Central America
El Salvador’s $9.663 billion budget for 2025 focuses on key sectors with no new debt issuance
The Finance and Special Budget Committee of the Legislative Assembly issued a favorable opinion today for the bill containing the 2025 General State Budget, which amounts to $9.663 billion. For the first time, this budget does not involve issuing debt for current expenditure.
The opinion was approved after hearing from officials from various government departments, who explained the allocation of public resources as well as what has been executed in 2024.
The priority areas will continue to be education, health, security, and defense, as they will receive 37% of the total budget, amounting to $3.609 billion. Education will receive $1.535 billion for projects under the “Crecer Juntos” (Grow Together) Law, the “Crecer y Aprender Juntos” (Grow and Learn Together) program, the “Mi Nueva Escuela” (My New School) program, the Digital Gap Reduction initiative, Quality and Coverage Improvement for the “Nacer, Crecer y Aprender” (Be Born, Grow and Learn) program, among others.
Health will receive $1.170 billion to strengthen the “Creciendo Saludables Juntos” (Growing Healthy Together) program and Integrated Health, improve infrastructure and equipment for hospitals and health centers, and other areas. Meanwhile, security and defense will receive $903.4 million.
An allocation of $1.700 billion will go to the Annual Public Investment Program.
Central America
Venezuelan opposition leader to meet Costa Rican president Rodrigo Chaves on thursday
Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia will meet with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves this Thursday, the Presidential Office of Costa Rica announced today.
“We will give a warm welcome to the person who won the July elections in Venezuela, and we continue to denounce electoral fraud,” President Chaves stated during his weekly press conference.
Meanwhile, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo André explained that González Urrutia is visiting Costa Rica to “inform the president and provide details about the situation in Venezuela, the victory he achieved with over 7 million votes on July 28, and the electoral fraud committed by Nicolás Maduro’s regime, which fraudulently swore him in as president.”
González Urrutia is currently in Guatemala, having arrived from the Dominican Republic as part of a tour through several countries ahead of the controversial inauguration on January 10, during which the Chavista leader Nicolás Maduro was sworn in as president by the National Assembly, controlled by the ruling party.
Central America
President Arévalo highlights anti-corruption and drug trafficking efforts in first year report
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León highlighted this Tuesday the progress made in the fight against corruption and drug trafficking as cornerstones of his first year at the helm of the Guatemalan government, during a session in Congress.
“We are in a process of transformation, but the commitment must be focused on eradicating the corruption that has oppressed us for so long,” said the president during the presentation of his first government report.
Arévalo de León urged lawmakers to “work together for structural change” in the country and thanked the president of the Legislative Body, Nery Ramos, for their joint efforts in the approval of various laws and the alliances formed during 2024.
The Guatemalan president highlighted as an achievement of his administration the denunciation of dozens of corruption structures embedded in state entities, such as fraud networks involving businessmen and former officials.
Central America
Honduras arrests former military leaders over 2009 killings
Former Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Honduras, General Romeo Vásquez, was arrested on Sunday as the alleged person responsible for the 2009 killings of two individuals by military personnel, just days after leading the coup against former President Manuel Zelaya.
Along with him, the Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Venancio Cervantes, and the former commander of the Joint Operations Command were also detained, according to the Secretary of State for Security (Interior), Gustavo Sánchez, on his social media account X.
“The three arrests were made moments ago by the Honduran Police in coordination with the Public Ministry in Tegucigalpa and La Paz (west),” Sánchez said.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office had issued an arrest warrant for the three ex-military officials “on charges of homicide and aggravated assault” against Obed Murillo and Alex Zavala, who were attacked by “members of the Armed Forces,” according to the Public Ministry.
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