Infringement of Migrants and Women’s Rights
Central American News
In Brief
Hi Readers, Welcome back!
Among thousands of migrants who crossed the US southern border ahead of the expiration of Title 42 was the family of an 8-year-old girl who died while in US border custody on Wednesday. The girl of Panamanian nationality is the second minor to die in two weeks. An unaccompanied 17-year-old boy died at a government shelter facility in Florida.
In Belize, a 19-year-old young woman was found dead on Tuesday after mysteriously vanishing from her home. While a Belize city woman was violently attacked and wounded by an ex-boyfriend on Friday.
Read the second part of our two-part series about the state of journalism in Central America.
Happy Reading,
The Central American News Team
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Headlines
Migration
📰Title 42 Ends: The public health measure, Title 42, ended on May 1. In the days leading up to its expiration, Border Patrol agents had over 10,000 daily migrant encounters. It has since dropped by 50% since the end of the pandemic-era immigration policy.
📰Migrant Death: On Wednesday, an 8-year-old Panamanian girl died after a medical emergency while in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. The girl and her family had been detained for a week. It is the second death of a minor in two weeks after an unaccompanied 17-year-old Honduran boy died at a government shelter facility in Florida.
📰Processing Centers: The U.S. State Department has announced it will open processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia to boost refugee admissions and curb the number of irregular border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. Those who disregard legal entry pathways may face deportations, a five-year ban on reentry, and possible criminal charges.
Guatemala
📰Journalism: The newspaper elPeriodico published its’ last edition on Monday, May 15, after 27 years. This comes six months after stopping their print newspaper. And 19 months after their founder and president, Jose Ruben Zamora, was arrested.
📰Human Rights: Day 7 into the trial of journalist Jose Ruben Zamora, he was introduced to his new appointed attorney who is unfamiliar with the case. This is his ninth attorney in 10 months. Zamora is being charged with money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling.
📰Elections| Democracy: The upcoming general elections to be held in June, have human rights organizations concerned about the pre-electoral conditions, according to a report published May 17. The delegation is worried about how presidential candidates are being excluded, the highest number of aggressions against civil society in 22 years, and attacks on freedom of speech and press, criminalization and lack of due process, among other findings.
Honduras
📰Human Rights: At least 194 members of the LGBTQ+ community were reportedly murdered between 2017 and 2022. Even though the state of Honduras is responsible for holding accountable those violating human rights, 93% of cases remain unpunished. In 2022, only 8 of 43 cases were taken to court.
📰Migration: Over 20,000 Hondurans have been deported in 2023. The majority have been sent back from Mexico and the United States. According to the National Institute of Migration (INM), Honduras received a total of 9,998 Hondurans from Mexico and 9,776 from the U.S.
📰Poverty: With poverty rampant throughout the country, people living on the streets has become a common sight in the capital. The already vulnerable population are abandoned and suffer further exclusion from the state with lack of research, policies, and disinterest to improve the living conditions. Tomasa Reconco, a social worker, notes “We need social policies that actually include the whole population.”
El Salvador
📰Bitcoin: Strike, a Bitcoin payment provider is relocating its headquarters to El Salvador. The country has embraced cryptocurrencies by implementing inclusive regulations to attract technological innovation.
📰Government: On May 15, Taiwan suspended a free trade agreement with El Salvador. The Salvadoran government had previously announced the suspension of the FTA with Taiwan and Honduras. However, the suspension of the deal does not involve Honduras, which also cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan earlier this year.
📰Journalism: Oscar Martinez, the editor-in-chief of El Faro, was awarded DW’s Freedom of Speech Award. Recently, El Faro announced that it would be moving its administrative offices to Costa Rica due to the lack of press freedom under President Nayib Bukele.
Costa Rica
📰Politics: President Rodrigo Chaves marked his first year in office with a speech stating that his administration “fulfilled” campaign promises made to the electorate. However, a study presented to the legislative assembly indicates that only 29 out of 100 promises made on the campaign trail in 2022 were mentioned during his speech.
📰Press Freedom: For the first time in eight years Costa Rica did not make the top 10 in the Press Freedom Index. The nation lost 5.9 points which puts it 15 places below its previous ranking, ceasing to be the last stronghold in the region with a “good” rating for press freedom.
📰Attacks on Women: A study by Coes Monitoring and Media Analysis in conjunction with the UN and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal found that women in politics, feminists, and trans people are the most vulnerable to violence and attacks on social media despite the growing awareness of the importance of defending women’s rights.
Belize
📰Femicide: On Tuesday evening, 16 May, 19-year-old Imarie Galvez was found murdered after mysteriously vanishing from her home in Belmopan after midnight on Saturday. The results from the autopsy indicated that she died by strangulation. Her boyfriend was detained for questioning by police. The police believe that she was murdered by someone she knew well.
📰Attempted murder: On Friday, a Belize City woman was reportedly attacked and stabbed multiple times by her ex-boyfriend. She received stabbed wounds to the neck and other parts of her body and is currently recovering at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
📰Lottery: The Briceño administration is introducing a new system and a special purpose vehicle, a company called Belize Government Lotteries Limited. It will be overseen by a board of directors and its daily operations will be carried out by a managing director and a staff of employees. There will be four master agents, one in each part of the country.
Nicaragua
📰Politics: Government authorities in Nicaragua shut down the Immaculate Conception Catholic University in Managua, under the determination of an alleged “voluntary dissolution”. Over the past year, Nicaraguan authorities have closed 17 other private universities under this “voluntary” clause.
📰Political Repression: The police arrested 18 people between the 12 and 14 of May, and hastily prosecuted them in “trials mainly for show” for the political crimes of “conspiracy to undermine the national integrity and spread disinformation.” People arrested are quickly tried and convicted in a matter of hours, with no legal representation. After being released from detention, they are required to check in every day at police stations around the country.
📰Indigenous People: Inhabitants of the community of Musawás, in the Mayangna Sauni As territory, in the North Caribbean Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, held a small demonstration to demand the clean-up of their ancestral territories and demand that the murders of dozens of indigenous people at the hands of invading settlers be investigated.
Central American Art
Costa Rican artist Ricardo Vega in his painting "Caricia de Céfiro," makes use of the female figure as a metaphor for the feminine qualities of the mind. He also uses the stain in the background in an abstract way, without putting details or anything identifiable, although in this case the figure is much more detailed than in the inks, there is still an interaction between the figure and the abstract.
Central American Press: May 3 World Press Freedom Day II
Central American News presents part two of a two-part series highlighting the state of journalism in Central America.
Unlike in the 1980’s and 1990’s where governments had declared war in Latin America, specifically in Central America, there are currently silent wars taking place across the region. One of great concern is that public declarations against news outlets and journalists are becoming the norm.
In Nicaragua, the government of Daniel Ortega has attacked independent media in the country, making it one of the grayest moments in its history. Safety concerns are a common worry among journalists in the country, as many have expressed that it is not safe to work there.
Many of those journalists have exiled into Costa Rica, a country that ranks 23rd in the global Press Freedom Index. However, the country is not without its own challenges. Costa Rica has “limited access to public information and resources necessary for the dissemination of political ideas” among other concerns, according to a 2023 press freedom study by UNESCO.
Ranking at number 51 in the Press Freedom Index is Belize, another country of choice for those looking for a safer place to report and work as a journalist. Although the country is considered one of the more free places to be a journalist, there are deficiencies such as not having any daily newspaper.
Commemorating 30 years since the UN declared World Press Freedom Day in 1993, Panama has little to celebrate. While journalists are not constantly experiencing the extremities of what is happening to reporters in places like Nicaragua or Honduras, Panama’s press freedoms remain lacking. Journalists in Panama have little legal protection and are under constant threat of defamation suits, according to a report by Reporters Without Border.
Nevertheless, even with all these challenges imposed on journalists in Central America, they remain a force despite an uphill battle.
Good Reads
📌El Salvador: In El Salvador, transgender community struggles for rights and survival (The Associated Press)
📌Guatemala: Zamora trial: What happens to the journalist's lawyers and why is he left without a defense? (Plaza Pública)
📌Migration: Immigration cost me my inner child (Refinery29)
Good News
✨Honduras: Honduran Mildred Tejada, wins an award in Argentina for her short film "Riccy."
✨Guatemala: The Dance of the Macaws was declared as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Nation by the Ministry of Sports and Culture.
Central American Voices
✍️ A New Guatemala: Buen Vivir and the Planetary Imaginary in the Plurinational Movement, by Sussan García from Central American Disruption
Central American Studies
🎓 #CentralAmericanTwitter: Sussan García from Central American Disruption, sheds light on the origins and evolution of the Central American Digital diaspora for a course titled “Transnationalism and Diaspora.”
Events
📅Cultural Festival: The Paseo de la Sexta 2023 Cultural Festival will be held from May 19 to June 4, 2023 in the Plaza de la Constitución, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. The entrance is free.
📅Happy Hour: The 2nd edition of the Central American Happy Hour will be held on 22 June, 6-9, pm, 2202 Summer Street Houston, Texas.
“Let them know: we are not going to stop or be intimidated with their harassment and intimidation.”
- La Prensa, Panama 2023
The Team
Editorial team: Mindrid Tesucum
Coordinating team: Karla Saenz Porras, Kayla Alamilla, Shahrazad Encinias
Social media: Abigail Galvez-Aguirre
News curators: Pablo Arauz (Costa Rica), Jody García (Guatemala), Kirsten Cintigo (El Salvador), Luna Cordóba (Nicaragua), Rodrigo Medina and Joan Collins (Panama), Allison Aguilar (Honduras), Oliver Martínez López (Migration)
Film curator: Robert Zuniga