Central America

Panamanian university community demands repeal of mining contract

Photo: El Siglo

November 23 |

Professors, students, and administrative staff of the University of Panama marched this Wednesday to the Supreme Court of Justice of that country to demand the ruling of unconstitutionality of Law 406.

The rector of the university, Eduardo Flores, said that the protesters also intend to deliver an open letter, addressed to the authorities, in which they argue why the contract with Minera Panama, a branch of the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals, is unconstitutional.

The document states that “the legislative procedure followed for the approval of this contract-law violates the constitutional norms” since it can only be “approved or rejected”, “there is no power to return it in order to make modifications to its content, as it happened”.

The letter denounced that “the contract, contained in law 406, violates the constitutional norms on the ecological regime which oblige the State to guarantee that the population lives in a healthy environment free of contamination”, in reference to the fact that the area granted for this mining exploitation is within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.

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The text argued that this is the largest open-pit copper mine in Central America, as well as that it “violates the human right of Panamanians to live in a healthy environment and implies the abandonment of the Panamanian State of the protection, preservation and improvement of that environment”.

Finally, the document urged the Supreme Court to “pronounce in a timely manner and in law, but also in accordance with the arguments made by the great majority of the Panamanian people in favor of the unconstitutionality and inconvenience of the referred mining contract”.

Central America

El Salvador reaches 270 homicide-free days in 2025, PNC reports

El Salvador's PNC adds 85 days without murders and April is on track to be the safest in Salvadoran history

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.

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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.