Panama deported 29 Colombians with criminal backgrounds on Tuesday who had entered the country through the remote Darién jungle, marking the first implementation of a migration agreement signed with the United States in July.
“We have the first flight of the agreement funded by the United States,” said Panama’s Deputy Minister of Security, Luis Felipe Icaza, to the press. He was accompanied by U.S. officials as the charter flight took off at dawn from Albrook Airport in Panama City, carrying the 29 deportees to Bogotá.
Before boarding the Fokker 50 aircraft, the group was assembled at the side of the runway and each individual was checked with metal detectors. The deportees, who were not carrying any luggage, were handcuffed and shackled, making their way slowly up the stairs to the plane.
Icaza mentioned that “the next flight could depart on Friday or Saturday” under the memorandum Panama signed with the United States on July 1, the same day José Raúl Mulino took office as the new President of Panama.
Under this agreement, Washington pledged to fund the deportation of migrants crossing the Darién, the inhospitable jungle on the Colombia-Panama border, with six million dollars.
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“The memorandum applies to anyone, not just criminals,” said Marlene Piñeiro, the U.S. Interior Security Attaché in Central America, who observed the deportation process along with other U.S. and Panamanian officials.
“In addition to charter flights, we are also supporting commercial flights” for the return of migrants to their home countries, she added.
Bukele begins official visit to Costa Rica based on security, cooperation and trade
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, began this Monday an official two-day visit to Costa Rica in which he will address with his Costa Rican colleague, Rodrigo Chaves, issues of security, trade and cooperation.
Bukele’s agenda for this Monday includes a bilateral meeting with Chaves and an extended one with representatives of both cabinets in which both countries will sign agreements and talk about trade, security and cooperation issues, according to official sources.
The Salvadoran president will also receive the Juan Mora Fernández National Order decoration in the Grand Cross Golden Plate degree, the highest distinction that Costa Rica grants to distinguished heads of state or government.
“El Salvador was one of the most violent and unsafe places in the world (…) with Dantesque murder rates and now El Salvador is one of the safest countries in the world, even more than Switzerland, I never imagined getting to see that,” said President Chaves last Wednesday when he announced Bukele’s visit.
The president assured that the order is granted to Bukele for “his contributions in public security and for having turned that society into a safe society” and also because “a large number of the people of Costa Rica admire the achievements of that country.”
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At the end of the day this Monday, they will participate in a state dinner.
Bukele’s agenda in Costa Rica
For Tuesday, the agenda released by the Government of Costa Rica indicates that both presidents will make a “working visit” to the La Reforma Penitentiary Center, one of the main prisons in Costa Rica, and then give a press conference.
“We are not going to take him to the most beautiful place in Costa Rica or to a volcano, or to the National Museum, we are going to go to La Reforma on a work visit, we are going to see what that represents, how it smells, what it smells, what it feels like and there we are going to sit down to work,” Chaves said.
This visit has generated criticism from several opposition political parties in Costa Rica that refused to receive Bukele in the Plenary of Congress for the allegations about violations of human rights, institutionality and the Constitution during his mandate.
The Supreme Court also refused to receive Bukele, according to President Chaves, who ruled out bilateral meetings or with groups of deputies or magistrates.
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Chaves criticized that there are opposition deputies who did not want Bukele to visit Congress because the initiatives he has implemented in El Salvador against crime and violence contradict the “hugs to those who shoot,” a phrase that the Costa Rican ruler has used to criticize deputies and the country’s laws, which he considers “soft” against crime.
Catholic church in Nicaragua faces unprecedented persecution under Ortega
The Catholic Church in Nicaragua is enduring the worst repression in its history under the Sandinista government led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President, Rosario Murillo, according to a report released Thursday by the humanitarian NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más.
“There is no comparable precedent in Nicaragua to the levels of repression against the Catholic Church, as well as evangelical and other religious expressions,” the NGO stated in its report titled “Six Years of Repression of Religious Freedom in Nicaragua: A Chronology of Abuses and Human Rights Violations Against Church Members (2018-2024).”
The organization added that this represents “a state policy and practice of unprecedented repression in Nicaragua’s history,” exceeding even times of war, “with the added grievance that, in the alleged peace of tyranny, those who refuse to bless its criminal acts are treated as the worst enemies.”
“Never before has the country seen so many priests imprisoned, or nuns and clergy persecuted and expelled. Not even in times of war was there an atmosphere of terror like the one currently endured by the Nicaraguan people, especially the Catholic Church, which is persecuted even for ringing its bells,” the Collective, comprised of exiled Nicaraguan activists based in Costa Rica, emphasized.
Record exodus: over 800,000 nicaraguans forced to leave due to political crisis
At least 800,000 Nicaraguans, representing 11.8% of the country’s estimated population of 6.8 million, have been forced to leave Nicaragua since April 2018, when a social and political crisis erupted in the Central American nation. This exodus is the “largest in history,” according to the humanitarian NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más, which reported on Thursday.
“To date, around 800,000 Nicaraguans have been forcibly displaced to other countries due to political crisis and state violence,” reported the Collective in its statement. The organization, which is made up of Nicaraguan exiled activists based in Costa Rica, further noted, “This is the largest human displacement in Nicaragua’s history. In Costa Rica alone, over 250,000 Nicaraguans are currently applying for refugee status.”
The NGO stated that, “as a result of relentless repression” under Daniel Ortega’s government, “the country is facing the largest exodus in its history, mainly to the United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain.”
The organization also expressed concern over “the conditions in host countries,” saying that, “in most cases, [migrants] are unable to access health care, education, dignified housing, social security, job opportunities with adequate pay, or food security.”
In a prior report on the ‘Situation of Forced Displacement of Nicaraguans’ published in June 2023, the organization indicated that around 605,043 Nicaraguans had fled the country due to state repression against opposition members, religious figures, and critics of the Sandinista government.
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This means that nearly 200,000 Nicaraguans left their homes and fled their country in the past 16 months alone.
According to recent data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), cited in February by the UN Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua, a total of 440,280 Nicaraguans, or 6.5% of the population, sought asylum or refuge in third countries, mainly in the United States and Costa Rica, between 2018 and June 2023.
As of June 2023, UNHCR data also showed that 18,545 Nicaraguans had been formally recognized as refugees.
