Press Freedom in Central America
Central American News
In Brief
Hi Readers, Welcome back!
Unions and civil society organizations commemorated International Workers Day by marching through the streets in Honduras, El Salvador, and Costa Rica. Among the demands of protesters were salary increase, fair wages, and better working conditions.
In El Salvador, journalists from 17 community radio stations decided to self-censor themselves to avoid reprisals from the Bukele regime. Meanwhile in Guatemala, the trial against the journalist José Rubén Zamora, former president of the newspaper elPeriódico, began on Tuesday. This is the first time that a Guatemalan journalist has faced trial for an accusation of money laundering.
World Press Freedom Day was celebrated on Wednesday, the 3rd of May. Read more about the different challenges journalists continue to face in the region in our featured section about the Central American Press.
Happy Reading,
The Central American News Team
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Headlines
Migration
📰 Texas Shooting: Honduran family who migrated to Texas about nine years ago mourn after a gunman killed five family members, including a 9-year-old, with an AR-15. The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, was captured on Tuesday and will be charged with five counts of murder.
📰 Reinforced Border: The Biden administration is sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of expected surge in border crossings following the expiration of Title 42, an order that has allowed border officials to turn away migrants during the pandemic. The deployed military personnel will assist in the operations of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
📰 Juárez Fire: National Immigration Institute (INM) Commissioner Francisco Garduño was charged in connection with the migrant detention center fire in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, that took the lives of forty migrants from Central and South America.
El Salvador
📰International Workers’ Day: Unions and civil society organizations commemorated International Workers' Day by marching through the streets of San Salvador and demanding salary increases. Demonstrators also demanded justice for people who have been arbitrarily captured during the state of exception.
📰Press Freedom: Journalists from 17 community radios decided to self-censor themselves to avoid reprisals from the Bukele regime. According to GatoEncerrado, “community journalists assured that they were afraid of being captured for the simple fact of working or collaborating in media that are not aligned with the Government of Nayib Bukele.” In 2022, the Association of Journalists of El Salvador recorded 136 cases of assaults on journalists.
Guatemala
📰Journalist Trial: On Tuesday, the trial began against the journalist José Rubén Zamora, former president of the newspaper elPeriódico, and Samari Gómez, a former assistant to the Special Prosecutor's Office against Impunity (Feci). This is the first time that a Guatemalan journalist has faced trial for an accusation of money laundering.
📰Press Freedom: On World Press Freedom Day, the Association of Guatemalan Journalists (APG) and the Observatory of Journalists report an increase in threats and actions against the union. The APG issued a statement in which it pointed out the need for a free journalistic exercise to make it possible to live in a democracy.
📰Arrest Warrants: The Public Ministry requested new arrest warrants against the former attorney general, Thelma Aldana; the former head of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity, Juan Francisco Sandoval. This time, also against former judge Érika Aifán. The arrest warrants point them out for their actions regarding the Fénix case, an old investigation into embezzlement at the Guatemalan Social Security Institute.
Honduras
📰Protests: Honduras’ working class celebrated International Workers Day demanding fair wages and better working conditions. According to Daniel Durón, secretary general of the General Workers Center (CGT), this year’s increase of minimum wage doesn’t even cover 30% of requirements. The disparities in income highlight a larger issue of poverty in the nation, resulting in workers migrating elsewhere, where they find themselves with higher wages and labor rights.
📰Poverty: Citizens suffer from extreme poverty in the dry corridor of Honduras. With long dry spells, the corridor’s habitants are left with no drinking water, crops, or jobs. Exacerbated by the pandemic and general disinterest of the government, it has become a norm for families to go up to three days without a single meal, leaving families with no option but to eat rotten tomatoes and drink rainwater.
📰Activism: At least eight Honduran activists have been killed in 2023. The same number of activists were reported to have been killed in a span of a year in 2021. Indigenous leader, Víctor Vásquez, notes being in jail for 10 months as a preventive measure of the state. Defending territory has cost the lives of Honduran activists with no resolve and further criminalization.
Costa Rica
📰Assembly President: Rodrigo Arias Sánchez of the center-left National Liberation Party (PLN) was re-elected as president of the National Legislative Assembly on May 1. He is the first opposition-party member of the assembly who has been re-elected as president. During a speech, Arias Sánchez said the assembly must not become “irrelevant” in the face of the growing threat of organized crime in the country.
📰Kidnapping Case: President Rodrigo Chaves publicly pressured the head of the National Children’s Board (PANI) over a deadline of the investigation into a 9-month-old baby who was kidnapped and whose underage mother gave birth after she was sexually assaulted by the step-father. The whereabouts of the baby remains unknown.
📰Protests: Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of San José for International Workers’ Day in defense of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund which many government officials in the current and past administrations have said is bankrupt and in need of reform and privatization. Unions as well as PLN assembly members are defending the fund as an autonomous and sustainable public institution.
Belize
📰I.C.J. Memorial: Belize delivered its memorial to the International Court of Justice, reference Honduras’ claim over the Sapodilla Cayes. The memorial was handed to Jean-Pele Fomete, the Deputy Registrar at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands. According to a release from the Government of Belize, the memorial makes a vigorous defense of Belize’s sovereignty over the Sapodilla Cayes.
📰Drug Intoxication Case: National Exhibit Keeper for the Belize Police Department, Mario Bustillos, has been charged with ten counts of negligent harm in relation to the minors who were hospitalized after they ingested candy laced with weed.
📰Calls for Reparation: Prime Minister John Briceno remarked to a journalist from The Guardian, that Belize will quite likely become a republic. Also, Briceno made that remark in the context of criticizing a recent statement made by Rishi Sunak who has refused to issue an apology for Britain’s role in slavery and colonialism. PM Briceno has joined the call for financial reparations from the United Kingdom.
Nicaragua
📰Culture: The Nicaraguan poet Gioconda Belli performed “Agua y Fuego”, her latest program of “poetry and song.” She was accompanied by singer-songwriter Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, in a recital at the National Auditorium of the Children’s Museum, in San José, Costa Rica, on April 30. Both artists are in exile due to the Nicaraguan regime. Belli was also stripped of her Nicaraguan nationality.
📰Migration: Despite the tightening of immigration laws in the United States and Costa Rica, Nicaraguans continue to leave the country en masse. January was marked by massive migration of minors. Additionally, from January to April more than 100,000 new passports were issued, according to reports from the General Directorate of Immigration.
Panama
📰Crash: A light aircraft crashed on the Via de la Amistad, Panama City, on Monday, May 1, while returning to Albrook airport. Fortunately, the four people on board suffered only minor injuries, and one of them even recorded the event on her cell phone. It is not yet known what happened to the aircraft.
📰Colón: The team from the province of Colón is the 2023 Major Baseball Champion after defeating Los Santos 7-3 in the fifth game of the series on Tuesday, May 2. The players are complaining that there is no baseball stadium in their province.
📰Public health: Health authorities, in coordination with the National Police, raided a suspected clandestine drug laboratory in Panama City last Friday. During the raid, raw materials for the production of medicines were seized and four suspects were arrested.
Central American Art
Honduran artist Mary Morales inaugurated her exhibition “Rostros Ausentes” (Absent Faces) that addresses the theme of migration at the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI). The exhibition aims to raise awareness and sensitize the population to the issue of migration, by confronting them with incredible paintings that invite reflection.
Central American Press: May 3 World Press Freedom Day
Central American News presents a two-part series highlighting the state of journalism in Central America.
The state of journalism in Central America is under attack. Journalists are going into exile, disappearing, being harassed, criminalized and imprisoned, all the while fighting for their right to live and report. However, they continue to find ways to survive under the circumstances. Some countries are more grave than others, but as a whole, el gremio de periodismo is under attack.
On May 3, international World Press Freedom Day was celebrated by journalists across the globe with alarming anecdotes and calls to action to save journalism. The International Center for Journalists, ICFJ, shared a video on their Twitter account of Central American reporters explaining the importance of freedom of speech. An act much easier to define than practice in the region. Latin America was the deadliest region for journalists in 2022 while being relatively at peace with no declared wars, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalist, CPJ.
The day also coincided with the first day of trial for Jose Ruben Zamora, founder and president of elPeriodico in Guatemala. Photographer Esteban Bibia took a photo of Zamora at the courthouse. He has lost weight since his arrest in August. According to CPJ, he has been charged of money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling – charges seen as retaliation for elPeriódico’s reporting on alleged corruption involving President Alejandro Giammattei and Attorney General Consuelo Porras.
In El Salvador, world renowned newspaper El Faro closed down their main headquarters in the country and moved to Costa Rica out of safety for their staff and business. This came three weeks before one of their leading journalists, Oscar Martinez, won the 2023 Deutsche Welle Freedom of Speech Award.
Honduras journalists are experiencing a similar plight under the state of exception implemented by the Xiomara Castro administration. The country is considered to be one of the more deadlier countries in the region for journalists. According to a report from PEN International, Honduras is a nation where impunity has been entrenched in their culture.
Revenge and power seem to be the underlying reason for persecuting journalists. In many cases, hindering press freedom along with freedom of speech and expression, a right under article 19 in the UN Declaration Of Human Rights.
Good Reads
📌El Salvador: The eternal exodus of the displaced from Nuevo Amanecer (GatoEncerrado).
📌Panama: US-China rivalry could trample Panama underfoot (Financial Times).
📌Nicaragua: Nicaragua will use atomic energy for peaceful purposes, in cooperation with Russia (Forbes).
Good News
✨Kakumen: Honduran Cintia Bernárdez presented her new book "Kakumen," which tells Garífuna stories in an environment full of heroes and legends.
✨Hero of Science: Ixlem Chen Sam, one of the young Guatemalans who was chosen as a Hero of Science by the National Secretariat of Science and Technology, Senacyt.
✨University Admissions: Jonathan Cornejo, a Salvadoran high school senior from Los Angeles, was recently profiled by the LA Times about not being able to attend his dream college due to financial struggles. However, after the story was published, readers donated money to him which allowed him and another classmate to be able to commit to their first choice colleges.
Events
📅Concert: Concert to commemorate the 201 years of the battle of Pichincha. The El Salvador Symphony Orchestra will share the stage with the violinist, soloist, professor and diplomat, Jorge Saade, on May 24 and 25, at the National Theatre of San Salvador at 6:30 pm.
📅Legends of Guatemala: Los Aparecidos, theatrical production about the history of the legends of Guatemala. The presentations will take place on Fridays May 12, 19, and 26 starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Manuel Galich Theater of the Popular University of Guatemala City.
“Journalism must continue to shine into the dark corners that the powerful would prefer to keep in the dark. I believe that journalism must continue to tell the stories that are kept quiet by the powerful”
- Oscar Martinez, El Faro
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