Central America
Final report submitted to Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate former deputies who diverted funds through front NGOs
September 29 |
The Legislative Assembly informed that this Thursday a final report and a complaint was submitted to the Attorney General, Rodolfo Delgado, to investigate former deputies who illegally diverted public funds to non-profit organizations, associations and foundations through front Non-Governmental Organizations.
Said report was submitted by the lawyers of the Special Commission investigating the destination of funds allocated to NGOs.
“The report we are presenting is the accumulation of an investigation process initiated in the Assembly, which has already concluded. In it, indicative elements have been compiled, such as disbursements to NGOs, without any type of requirement”, explained Mario Machado, lawyer who supported the Commission.
Machado added that these NGOs “did not have balance sheets, up to date credentials or project liquidations and yet they received amounts of money. An analysis was made and it was identified that, from 2011 to 2020, $279 million was diverted to them.”
According to the investigation conducted by the commission, the previous legislatures granted $279 million to 20 organizations between 2011 and 2020, and it was found that part of those resources were allocated to entities with partisan ties. Some of these belonged to Congresswomen Lorena Peña and Milena Calderón de Escalón.
“It is important to highlight that, during the study, organizations were found that have carried out relief actions and others that were definitely founded for quasi-criminal purposes”, Machado added.
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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