Central America in Minutes

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 38: A prisoner exchange between the United States, El Salvador, and Venezuela sends 252 men deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in Salvadoran megaprison CECOT back to Venezuela, in exchange for 10 U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela.

A new investigation by InSight Crime reports that at least 23 environmentalists were killed in the country between 2023 and 2024. Since 2011, when Pepe Lo...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 37: Cristosal, a leading human rights organization in Central America, announces that it is closing operations in El Salvador under threat of political arrest and administrative harassment under a “Russia-style” Foreign Agents Law that dealt a frontal blow to civil society.

In Nicaragua, three days before the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, the regime renames the archive illegally confiscate...

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 has claimed the opposite.

As the U.S. government cancels TPS deportation protections for Nicaraguans and Hondurans, Daniel Ortega says little in public while ...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 35: 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 corruption. Following the murder of a Nicaraguan exile, the U.N. denounces a “high risk of life and physical safety” for dissidents beyond Nicaraguan borders.

This special July episode of Central America in Minutes was writ...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 34: In a regional tour, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced agreements for Guatemala and Honduras to receive third-country asylum claims, and in Panama, to pay for flights to continue deporting migrants, including from Venezuela and Colombia.

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 a...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 33: The Panamanian government arrested Secretary General of the Banana Industry Workers Union Fransisco Smith four days after an agreement was announced between union leaders, the National Assembly and President Raúl Mulino to amend social security reforms driving the country into nation-wide protest.

This episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Edward Grattan and Roman Gressier and produ...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 32: In El Salvador, three top military officers are convicted for the emblematic 1982 murder of four Dutch journalists, marking the first conviction of high-ranking military officials in the country for crimes committed during the civil war.

In Honduras, digital outlet Contracorriente reports that the Xiomara Castro administration has launched a media campaign during the electoral season promoting the...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 31: Rosario Murillo holds the reins in Nicaragua. By their own decree, she and Daniel Ortega are now “co-presidents” ruling without the separation of powers, not even on paper. Three moments help explain Murillo’s rise — but just how durable is her newfound power?

This special June episode of Central America in Minutes was written and narrated by Roman Gressier with audio production and origina...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 30: In Costa Rica, evidence collected by the press and prosecutors of Rodrigo Chaves rigging a public-relations contract leads the Supreme Court to discuss the possible removal of his immunity — an unprecedented corruption probe against a sitting president.

In Honduras, President Xiomara Castro will be interim defense minister after ruling-party presidential candidate Rixi Moncada leaves for the campa...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 29: The attorneys general of El Salvador and Guatemala meet and agree to increase cooperation, in the most public show of support from the Bukele regime for Consuelo Porras. Weeks after Guatemalan prosecutors threatened to launch an investigation into USAID funding to independent media, the Salvadoran legislature approves a Foreign Agents Law to choke off international aid to critical civil society g...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 28: In El Salvador, Nayib Bukele sends the Military Police to disperse families in front of his personal residence, as they pleaded not to be evicted from their homes. As the regime arrests another lawyer accompanying families threatened by displacement, Bukele claims international interference against his government, reactivating a 2021 plan to place high taxes on donations to civil society organiza...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 27: Even if Jose Rubén Zamora, who is 68 years old, successfully defends himself at retrial in the original case against him, he looks set to face years of legal challenges as the hydra of spurious accusations against Guatemala’s former top publisher continues to grow.

On April 21, the Bernardo Arévalo administration said they are finishing chalking up a journalist-protection policy for the Executive ...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 26: It may have come as a surprise in the U.S. when Trump and Bukele shrugged off a court order to bring back wrongfully deported immigrant Kilmar Ábrego. In El Salvador, presidential non-compliance has been business as usual since 2020.

El Faro is on vacation for Holy Week. Today, in a shorter episode, we share the perspectives of two Salvadoran columnists from our flagship El Faro English newsletter...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 25: The U.N. Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua names Daniel Ortega, Rosario Murillo, and dozens of regime officials in a report on crimes against humanity. It’s their second major release in two months, compounding U.N. evidence-gathering on the Ortega-Murillo regime as the 2018 state repression turns seven years old.

Days before Nayib Bukele is set to meet with Donald Trump at the White Hous...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 24: The key to El Salvador’s prisons, and the Nayib Bukele administration that runs them, are facilities that most observers abroad have never heard of: black boxes where reports of systematic torture have emerged in survivor testimony, disease proliferates and medical care is denied, and at least 375 people have reportedly died in custody.

These prisons are a focal point of political corruption inves...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 23: Former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson, a friend and promoter of Nayib Bukele, tells the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “I don’t doubt” that Pegasus could have been used against civil society and U.S. officials during his tenure in El Salvador.

The Panama government allows fugitive ex-president Ricardo Martinelli —once famous for using Pegasus against political opponent...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 22: Nayib Bukele and Elon Musk propose that U.S. judges ruling against Donald Trump’s agenda be impeached, citing the illegal 2021 removal of the Salvadoran constitutional chamber magistrates as a model to follow. Bukele claims that a judge’s order against recent deportations to Salvadoran prison is a “judicial coup” against Trump.

In the Honduran primaries, ruling party candidate Rixi Moncada says sh...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 21: The Sunday primaries in Honduras await results as civil society monitors criticize delayed ballot delivery and the press reports violations of the chain of custody of ballots by the Army. Ruling party Libre receives the most votes, according to projections.

Tension grows between the two main electoral institutions. Minister of Defense Rixi Moncada, who is also the Libre presidential candidate, def...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 20: Honduras claims it is closing in on a free-trade deal with China, but negotiations have lagged since late last year. Xiomara Castro is toning down some public references to Chinese cooperation for infrastructure as they play push and pull with Donald Trump.

Nicaraguan environmentalist group Fundación del Río filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of Justice against a network of lawyers and notar...