CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 53: One woman had no family left in Guatemala. Some men were snatched from their jobs. Every deportee was distraught, confused, or angry. When Guatemalans flip the coin of abandonment, they often find brutality on the other side.

This seventh issue of Central America Monthly seeks to answer the question: What comes after deportation?

In our podcast today, we present the Letter from the Editor.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 52: Nayib Bukele has dealt with three U.S. administrations. He went from conservative darling to pariah under the early Biden years’ anti-corruption agenda. Outlasting and outmaneuvering the Democrats, Bukele bet on Trump’s return, catapulting him back to the seat of U.S. power.

This special November episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Roman Gressier. Sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and iHeart podcast platforms.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 51: In Honduras, questions about a militarized election deepen. The head of the Joint General Staff wants to run a parallel vote count on November 30. Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office announces its newest investigation into the National Electoral Council.

In a new coup effort in Guatemala, an internationally sanctioned judge orders the removal of the president, two-dozen legislators, and a mayor elected with Arévalo’s party. But the Constitutional Court issues a biting rebuke and reverses the order.

This episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Gabriel Labrador, Yuliana Ramazzini, and Roman Gressier. Sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and iHeart podcast platforms.

Ep. 50, SPECIAL with LATINO USA: Thousands of immigrant children were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border during the first Trump administration. And while a court ruled the government should reunite these families, hundreds still remain apart.

In this episode, we travel to Guatemala to meet a father who was deported from the U.S. without his 14-year-old son. In theory the families should be able to reunify on U.S. soil. Lawyers and advocates are working tirelessly to track down missing families. But in practice, the new Trump administration is making these reunifications even more complicated.

This podcast episode was produced by Latino USA and co-published in partnership with El Faro English.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 49: Guatemala’s former minister of governance, whose office oversees the police and prisons, resigns and leaves the country after the public learns of the escape from prison of twenty 18th Street gang members.

In El Salvador, a new Law Against Money Laundering in fact significantly loosens controls. Attorney general Rodolfo Delgado argues compliance officers relied too heavily on press reports in sanctioning individuals accused of money laundering.

This episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Gabriel Labrador and Roman Gressier. Sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and iHeart podcast platforms.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 48: Crackdown tactics emerging from El Salvador’s Casa Presidencial and the U.S. White House have something in common: the willingness to sow fear and enact cruelty onto a population deemed criminal or expendable.

This sixth issue of Central America Monthly focuses on a single question: What is really happening in the world's most publicized prison system? Evidence of barbarism and state crimes emerging from Salvadoran prisons could constitute crimes against humanity.

In our podcast today, we present the Letter from the Editor.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 47: Five months before new magistrates are chosen, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) of Guatemala has been raided yet again amid arrests, a guilty plea, and accusations of bribery. Next year, the top seats at the TSE, high courts, and other crucial institutions are up for grabs.

In Costa Rica, President Rodrigo Chaves skirts an effort by the Legislative Assembly to strip him of his immunity on corruption allegations — and his presidential candidate Laura Fernández says she will shield him from an array of probes with a top cabinet spot if she wins the February 1 election.

This episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Yuliana Ramazzini and Gabriel Labrador and edited by Roman Gressier. Production and soundtrack by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and iHeart podcast platforms.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 46: Salvadoran-born journalist Mario Guevara is set to be deported today, Friday, after his arrest in June, while covering protests in Georgia against the immigration raids of Trump’s first months. He was the only known journalist detained by ICE on U.S. soil.

This special October episode of Central America in Minutes was written by Yuliana Ramazzini and edited by Roman Gressier. Production and soundtrack by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, and iHeart podcast platforms.

Ep. 45, SPECIAL with LATINO USA: She was in labor, fainted, and woke up in handcuffs.

In El Salvador, nearly 200 women have been incarcerated in the last 26 years after having obstetric emergencies, like miscarriages and stillbirths. Maria Hinojosa and producer Monica Morales-Garcia travel to the country to speak with women who have been incarcerated under El Salvador's anti-abortion laws, some of the strictest in the world.

Through interviews, documents, and archival materials, this investigation paints a clear and disturbing picture of the women who suffer most when a country stretches the definition of abortion beyond its meaning and then bans them all without exception.

This podcast episode was produced by Latino USA and co-published in partnership with El Faro English.

CENTRAL AMERICA IN MINUTES, Ep. 44: On September 8, Temporary Protected Status for Hondurans and Nicaraguans came to an end, leaving more than 50,000 immigrants, who have been in the United States for over two decades, at risk of deportation.

The Guatemalan Constitutional Court refused to grant provisional parole to publisher Jose Rubén Zamora, bouncing the decision of whether he will continue in pre-trial detention rather than house arrest back to lower court.

Guatemalan outlet No-Ficción reports that the Arévalo administration purchased $10.3 million in military equipment from Israeli companies named by a Trump-sanctioned U.N. special rapporteur as part of an “economy of genocide” in Gaza.