Anthropologist Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, who years ago participated in the creation of Semilla, says the Guatemalan ruling party is now split for lack of leadership and dialogue. “Their greatest weakness is not recognizing the political power of Indigenous peoples,” she

🎙️CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 36: In correspondence with U.N. enforced disappearance investigators, the Salvadoran government claimed the jurisdiction and ultimate fate of the 238 Venezuelans imprisoned in CECOT falls on the U.S. government — even as the Trump administration

Yesterday, a US appeals court ruled in favor of 18 current and former members of El Faro in a lawsuit against NSO, the Israeli developer of Pegasus spyware, reversing a March 2024 dismissal and sending the case back to the Northern District of California.

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In proceedings to deport MS-13 leader “Vampiro,” the defense accused the Trump administration of trying to hide evidence of Bukele’s pact with the gang, which the State Department designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The current wave of ICE raids in Los Angeles is not merely about enforcement, write Axel Montepeque and Linda Alvarez of @csunorthridge. These migrants are being punished for trying to survive outside the structure built to contain them. #efOpinion

In a regional tour, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced agreements for Guatemala and Honduras to receive third-country asylum seekers, and in Panama, to pay for flights to continue deporting migrants, including from Venezuela and Colombia.

🎙️CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 35: Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador: The Trifecta of Exile. For the first time in decades, a growing number of political exiles are fleeing El Salvador. In Guatemala, the justice system is the spearhead of attacks against those pursuing

🚨NEW: A police intelligence source asserts that Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro, @Vi11atoro, ordered two senior @PNCSV police leaders in El Salvador to plant false evidence of drug trafficking against members of El Faro.

In Costa Rica, investigators examine whether a Nicaraguan government-backed hit squad is targeting exiles on the heels of the murder of former military officer and opposition member Roberto Samcam.

The current wave of ICE raids in Los Angeles is not merely about enforcement, write Axel Montepeque and Linda Alvarez of @csunorthridge. These migrants are being punished for trying to survive outside the structure built to contain them. #efOpinion

Those who speak nostalgically of the Salvadoran dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez overlook the fact that he persecuted the most important businessmen, politicians and professionals on the Left and Right, and military personnel.

“The police, backed by paramilitaries, opened fire on students for over thirteen hours,” reported @chelefaro in 2018, when the Ortega-Murillo regime took Nicaragua back in time to when violence and repression were the norm.

In May, the head of the Nicaraguan Army pledged obedience to the new constitution, which made Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo commanders-in-chief. Now, at least on paper, Murillo will hold onto power should Ortega die.

This is the terrible political reality that defines Nayib Bukele’s government: the escalating extinction of citizens’ rights and the concentration of power in the hands of a tyrant.

In this issue of Central America Monthly we identify the common playbook of Bukele’s and Ortega-Murrillo dictatorships: their total power, police states, foreign-agents laws, exiles, and political prisoners.

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In May 2024, a pickup with no police markings parked at the home of Atilio Montalvo, negotiator of the Peace Accords recovering from surgery. He went to headquarters to answer questions, but instead was arrested and his home was raided.

In the second issue of Central America Monthly: the return of political prisoners in El Salvador, the rise of Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua, a secret enemies list from an old Salvadoran dictator, and a chronicle of the 2018 repression in Nicaragua.

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