Central America
Troops deployed in San Salvador amid massive gang crackdown
| By AFP |
More than 2,000 soldiers and police surrounded two districts in El Salvador’s capital on Saturday as part of President Nayib Bukele’s war on gangs, the second such operation this month in the Central American country.
“As of this morning, the Tutunichapa district in San Salvador is totally surrounded,” Bukele posted on Twitter.
“More than 1,000 soldiers and 130 police officers will extract the criminals who still remain,” he added.
Bukele later tweeted that 1,000 more soldiers and 100 police officers had been dispatched to La Granjita, another neighborhood in the capital.
“After encircling Tutunichapa, a famous drug distribution center, we knew that many drug traffickers would take refuge in the neighborhood of La Granjita, another famous distribution center”, Bukele tweeted.
Images released Saturday by the office of the president showed heavily armed soldiers entering Tutunichapa, a populous district where small houses mostly constructed of concrete blocks stand alongside one of the many polluted streams that run through San Salvador.
Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro posted photos of members of an anti-narcotics police unit with drug-sniffing dogs.
“We are going to extract every criminal from our communities,” Villatoro said in a Twitter post.
‘Bastion on crime’
Defense Minister Rene Merino said 23 people had been arrested in Tutunichapa, without specifying whether they were accused of being gang members or drug traffickers.
“All terrorists, drug traffickers and gang members will be removed” from the area, Bukele said in another tweet, adding that until recently it was a “bastion of crime.”
“Honest citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to live their lives normally,” he wrote.
Local resident Edwin Diaz, 51, cheered the law enforcement action, saying the area has long been considered a dangerous place due to gang activity and drug sales.
“All our lives we have suffered the stigma that here there is drug dealing, gang members, bad things, and today with this security they have set up, there is nothing to fear,” Diaz told AFP by phone on Saturday.
Echoing Bukele’s remark, Diaz added: “He who owes nothing, fears nothing.”
Almost 60,000 arrests
Earlier this month, Bukele, who has declared a state of emergency to quash gang violence, sent 8,500 soldiers and 1,500 police officers to surround Soyapango, the country’s third-largest city, with a population of nearly a quarter million.
The president had announced last month a plan to use troops to surround cities while house-by-house searches are conducted for gang members. Soyapango was first on the list.
The siege there has seen armored military vehicles, some with artillery, carrying out constant patrols while heavily armed police search houses and people as they leave their neighborhoods, as well as random sweeps of public transport.
As of Saturday, some 650 suspected gang members had been arrested in Soyapango, Merino said.
“We continue working in the rest of the territory looking for terrorist criminals,” the defense minister added.
Almost 60,000 suspected gang members have been arrested since the launch of the state of emergency in March, which has prompted humanitarian groups to question what they see as heavy-handed tactics.
Despite that criticism, El Salvador’s Congress on Thursday once again extended the state of emergency for another month.
Over 75 percent of Salvadorans approve of the emergency declaration, and nine out of 10 Salvadorans say that crime “has decreased” with Bukele’s policies, according to a Central American University (UCA) poll published in October.
Central America
Guatemalan soldier wounded in clash with suspected mexican armed group near border
A clash between Guatemalan soldiers and a suspected Mexican armed group that crossed into Guatemalan territory left one soldier wounded on Monday, the army reported.
The border between the two countries has been shaken by actions carried out by Mexican criminal groups, and as recently as last June, Mexican armed forces briefly entered Guatemala during an operation against organized crime.
“Suspected illegal armed groups entered national territory, specifically along the Guatemala–Mexico border,” in communities located in the departments of Huehuetenango and San Marcos (both in the southwest), army spokesperson Pamela Figueroa told reporters.
She explained that the criminal group opened fire on several communities in the area, but Guatemalan soldiers on routine patrol responded, which “triggered the confrontation.”
One officer was injured in a lower limb but is in stable condition, she added.
The armed forces have reinforced operations in the area, which led to the discovery of “weapons, explosives, accessories, and surveillance equipment, including drones,” Figueroa said.
On June 8, agents from the Mexican state of Chiapas crossed the border into Guatemala in an incident that ended with four alleged criminals dead.
The action prompted a protest from Guatemala and a formal apology from Mexico.
The two countries share a nearly 1,000-kilometer border marked by illegal crossings and insecurity. In some areas, drug trafficking groups from both nations operate.
In August 2024, following an unprecedented flight of Mexican farmers into Guatemala to escape violence between rival drug gangs, the two countries agreed to conduct joint security operations along their common border.
Currently, about 100 Mexicans who fled cartel violence last August remain sheltered in a Guatemalan village near the border.
Central America
Guatemala reverses asset seizures after judge replacement, benefiting ex-president and former ministers
A recent change in the judge overseeing asset forfeiture cases in Guatemala has accelerated the return of seized properties to individuals accused of corruption and drug trafficking. Among the former officials who have benefited are former Communications Minister Alejandro Sinibaldi; former President Otto Pérez Molina; former FCN-Nación lawmaker Herber Melgar Padilla; and former presidential candidate Manuel Baldizón.
According to a special report published by the Diario de Centro América, a turning point occurred between April and July 2024 in the handling of assets confiscated under suspicion of corruption or organized crime. The report indicates that, following the removal of the head of the Asset Forfeiture Court, rulings began to shift, and properties previously under state control were returned to former officials facing criminal proceedings.
In a move widely criticized by analysts and legal experts, Marco Antonio Villeda—now serving as Minister of the Interior—was transferred after more than 10 years from the Asset Forfeiture Court to the Eighth Criminal Court. His replacement, Jaime Delmar González Marín, had previously issued rulings favorable to relatives of former President Jimmy Morales.
Since then, several political figures and ex-officials accused of corruption—including Sinibaldi, Pérez Molina, Melgar Padilla, Baldizón, and Miguel Martínez, a senior official in the previous administration—have regained access to seized assets.
During Villeda’s tenure, authorities froze six properties, bank accounts, and two helicopters linked to former President Pérez Molina; land and deposits worth at least 60 million quetzales connected to Sinibaldi; and a building in Guatemala City’s Zone 15 tied to Baldizón.
These developments are reflected in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ 2025 Report on the Human Rights Situation in Guatemala, which concludes that there has been a “shift in approach to asset forfeiture proceedings.”
For experts such as Juan Francisco Sandoval, former head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), Villeda’s transfer was not “a mere temporal coincidence,” but rather an event that occurred “at a moment when efforts were underway to reconfigure institutional structures and centers of control.”
Central America
Honduras vote vount drags on as Asfura and Nasralla remain in technical tie
Honduras remained on edge this Friday as the presidential election vote count continued, with a technical tie persisting between right-wing candidates Nasry Asfura, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, and Salvador Nasralla, five days after the election.
The vote tally has progressed slowly, with interruptions and amid fraud allegations from Nasralla, the 72-year-old television host and candidate of the Liberal Party (PL).
“The world is already talking about the fraud they are trying to commit against” the Liberal Party, Nasralla wrote on X, as he denounced irregularities in the uploading of vote tally sheets into the system and announced legal challenges.
With 88% of the polling station records counted, Asfura of the conservative National Party (PN) leads with 40.20%, while Nasralla follows closely with 39.47%, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE).
Around 2,000 tally sheets with inconsistencies will also undergo a special review. Nasralla has questioned whether the CNE will be able to deliver final results before December 30, the legal deadline for announcing the official outcome.
Guatemalan soldier wounded in clash with suspected mexican armed group near border
Japan lifts tsunami alert after strong 7.6-magnitude earthquake hits northern coast
Guatemala reverses asset seizures after judge replacement, benefiting ex-president and former ministers
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Extension of the state of emergency approved in southern Chile
-
International5 days agoWMO predicts 55% chance of weakened La Niña impacting global weather this winter
-
Central America5 days agoJuan Orlando Hernández thanks Donald Trump after U.S. pardon
-
International5 days agoSpain’s PSOE summons Mark Zuckerberg over alleged mass surveillance on Android users
-
International4 days agoCatalonia’s president calls for greater ambition in defending democracy
-
International5 days agoNew York Times sues Pentagon over new press restrictions, citing First Amendment violations
-
Central America3 days agoHonduras vote vount drags on as Asfura and Nasralla remain in technical tie
-
International3 days agoFive laboratories investigated in Spain over possible African Swine Fever leak
-
International15 hours agoJapan lifts tsunami alert after strong 7.6-magnitude earthquake hits northern coast
-
International4 days agoMaría Corina Machado says Venezuela’s political transition “must take place”
-
Central America15 hours agoGuatemala reverses asset seizures after judge replacement, benefiting ex-president and former ministers
-
Central America14 hours ago
Guatemalan soldier wounded in clash with suspected mexican armed group near border
-
International15 hours agoInterior Dept. redefines 2026 Patriotic Days, sparking criticism over removed civil rights holidays