Central America
Guatemala state of siege extended for feuding communities
AFP
Guatemala on Wednesday extended by a month a state of siege in two indigenous communities locked in a century-old land dispute that boiled over last month into a massacre of 13 people.
The state of siege, imposed a month ago, restricts certain constitutional rights, such as the bearing of arms and right to protest.
The government said the lingering causes that provoked the state of siege and “the presence of armed groups” meant an extension was needed, according to a decree published in the official gazette, Diario de Centro America.
It said the extension in the neighboring western municipalities of Nahuala and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan was necessary to “maintain constitutional order, the security of the State and to recover the governability of the territory.”
The state of siege must still be ratified by Congress, which is controlled by the governing party and its allies.
Last month, armed men with high caliber weapons ambushed a group of people from Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan who went to the village of Chiquix in Nahuala to pick corn, killing 13 people, including three children and a police officer.
The bodies of the three children, aged between five and 14, were chopped up into pieces and the victims were burned inside the truck they were traveling in.
Three people have been detained over the massacre.
Both warring communities are members of the Mayan K’iche tribe and have been fighting over land — at times violently — for more than 100 years.
The Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan community claims those in Nahuala have stolen some of their land.
On January 7, a 6,500-strong contingent of police, soldiers and prosecutors came under fire when conducting searches and arrests in the Nahuala community as part of investigations into the massacre.
One police officer was killed and 19 injured.
Two days later, President Alejandro Giammattei offered a reward worth around $6,250 for information leading to the arrest of four indigenous people accused of taking part in both incidents.
On Tuesday, Giammattei took part in a new meeting with leaders of the two communities to try to find an agreement over the border between them.
Indigenous people, many living in poverty, make up more than 40 percent of Guatemala’s population of almost 17 million people, according to official statistics.
Central America
El Salvador reaches 270 homicide-free days in 2025, PNC reports
El Salvador closed Wednesday, November 19, with zero homicides nationwide, according to National Civil Police (PNC) statistics released early Thursday morning.
The PNC reported that this latest day without violent deaths brings the total to 19 homicide-free days so far in November 2025, including 13 consecutive days. Throughout 2025, the country has accumulated 270 days with zero homicides.
The 270 homicide-free days recorded this year are distributed as follows: 18 in November, 24 in October, 23 in September, 27 in August, 29 in July, 25 in June, 25 in January, 26 in February, 22 in March, 25 in April, and 25 in May.
Authorities attribute these security results to the government’s public safety measures, including the Territorial Control Plan and the state of exception, implemented in March 2022 to combat gang structures.
Since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019, El Salvador has registered 1,057 homicide-free days, of which 943 occurred under the state of exception.
Central America
Arévalo warns of ‘Dark Interests’ targeting human rights defenders in Guatemala
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León warned on Thursday that human rights defenders are facing serious threats, aggression, and criminalization by “dark interests” embedded within the structures of the State.
“Today we are facing serious levels of threats, aggression, and criminalization against people who promote respect for human rights, coming from actors and criminal networks—sometimes embedded in State institutions—that refuse to accept that Guatemala is changing,” Arévalo said during a public event held at the former Government Palace.
During the event, authorities presented the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 2025–2035, an initiative developed in compliance with a 2014 resolution from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), issued in response to the killing of activist Florentín Gudiel Ramos in 2004.
Central America
Newborn found in Costa Rican dump survives two days in unsanitary conditions
Costa Rican media outlets report that a newborn baby was found in a garbage dump, where he had reportedly spent two days in unsanitary conditions.
Police located the infant after a resident alerted authorities upon hearing crying coming from a clandestine dumping site in the Rancho Guanacaste area. The newborn was discovered alive inside a drainage channel, covered in waste. He was immediately taken to the National Children’s Hospital, where he received medical care and is now in stable condition.
“The National Children’s Hospital confirms that we indeed received a newborn approximately four or five days old who was found in a wooded area near the Alajuelita roundabout. He was first taken to the Solón Núñez Clinic and then transferred to this hospital. As of now, the baby is in the emergency department in good condition. He arrived a bit cold, but he has been warmed, fed, and his initial physical exam is completely normal,” explained hospital director Carlos Jiménez Herrera, according to CR Hoy.
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