Central America in Minutes

Episode 80 : Salvadoran human rights attorney Ruth López’s family fears for her life. They finally visited her following more than 400 days in prison. Guatemalan prosecutors stop trying to revoke the house arrest of newspaperman Jose Rubén Zamora, easing up on an emblematic case of lawfare against journalists in Latin America. Nicaragua has received dozens of third-country deportees since Donald T...

Episode 79: Nayib Bukele registers to run for a third term in El Salvador’s 2027 election after scrapping term limits. If he achieves his goal, he’s set to stay in power until 2033. Donald Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Guatemala, heralded by the opposition, steps down without public explanation following months of turmoil over U.S. policy in Guatemala. Trump's threat to “take back the cana...

Episode 78: A string of U.S. officials departs Trump’s mission to the OAS amid ideological tensions and a financial crisis that are roiling the hemisphere’s oldest multilateral. The World Bank projects El Salvador’s economy will grow in 2026 by a hair. The ruling party celebrates, while economists say it’s fueled by tens of millions of dollars in remittances. A year after the murder in Costa Rica...

Episode 77: Honduras expands the definition of terrorism to include legally registered organizations and cracks down on protests tied to land conflict. Costa Rican President Laura Fernández proposes a reform to slow Nicaraguan migration. Amid mounting criticism, she asserts Nicaraguans have the government “they chose.” In our magazine Beacon: an investigation in El Salvador; an interview with Guat...

Episode 76: In Nicaragua, the United States sanctions more than 100 officials after naming the Ortega-Murillo regime as responsible for the death of political prisoner Brooklyn Rivera. In Guatemala, the new attorney general halts the three-year prosecution of a group of journalists and columnists for obstruction of justice, in a landmark win for press freedom. In El Salvador, search groups questio...

Episode 75: In Guatemala, Arévalo downplays New York Times reporting that joint military strikes against cartels are set to begin in June as U.S. officials push to put boots on the ground. In Nicaragua, six relatives of Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera are detained by Sandinista police while claiming his body. Rivera had died in regime custody. In El Salvador, a campaign to save a major city fore...

Episode 74: Costa Rican authorities find 200 migrants deported there from the U.S. in 2025 were subject to de facto deprivation of liberty, passport retention, discrimination, and physical injury due to the prolonged use of shackles. Despite a constitutional mandate to promote home ownership, El Salvador has a shortage of around 400,000 homes, with many living in precarious housing called mesones...

Episode 73: One year after her arrest by the Salvadoran regime, Ruth López’s family, international organizations, and groups in exile call for her release and for information on her health. Audio published by Hondurasgate and amplified by international media allege an international plot in favor of Juan Orlando Hernández, but skip journalistic due diligence. Guatemala’s new attorney general ends t...

Episode 72: Laura Fernández is sworn in as president of Costa Rica, promising an El Salvador-style crackdown on crime. The Israeli government says Costa Rica is willing to open an embassy in Jerusalem. r U.N. experts demand proof of life for Nicaraguan Indigenous leader and political prisoner Brooklyn Rivera. They denounce forced disappearances, inhumane conditions, and dozens of remaining politic...

Episode 71: Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo names Gabriel García Luna, a career judicial official working for the Executive, as attorney general. After years of selective justice, he will take office May 17 barring legal challenges. In Guatemala, the murder of journalist Carlos Humberto Cal Ical draws calls for a swift investigation and end to impunity, amid growing threats to the press from...

Episode 70: El Salvador begins a mass trial of 486 alleged MS-13 members following a dramatic rewriting of judicial procedure. The men will be tried for collective, not individual crimes. New penalties of life in prison will take effect on Sunday. After months of avoiding direct confrontation with Washington, Ortega calls Trump “mentally deranged” just as new U.S. sanctions are imposed on his inne...

Episode 69: Amid major strain on the public health system, Bukele announces Google’s A.I. system Gemini will help oversee case loads for chronic illnesses. He is billing El Salvador as “the world’s premier testbed for real-world A.I. deployment.” In Guatemala, Plaza Pública reports that the U.S. Embassy tried to influence the elections of constitutional magistrates. Two lobbying groups work agains...

Episode 68: On Wednesday, former president Juan Orlando Hernández claimed a U.S. appeals court declared him “innocent” of drug trafficking charges. But the court in fact dismissed his appeal because Trump’s November 2025 pardon had made it a moot point. Costa Rican President-elect Laura Fernández has announced her first decrees in May. Mining rights are a priority, and she’ll set the agenda for th...

Episode 67: International human rights experts condemn U.S. boat strikes against civilians accused of drug trafficking. To date, at least 163 people have been killed and no evidence of drug smuggling has been provided in any of the attacks. Costa Rica joins almost all governments in Central America to sign migration agreements to receive third-country nationals deported from the United States. Cos...

SPECIAL, Episode 66: I always imagined the end of the maras playing out differently. Since I am a pathological romantic, I imagined people in the street in some sort of march with drums and tears of joy. Or going to leave flowers at a monument for the victims of so much darkness… But no. This special episode shares an audio column by El Faro special investigations reporter Carlos Martínez , transl...

Episode 65: With crimes against humanity in El Salvador on full international display, Bukele denounces the reports as a “coordinated” conspiracy. Trump’s pick as ambassador to El Salvador, former DHS official Troy Edgar, goes before the Senate. China’s future in Honduras hangs in the balance with the new Trump-backed president, Nasry Asfura. In his election campaign, he promised to restore relati...

Episode 64: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned the state of Honduras for trying to uproot the Afro-Indigenous Garifuna community from Cayos Cochinos at the behest of a tourism conglomerate and a European TV spinoff of Survivor. Guatemalan political elites battle over a top court tainted by allegations of corruption and insider dealing. With all five seats up for grabs this week, bo...

Episode 63: A federal judge denounces intimidation and death threats on social media after suspending Trump’s rollback of TPS for Haiti. An appeals court allows Trump to cancel the program for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal as litigation continues. In Guatemala, an internationally sanctioned judge annuls the 1993 arrest warrant for coup president Jorge Serrano Elías, a fugitive in Panama. The same...

Episode 62: U.N. experts tie internationally sanctioned Guatemalan AG Consuelo Porras to an illegal adoption scheme during the armed conflict. They make the allegations public on the same day she runs for constitutional magistrate. The Bukele-controlled Assembly in El Salvador claims it is running a 2026 “austerity” budget for legislative operations, but is keeping line items under lock and key. ...

Episode 61: Costa Rican authorities arrest the fifth suspect in the murder of prominent Nicaraguan exile Roberto Samcam, in a brazen case underscoring fear and insecurity for refugees in Costa Rica. Some have decided to leave the country. A Guatemalan court orders —yet again— the release on house arrest of newspaperman Jose Rubén Zamora in the second of two cases that had kept him in prison awaiti...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 60: The Trump administration sends mixed signals to Nicaragua on trade, sanctions, and anti-narcotics while the Ortega-Murillo regime signs new commercial agreements with Russia and China. Costa Rican President-elect Laura Fernández wins the election by sweeping margin and promises continuity with the Rodrigo Chaves administration’s agenda. She says she will conside...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 59: In exchange for select exemption from Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Bukele signs a trade deal promising the U.S. mining and energy access and calling on El Salvador to co-sign Trump’s trade sanctions. In Honduras, Tito Asfura takes office on promises to cut back the state, while the National Party proposes Bible readings in schools. Honduras asks to return t...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 58: UCR pollsters place Laura Fernández, Minister of the Presidency under Rodrigo Chaves, with 40% of the vote. If that lead holds on February 1, Chaves’ “heir” will win the presidency outright without a runoff. Days before the transfer of power in Honduras, the National Party takes the reins of Congress and President-elect Tito Asfura meets with Israeli Prime Minis...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 57: Honduran President Xiomara Castro orders a controversial last-second electoral recount and calls for dialogue with Trump. Meanwhile, President-elect Tito Asfura meets with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Israeli ambassador in Washington. Before the February 1 election iBefore the February 1 election in Costa Rica, the electoral tribunal rejects a request...

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 56: After the U.S. invasion of Venezuela, the Nicaraguan dictatorship tightens state surveillance, Nayib Bukele mocks Maduro to settle a score, and Panama calls for the Venezuelan opposition to be put in charge. The White House declares a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, shaking up its envoys to Central America. Trump taps a billionaire couple who donated t...