Central America
EU, US widen Nicaragua sanctions as Ortega begins new term
AFP
Daniel Ortega was sworn in Monday as Nicaragua’s president for a fourth straight term as the EU and US tightened sanctions over impugned elections held in November with all his challengers in jail.
“Yes, I swear,” said strongman Ortega as he and his wife Rosario Murillo, who was re-elected vice-president, were sworn in at a ceremony attended by the presidents of Cuba and Venezuela and envoys from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Syria, among others.
Even before the event got under way, the European Union announced fresh sanctions against individuals it accuses of “undermining democracy” and human rights abuses in Nicaragua, including Ortega’s daughter and a son — both working as presidential advisors.
Others sanctioned “in view of the worsening situation in Nicaragua” were senior officials of the country’s police force and electoral body, said the EU.
In Washington, the US Treasury placed sanctions on six regime officials, including two generals, the defense minister, the head of the Supreme Electoral Council and officials of the telecommunications regulator, who allegedly ran a social media troll farm to help Ortega.
Travel restrictions were imposed on 116 individuals tied to the regime, including mayors, prosecutors, security and university officials “complicit in undermining democracy,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
In his inaugural address, Ortega, 76, mocked the sanctions, calling them a “decoration” for Brenda Rocha, the electoral council head, who was one of the officials sanctioned.
He called the US measures “cowardly” and “cruel (…) not just to Nicaragua” but also to Cuba and Venezuela, which have also been subjected for years to “brutal sanctions” that he said must cease.
– Russia and China –
In the months leading up to the November 7 vote, Nicaraguan authorities detained nearly 40 opposition figures, including seven would-be presidential challengers, assuring victory for long-time ruler Ortega.
As the international community rained opprobrium and sanctions on Ortega, he sought to improve ties with economic giants China and Russia.
Managua switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing, in return for which China reopened its embassy in the Central American nation and donated thousands of coronavirus vaccines.
Moscow, in response to outreach from Managua, provided the country with wheat, vaccines, even buses for public transport.
A firebrand Marxist in his youth, Ortega ruled Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after leading a guerrilla army that ousted US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Returning to power in 2007, he has won re-election three times, becoming increasingly dictatorial and quashing presidential term limits.
Ortega, with Murillo on his ticket, garnered 75 percent of the vote in November.
The election took place without independent international observers and with most foreign media denied access to the country.
The Nicaraguan parliament is dominated by Ortega allies, who also control the judiciary and electoral bodies.
Days before the election, Facebook announced it had closed a Nicaraguan government troll farm spreading anti-opposition messages.
Besides Rocha, the head of the Supreme Electoral Council, the European Union also imposed sanctions on the council’s deputy head and a senior official who was acting chief in 2018.
The country’s telecoms enterprise was also listed for its bid “to silence independent media” and spread “disinformation.”
– ‘Sham’ –
US President Joe Biden has slammed the vote as a “sham” and the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) said it was “not free, just or transparent.”
As sanctions were almost immediately announced by the US, EU, Canada, and Britain, Russia attacked the West for not recognizing the results.
“We consider this unacceptable and we strongly condemn such a stance,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in November.
The US State Department says Ortega’s regime continues to hold 170 political prisoners.
They include some 120 people who participated in anti-government protests in 2018 that were brutally repressed, causing more than 300 deaths and sending more than 100,000 people into exile, according to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Ortega insists the jailed are criminals and “terrorists” seeking to overthrow him with help from the United States.
Dozens of Nicaraguan exiles protested in neighboring Costa Rica on Sunday against Ortega’s inauguration.
The protest came on the same day that Nicaragua’s new parliament, also elected in November and dominated by Ortega’s left-wing Sandinista National Liberation Front, was officially opened.
Central America
Panama launches anti-drone measures as prison security crisis deepens
Panama will restrict airspace around its prisons to prevent drones from delivering drugs and weapons to inmates, President José Raúl Mulino announced Thursday as his administration moves to address a growing prison security crisis.
The measure is part of a broader strategy that includes the construction of a new penitentiary designed to isolate gang leaders, according to the president.
“We are implementing an airspace blocking system so that drones can no longer fly over the prisons,” Mulino told reporters during a visit to the province of Bocas del Toro.
The system was tested last week with the aim of preventing drones from nearby areas from being used to transport or drop drugs inside correctional facilities, the president added.
Panama’s prison system has faced increasing pressure following the escape of nearly 200 inmates from La Joyita prison, located near Panama City, on January 1. Most of the prisoners have since been recaptured.
The security situation gained further attention after the escape and the June 17 killing of a 10-year-old girl in the capital, who was caught in a hit attack targeting her stepfather.
Following the La Joyita prison break, Mulino said the country’s penitentiary system had “collapsed” and announced last week, during his annual government report, plans to build a facility aimed at separating high-ranking gang members from the general prison population.
“The system collapsed, not only because of organization but because of corruption. All the drugs and weapons that enter prisons pass through a door, and there is someone — whether a prison guard or a member of the national police — who allows them to enter,” Mulino said Thursday.
Panama recorded a homicide rate of 14.2 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025. However, the Caribbean province of Colón registered a rate three times higher than the national average.
Meanwhile, the country’s prisons currently hold around 24,000 inmates, despite having capacity for only 14,700, according to official figures.
Central America
Regional Naval Operations Strike Drug Cartels, Disrupting Cocaine and Weapons Trafficking Routes
Transnational operations carried out by regional naval forces, including El Salvador’s National Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR), have dealt significant blows to international drug trafficking organizations.
The operations have not only led to the seizure of massive cocaine shipments, such as the 6.68 metric tons of cocaine valued at approximately $167 million presented last Wednesday by El Salvador’s Security Cabinet, but have also resulted in the confiscation of high-powered weapons allegedly intended as payment to criminal organizations, according to Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro.
“Based on the strength of the data, not just the narratives, we can state that our National Navy has documented the only known operation in the Pacific Ocean in which a criminal organization from the south was transporting drugs and exchanging them with a group from the north for firearms,” Villatoro said.
The exchange of weapons for drugs between criminal groups in the Pacific Ocean represents a logistical method in which South American cartels from countries such as Colombia and Ecuador negotiate with Mexican and Central American organizations to trade military-grade weapons for cocaine shipments.
Regional naval authorities have identified that meeting points located farther from the coastline in international waters make it easier for armed groups to receive supplies and carry out exchanges undetected. As a result, El Salvador’s National Navy deploys teams from the Trident Naval Task Force (FTNT) aboard maritime patrol vessels to intercept these operations.
Initially, the patrol units are ordered to travel up to 200 nautical miles offshore, but later receive instructions from the Maritime Operations Center to extend their missions beyond 1,000 nautical miles, reaching coordinates used by drug trafficking vessels operating in the open sea.
“We cannot lose focus on the routes these criminal organizations use to move drugs,” Minister Villatoro said, emphasizing the importance of maintaining surveillance over the various maritime corridors used for narcotics trafficking.
Central America
Violent Killings of Women in Honduras Remain High During First Half of 2026
Violent deaths of women remain a major concern in Honduras, according to preliminary data released by the Violence Observatory of the National Autonomous University of Honduras.
Between January and June 2026, the country recorded 139 violent deaths of women, one more than the 138 reported during the same period in 2025.
The Observatory’s director, Migdonia Ayestas, said that although the increase is minimal, the figures confirm that violence against women remains a persistent problem.
“Violence against women is a serious issue. The ways in which they are being killed have become increasingly brutal and inhumane,” Ayestas said.
She explained that documented cases include dismemberment, beheadings, sexual assaults, and bodies abandoned in public places, acts that she said reflect the violence carried out by criminal organizations.
Ayestas stressed that the analysis should go beyond the number of victims and focus on the effectiveness of the justice system.
“We should not only count how many women are killed, but also how many cases are investigated, how many arrests are made, and how many reach the courts,” she said.
According to the Observatory, more than 8,000 women have died violent deaths in Honduras since 2005, leaving thousands of children orphaned.
Ayestas also called for stronger prevention efforts, improved education, and more effective criminal investigations to address the crisis. She argued that the current state of emergency alone has not been sufficient to dismantle criminal organizations or significantly reduce violence, emphasizing the need for comprehensive strategies to prevent these crimes and combat impunity.
The first-half figures for 2026 underscore that violence against women remains one of Honduras’ most pressing security and human rights challenges.
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