Central America
Panama seized record amount of drugs in 2021: president
AFP
Panama seized a record haul of 128 tons of drugs in 2021, President Laurentino Cortizo said on Sunday.
The figure represented a 43 percent increase on the previous record of 90 tons from 2019.
“In 2021, as a result of 565 operations against organized crime and drug trafficking, 128.7 tons of drugs were seized,” Cortizo told the National Assembly parliament.
In 2020, despite lockdown measures imposed to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, Panama recorded its third largest haul of 84 tons.
The news comes a month after Panama announced a record haul of drug money — more than $10 million in cash, which took investigators more than 12 hours to count after a seizure from a house in Nueva Providencia, in Colon province.
Cortizo, in his remarks to lawmakers, added that Panama’s murder rate in 2021 was 11.5 per 100,000 inhabitants, “mostly linked to organized crime.”
“In the fight against crime I have not negotiated nor will I negotiate with criminals,” insisted Cortizo.
Panama is Central America’s entry point for drugs produced in South America — largely cocaine from Colombia — destined mostly for the United States.
Authorities say drug trafficking from Caribbean ports to Europe is also on the rise.
In recent weeks, Panamanian police dismantled two criminal groups under Colombia’s Gulf Clan cartel, which controls around a third of cocaine production in the South American country — some 300 tons.
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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