacity in an already precarious health system.

📰 Virtual Congress: The governmental risk management agency SINAGER recommended that Congress does not return to in-person sessions.

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Nicaragua

📰 NGO’s: Government cancels six international NGOs, including OXFAM, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), and requested to close 15 national NGOs. The government says these NGOS lack some of the requisites to continue working, but the NGO’s say their documents have not been validated by the government's office. At least 40 NGOs have been closed since 2018.

📰 COVID-19: The Nicaraguan independent monitor for COVID-19 recorded 90 new deaths and 628 new cases. Nicaragua is the country least vaccinated in Central America, with less than 6% of the population with the first dose. // At least 200 evangelical preachers and 13 catholic priests have died due to COVID-19.

📰 Crime: The Lawyer of Honduran Mara Salvatrucha chief was detained in Nicaragua with $94,000 in cash.

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Panama

📰 Environment: The Ministry of Environment reported the growth of secondary forests in the provinces of Veraguas, Herrera, Darien, Los Santos, Chiriqui, and western regions of the Ngabe Bugle region. These forests serve habitats for various animal species, and reduce carbon emissions. // Civil engineer Andres Vissuetti and environmental engineer Katherine Fuentes will attend the United Nations World Youth Conference (COY16). The theme of the conference focuses on climate change, the effects of the phenomena on countries and the globe, and solutions to the issue on a national scale.

📰 Guna Yala: Young community leaders and members from the Guna Yala region are participating in a first aid and fire fighting program in order to show community members how to do it. The Guna Yala region is made up of 365 islands, 44 of which are populated.

📰 Lack of Transparency: The Presidency restricted access to information about activities of the Cabinet council, the president, and the Vice President of the Republic of Panama for ten years.

Black History Month in El Salvador and Costa Rica

Central American Art @CentAm_Beauty

1/5-Luis Guevara Mora is a Afro-Salvadoran former football goalkeeper from El Salvador. At the age of 17, he was called up to play a friendly game against Panama in April 1979 & he became the youngest goalkeeper in the national team's history….

🎥 Afro Descendants in the Salvadoran Diaspora: Check out AFROOS’ virtual discussion between Ana Miriam Torres and Dr. Danielle Parada about Afro Descendants in the Salvadoran Diaspora.

✨Check out this Twitter thread from @marce_go about Eulalia Bernard, an Afro-Costa Rican poet, educator and activist.

🎥 How to stop being racist in language?: Watch AJ+Español’s interview with Tanisha Swaby from the Afro-Costa Rican Women's Center about racism in language.

What's Happening in Guatemala?

Join Melissa Vida this Wednesday for a chat with Ancestral Mayan Tz'útujil Authority Paulina González from Guatemala, Cuban actress and producer Lynn Cruz and Colombian student activist Diego Armando Hernández Álvarez. (Register at Global Voices)

Good Reads

📌Afro Guatemalan: An overview of the history of Afro-Guatemalans and their modern impact in Guatemala and Central America despite their invisiblization in the region. (Travel Noire)

🎓 A Love Letter to Indigenous Blackness: Check out Dr. Paul Joseph López Oro’s article which focuses on how “Garifuna women in New York City working to preserve life, culture, and history across borders and generations are part of a powerful lineage of resistance to anti-Blackness.” (Tandfonline)

📌Fact Check: Experts dispute claims made by Republican politicians that migrants crossing the border are a key factor for increasing COVID-19 transmission rates. (CNN)

📌U.S. Policy: Biden is slamming the door in Afghani refugee’s faces much like Trump did to Central Americans fleeing the consequences of U.S policy. (Washington Monthly)

🎥 #ParoPlurinacional: Andrea Ixchiu, a Mayan activist, discusses Guatemala’s ongoing national strike and the demands from Indigenous communities. (The Red Nation Podcast)

Quote of the week

“The available evidence suggests that out-migration from Central America to the United States was initially caused by the U.S. political and military intervention of the 1980s, [and] that it persists because the region has never recovered from the lethal violence and economic havoc that the intercession unleashed. . .” Douglas Massey, a sociology professor at Princeton (Washington Monthly)

Good News

✨SalviSoul Cookbook: Karla T. Vasquez, founder of SalviSoul, announced a partnership with Ten Speed Press to produce a cookbook with homemade Salvadoran recipes.

✨Q & A with Miriam Jiménez Román Fellow, Paul Joseph López Oro: In this interview, learn more about Dr. Paul Joseph López Oro who was recently announced as The Latinx Projects’ Miriam Jiménez Román Fellow (The Latinx Project)

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