Central America
Threats from the migratory route in Guatemala: dengue, arrests and climate change
Thousands of migrants cross the border between Honduras and Guatemala daily on their way to the United States, facing the threat of tropical diseases such as dengue, the arrest of security forces and their subsequent deportation or the impact of a route hit by climate change.
On the border of El Corinto, between Guatemala and Honduras, the country’s Red Cross serves migrants who need medical assistance.
“Our job is to alleviate the suffering a little and dignify the lives of people who are in transit,” explains to EFE Mariana Bonilla, who works with the Red Cross at the Care Center for Migrants and Refugees (CAPMIR), located on the Guatemalan side of the border.
Every morning, Bonilla, 31, and the rest of her team, track the border road surrounded by African palm, banana plantations and the imposing Motagua River, the largest in Guatemala, in search of groups of migrants to guide them and indicate the points where they can receive support.
Within its center of attention, supported by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), migrants receive both medical and psychosocial assistance. “Many come with traumas from their passage through the Darién jungle” between Colombia and Panama, explains Bonilla.
Two kilometers after crossing the border, on the migratory route, is the village of Jimeritos, a community made up of farmers dedicated mainly to the cultivation of bananas that for six years has turned its small communal room into a refuge for migrants to rest.
“We are motivated to work with migrants. They leave their countries to seek an improvement for their family and here we give them what we can, because we do not know when we will have the same need,” explains Felicita Palencia, a resident of Jimeritos who was trained by the Red Cross to take care of migrants.
The community lounge has a bedroom with capacity for 12 people and, according to the leaders of the village, there are nights where they receive up to 30 migrants who seek refuge before continuing their journey to the Mexican border of Tecún Umán, located about 540 kilometers at the other end of the country.
Community community members pay attention despite the difficulties they are going through, such as strong dengue epidemics that affect the department of Izabal, where in 2023 more than 500 cases were registered and the region was put on red alert by the health authorities, a disease from which migrants are not freed either.
On May 2, in the community room, the Red Cross gathered the children of the Jimeritos public primary school to give them a talk about hygiene and sanitation measures to eliminate the mosquito that transmits dengue, as well as tools to identify the symptoms of this disease.
Carlos Linares, who has lived in this migrant host village for 42 years, assures EFE that the biggest concern for them is climate change, since the rainy season is approaching and in years such as 2001 and 2020 many houses were destroyed by storms.
“This part of the road is the most difficult to get to the United States, because there are a lot of police and they can return us to Honduras,” Mario Alvarado, a Honduran migrant who decided to look for the “American dream,” explains to EFE.
With temperatures of 40 degrees, Alvarado crossed the border, bordering the Motagua River and the African palm plantations, to end up arrested by the Guatemalan authorities.
Alvarado is the third time he has been on his way to the United States. He does it with his compatriot Danny Gámez, the same one with whom a few months ago they were deported from Texas, United States, after a journey that allowed them to work in the North American nation as painters.
Like Alvarado and Gámez, thousands of migrants seek to cross Guatemala every year and so far in 2024 alone, almost 8,000 have been arrested by the security forces for their subsequent deportation, according to figures from the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM).
“It doesn’t matter how many times we are deported. If there are no conditions to live in Honduras, we will always find a way to leave again,” Alvarado reiterates, before moving away between the path of a plantation with his journey companion.
Central America
Environmental groups denounce Nicaragua’s mining deals as ‘ecocide’ in protected areas
The Nicaraguan government has granted three new open-pit mining concessions to two Chinese companies, covering a total area of 21,303.15 hectares in the departments of Nueva Segovia and Boaco, according to an announcement published Friday in the Official Gazette La Gaceta.
The company Three Gold Coins Company S.A. received two permits to extract metallic and non-metallic minerals — one for the El Parquer site, covering 6,513.15 hectares in Wiwilí, Nueva Segovia, and another for the La Virgen site, covering 1,428.94 hectares in Quilalí, also in Nueva Segovia. The second firm, Little Stone Mine S.A., obtained the third concession for the El Triunfo site, spanning 13,361.06 hectares in Boaco.
These new authorizations add to nearly 30 mining concessions granted to Chinese companies over the past two years, now encompassing approximately 600,000 hectares, including areas within the Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve, according to official data.
The environmental organization Fundación del Río, led by exiled activist Amaru Ruiz, denounced the new concessions, arguing they violate the Law on Communal Property of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities. The NGO stated that the repeal of the regulation protecting natural reserves—replaced on May 6 by the new Law on Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development Areas—has left key ecosystems without legal protection.
The group also warned about the expansion of illegal artisanal mining within the Río San Juan Reserve, claiming that these concessions effectively legalize extractive activities in protected areas.
Meanwhile, the Platform for Unity and Democracy (PUDE), a coalition of Nicaraguan opposition figures in exile, condemned the government’s massive handover of indigenous lands to Chinese companies, calling it an “ecocide.” The organization said some concessions directly threaten the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve and the Los Guatuzos Wildlife Refuge, both bordering Costa Rica.
Central America
Panama’s president accuses U.S. Embassy official of visa threats amid China tensions
Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday accused a U.S. embassy official of threatening to revoke visasfor government officials and civilians amid discussions about the Central American country’s ties with China.
“It’s true, and I have information from several sources, that an official from the embassy is going around threatening to take away visas. That is not consistent with the good relationship I aspire to maintain with the United States,” the president said during his weekly press conference, without naming the U.S. official.
Mulino made the remarks in response to a journalist’s question about alleged pressure from the embassy on lawyers, lawmakers, and ministers in his administration.
“They are free to grant or revoke visas as they see fit, but not by threatening that if you don’t do something, your visa will be taken away. Whether they revoke it or not, I don’t know. But the bilateral problem we cannot ignore is the U.S.-China issue, which ultimately does not benefit Panama,” Mulino said.
He added that Panama should not get involved in disputes between other countries.
“Much less should we accept this kind of pressure, if it exists, to undermine legal certainty regarding contracts or business operations in Panama,” the president stressed. “All I aspire to is respect,” he concluded.
In early September, the U.S. announced a new visa restriction policy targeting Central American citizens with ties to the Chinese Communist Party. In a press release, the U.S. State Department said the country “is committed to countering China’s corrupt influence in Central America and preventing its attempts to subvert the rule of law.”
Central America
Nicaragua grants 2,500-hectare mining concession to chinese firm in protected region
The Nicaraguan government has granted a new open-pit mining concession to the Chinese company Toyar Inversión Minera S.A., covering a total area of 2,500 hectares in the South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Region, according to an announcement published Thursday in the Official Gazette La Gaceta in Managua.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines authorized the concession for the extraction of metallic and non-metallic mineralsin the area known as “Nuevos Encuentros,” located in the municipality of Nueva Guinea, under a ministerial agreement.
In total, the administration led by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo — Nicaragua’s co-presidents — has granted more than 20 mining concessions to Chinese companies over the past two years, covering over 500,000 hectares, including some within the San Juan River Biosphere Reserve.
The Fundación del Río, an environmental organization headed by denationalized activist Amaru Ruiz, warned that these concessions violate the Law on the Communal Property Regime of Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Communities of Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.
According to the NGO, the approval of the Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Development Areas Law on May 6 effectively repealed the decree regulating protected areas in the country, weakening environmental safeguards.
Fundación del Río has also denounced the expansion of illegal artisanal mining within the San Juan River Biosphere Reserve, claiming that the new concessions could legalize mining activity in what should remain a protected area.
Meanwhile, Nicaraguan opposition organizations in exile, grouped under the Platform for Unity and Democracy (PUDE), accused the Ortega-Murillo government last week of massively handing over indigenous territories to foreign companies, particularly Chinese investors.
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