Hope, Finally, in Honduras
Dear Readers,
Many Hondurans are hopeful for change in their country.
Xiomara Castro of the left-leaning party Libre is poised to win the elections in a landslide win, becoming the first female president of Honduras. Despite fears of electoral fraud and violence, elections in Honduras were held peacefully and with massive citizen participation.
Xiomara Castro is the wife of Manuel Zelaya, who was deposed in a military coup in 2009 with U.S. tacit support that started a 12-year governance of the National Party, ridden with corruption scandals and involvement in drug-trafficking within its leadership. Four years ago, Hondurans had voted in favor of Salvador Nasralla, but Juan Orlando Hernandez was declared winner in what many consider a fraud. Protests with violent police intervention had ensued.
This time, hopefully, democracy will prevail in Honduras after years of imposed politicians. Since 2009, democracy has eroded and the poverty rate increased starkly, reaching now three out of four Hondurans.
Castro promises more social programs, the partial decriminalization of abortion and the end of the special economic zones (ZEDES).
Even if governance will be difficult, as Honduras faces so much destruction, as Miriam Miranda, the leader of Garifuna organization OFRANEH, says, Hondurans are really hopeful for the first time in a long time.
Check out Miranda's interview below, as well as more news from the region, excellent good reads and a section on fashion.
Salú,
Melissa and Jalileh
Headlines
Migration
📰 'Remain in Mexico' Continues: The Biden administration will resume the “Remain in Mexico” program next week.
📰 Build Back Better Act: Prospects for Democrats to include undocumented immigrant protections in the Biden administration’s social spending bill seem promising for them.
📰 Dehumanizing Terms: Some U.S. states will stop using “dehumanizing” terms for migrants including “illegals” and “alien.”
📰 Migrant Caravan: Mexico reaches agreements with the migrant caravan crossing its territory; authorities will grant more than 2,500 visitor permits for humanitarian reasons and dismantles the caravan.
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Belize
📰 Help us cover Belize! We are looking for a Belize news curator. Please reply to this email to apply or if you have any questions.
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Costa Rica
📰 Tracking Violence Against Women: Following Costa Rica's recent reforms to punish perpetrators for femicides in contexts of domestic violence, recent data shows that more than 4,000 women were treated for physical abuse and at least 11 femicides were recorded since the start of 2021.
📰 Wildlife Malpractice: An environmental group says the country is failing to protect marine wildlife on its coasts as it has become one of the main exporters of shark fins. The director of MArViva says there are contradictions in the way laws protect marine wildlife while also labeling some species as of “commercial interest.”
📰 Continued Corruption: Even after investigations into corruption between public officials and the construction company Meco, known as the “Cochinilla Case”, the National Emergency Commission has continued to award millionaire contracts to the company.
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El Salvador
📰 Espionage: On Nov. 23, Apple sent out 24 state-sponsored spy alerts to journalists, civil society leaders and legislators. The alert warned them of “possible espionage” through their iPhones using Pegasus software. In response, the Inter-American Press Association condemned the targeting of journalists and called for an investigation.
📰 Women: Indigenous women from Sisimitepec and Pushnat requested that measures protecting the Sensunapán River be extended as they will expire on Dec. 7. They also asked the Ministry of Culture to recognize seven sacred sites within the riverbed. // In correlation with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Nov. 25, multiple feminist organizations gathered to denounce the political violence aimed at them, especially after seven women’s organizations were raided last week.
📰 LGBTQ: Brayan García, who was a part of the LGBTQ community, died on Nov. 21 after being attacked on his way home. According to the Salvadoran Federation of LGBTI People, five trans people have been killed this year, and over 600 LGBTQ deaths have occurred since 1993.
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Guatemala
📰 Criminalization: The Guatemalan General Attorney Office is suing three university students who participated in an anti-governmental demonstration on November 21, 2020, in which attacks by the police were reported and in which more than 40 citizens were captured. Nanci Sinto, Juan Monroy Gómez and Dulce Archila are accused of painting the Congress building. Archila appeared in court on Nov. 29 and denounced a strategy to criminalize them.
📰 Free Press: November 30 is the day of the journalist in Guatemala and more than 280 journalists made a public statement with # NoNosCallarán.// Juan Luis Font, journalist and presenter of the radio program ConCriterio, was singled out by Alejandro Sinibaldi (a former presidential candidate in prison for at least six cases of corruption) for allegedly having received money to publish good news about him. Colleagues who worked with Font rejected that accusation and published reports showing that Sinibaldi was investigated by Font.
📰 Women Rights: Hundreds of diverse women participated in the International Day of Non-Violence against Women. Among the participants were the girls and adolescents of the Coincidir Association, who have organized to demand the cessation of femicides through bicycle tours and even to protest with music against corruption in road construction.
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Honduras
📰 Presidential Elections: With 51.45% of the votes counted on Nov. 28, Xiomara Castro of the left-leaning party Libre, running alongside an alliance with Partido Salvador, PINU, and Honduras Humana, is poised to win the elections in a landslide win, becoming the first female president of Honduras. Despite fears of electoral fraud and violence, elections in Honduras were held peacefully and with massive citizen participation. Many people have cited discontent with the current government for its implication in corruption, organized crime, and drug-trafficking. Castro’s win comes 12 years after her husband, Manuel Zelaya, was deposed in a military coup with tacit support of U.S. officials. These election results break with bipartisanism and Xiomara promises the creation of more social programs, the partial decriminalization of abortion, the end of the special economic zones (ZEDES). However, Garifuna leader Miriam Miranda noted that the alliance and the fact that Honduras is a "destroyed country" may make governance difficult.
📰 Congressional Elections: Preliminary results of the Congress suggest that the Honduran opposition (Libre party and others) will have majority of the Congress, though results are still not final.
📰 Municipal Elections: Jorge Aldana, from the Libre party is poised to win the capital of Tegucigalpa. His concurrent, David Chavez, from the National party, accepted his defeat. Chavez has maintained power through clientelist projects and has been linked to corruption scandals as a politician in the past. // In San Pedro Sula, the current National party mayor Armando Calidonio was defeated by businessman Roberto Contreras. Calidonio had not answered people’s demand for help after the hurricanes Eta and Iota.
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Nicaragua
📰 Diplomacy: The Organization of American States (OAS) may form a high level commission to visit Nicaragua and open negotiation channels to restore democracy in Nicaragua. // Nicaragua’s withdrawal from the OAS could have economic and humanitarian consequences. Experts believe that this will leave victims of human rights violations without access to denounce their situation.
📰 "Christmas without prisoners": The government has arrested 48 political leaders and activists in November; 27 of them remain behind bars. Relatives of political prisoners call, for the fourth year in a row, for a "Christmas without prisoners".
📰 Cubans: Nicaragua facilitates the travel of Cubans to Nicaragua with a "free visa" for commerical, tourism, and humanitarian (family) reasons. Cuban citizens usually visit Nicaragua for commerce, but many start their migration journey through Nicaragua.
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Panama
📰 Schools: The Minister of Education, Maruja Gorday de Villalobos, announced that classes for the 2022 academic year will be face-to-face. Classes in Panama's schools have been virtual since March 2020, however, 2.360 schools have semi face-to-face classes. Panama negotiates the purchase of 1.5 million pediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old.
📰 Medicinal Cannabis: After five years, President Cortizo legalized medicinal cannabis in Panama through Law 242 last October. A month later, the Law is still not in vigor. The Executive Body has until Jan. 13, 2022 to get the law regulated. Many patients do not have a legal way of getting their medicines.
📰 25N March: On Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, several feminist groups marched in Panama to protest against violence against women. Data from the Femicide Observatory recorded 31 femicides in 2020 and 15 in 2021. A women's rights group put 184 pairs of red shoes in front of the Supreme Court of Justice, each one representing a femicide case from December 2013 to October 2021.
Political Representation in Honduras
Dr. Paul Joseph López Oro shares his perspective on Honduran politics.
25N in Guatemala
“I came down from my mountains to accompany my sisters”, writes Consuelo Turuy, who arrived at the Central Plaza of Guatemala City on November 25, along with hundreds of other Guatemalan women, for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Our Guatemala news curator, Jody García, interviewed them for LaCuerda.
Podcast
🎙️ Scholar Jorge Cuellar talks with the “A Correction” podcast about El Salvador’s focus on Bitcoin.
Good Reads
📌 Q/A with Miriam Miranda: Miriam Miranda, leader of Garifuna organization OFRANEH, speaks with Argentine journalists on what the Honduran elections mean to her. (La Marcha - ESP)
📌 Asylum in Belgium: "A gang member shot me eight times and I don't understand why they are denying me asylum": the plight of hundreds of Salvadorans seeking refuge in Belgium. (BBC - ESP)
📌 Bitcoin City: The other side of the coin: ‘Bitcoin City’ in El Salvador seen through local memes. (Global Voices)
📌 Guatemala's war: Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa contends with Guatemala’s dictatorship and political instability during the Cold War era in his book Harsh Times. (The New Yorker)
📌Non-Migration: A beautiful feature story on "those who remain" in pats of El Salvador where migration is hailed as the only option. (Revista Factum - ESP)
Fashion
Honduran Garifuna men's wear designer Ilbert J. Sanchez shares photos of his designs. See more of his work here.
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The Team
Belize News Curator is needed!
Melissa Vida, Founder, Editor-in-Chief
Jonathan Peraza Campos, Migration News
Pablo Arauz Peña, Costa Rica News
Jalileh García, Honduras News
Jody García, Guatemala News
Joan Collins and Rodrigo Medina, Panama News
Kirsten Cintigo, El Salvador News
Natalie Leach, Social Media Manager
Vivian Ramos, Twitter Manager
José Martínez, Cecilia Rivas, Andres Guillen, Podcast Producers
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