The government of Guatemala is set to offer a “public apology” on Tuesday, taking responsibility for the arrest and disappearance of Spanish poet, writer, and activist Alaíde Foppa Falla, who went missing 44 years ago during the country’s internal armed conflict (1960-1996).

This was announced on Monday by the Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency, Santiago Palomo. The act will be led by President Bernardo Arévalo de León.

Palomo stated that the president, on behalf of the State of Guatemala, would issue a public apology for Foppa’s disappearance. Foppa, who was also an art critic, professor, and translator, lived in Mexico for many years and held Mexican citizenship.

The event will also acknowledge Foppa’s lifelong work, and the State’s responsibility for the violence she endured, as well as her disappearance. Palomo emphasized that the government’s act is a step toward honoring the memory of her struggle for justice and toward the dignification of the victims and their families.

The Christmas season in Honduras unfolds against a backdrop of poverty affecting 63% of its nearly 10 million residents and the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Sara, which left at least six dead and caused millions in damages to infrastructure and agriculture.

Hundreds of people, mainly children accompanied by their families, have started to enjoy the festive atmosphere in various shopping centers, known locally as “malls,” and public squares in Tegucigalpa. These areas are decorated with nativity scenes, Christmas trees, and other seasonal motifs, along with mechanical rides for entertainment.

Despite the multiple challenges Honduras faces—including poverty, criminal violence, corruption, and inadequate health and education systems—the holiday spirit arrives earlier each year. Major retail chains and supermarkets began the season in early October with decorations, promotions, toys, and music to mark the festivities.

Large Christmas trees have been erected in shopping malls, drawing families and individuals eager to take photos. In some cases, they are accompanied by Santa Claus, known as San Nicolás or Papá Noel in other countries, adding a traditional touch to the celebrations.

Nicaragua threatened Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic with taking “some measures” against them for opposing the election of former Nicaraguan Chancellor Denis Moncada as the new secretary general of the Central American Integration System (SICA), according to an official statement released this Friday.

“We have received your disrespectful and taxing Joint Note of today, November 28, 2024, which highlights its continuous, illegal and inappropriate blockade of Nicaragua, according to all the Treaties and Regulations governing the Central American Integration System,” said Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke, in a note addressed to his colleagues from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, and to all SICA Governments.

“In the face of this unusual insubordination of Governments and Foreign Ministrys that do not respond to the Law that governs us according to the Jurisprudence of our System, Nicaragua is considering some measures that we will communicate in a timely manner, on the contempt in which the countries subscribing to the Note have shamefully fallen, which also deny, absolutely and insanely, the power of our country to designate our own candidates,” he continued.

According to Jaentschke, former Chancellor and retired general Denis Moncada “has had and has the recognition of Governments, peoples and countries of the World, recognition and respect that cannot be ignored and / or denied by those who subscribe to this absurd communication.”

They invite you to reconsider

“We call for reconsideration of what we consider to contravene all the Presidential Agreements that have governed and govern the SICA, including the national sovereignty of our countries,” urged the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister.

Referring to the note from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, Jaentschke indicated that it “exhibits a denialist, exclusionary and discriminatory position, which is unacceptable from all points of view and that we are forced to denounce.”

Three weeks ago, the Government chaired by Daniel Ortega proposed a new tern of candidates as the new general secretary of the SICA, headed by former Chancellor Moncada, and also integrated by the Sandinista deputy Arling Patricia Alonso Gómez, and the Minister of the Family, Johana Flores, after two previous ternas presented did not reach consensus.

The previous terna was composed of Deputy Alonso; the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch, and the presidential advisor for health issues and former Minister of Health, Sonia Castro, all sanctioned by the United States and in Castro’s case also by Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, for violation of human rights.

The first terna, presented on November 16, 2023, was headed by Jaentschke himself and included Violeta Irías Nelson, from the Attorney General’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights, and the official deputy Irís Marina Montenegro Blandón.

One year without the General Secretary of the SICA

Nicaragua, which holds the temporary presidency of that body, had convened an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SICA for last November 15 “in order to advance in this process”, present the new terna and interview the candidates proposed by Managua, which was not held due to lack of consensus.

The General Secretariat of the SICA has been vacant since in mid-November 2023 the Nicaraguan lawyer Werner Vargas resigned from the position for the period 2022-2026, for which he was appointed as a proposal for Nicaragua.

Nicaragua has also denounced and rejected the “usurpation” of the General Secretariat of the SICA by an “Executive Directorate” of that body, which according to Managua has asked the governments of the region “to analyze a proposal for a work agenda and a draft budget of a General Secretariat that does not exist because it is unbrainering.”

The SICA, created in Tegucigalpa in 1991, is integrated by Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic as full members, while Mexico, the United States and other countries have the category of regional observers.