The persecution of independent judges and prosecutors presses onward with the order to trial of former top state attorney Virginia Laparra. The shady Foundation against Terrorism, lead architect of the legal attacks that have already pushed two-dozen anti-corruption operators into exile, has named among its next targets the human rights ombudsman and three of the country’s most influential judges.

"The next few weeks will be intense for the governments of the Northern Triangle, but especially for El Salvador. U.S. sources close to the extradition process have told me that the updating of the Engel List is in its final stage and includes the possibility of sanctioning Central American citizens with U.S. permanent residence. By late June or early July the State Department is expected to reveal the new names, adding to a list already including Bukele’s chief of cabinet"

Days before the summit in Los Angeles, the U.S. is short on friends in the Northern Triangle. Giammattei, once Biden's ally of last resort, said he will not attend amid an open feud over the reelection of the corrupt attorney general. Honduran Xiomara Castro said she wouldn’t attend without Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Only the provocateur Bukele remains silent.

Judge Miguel Ángel Flores Durel, a magistrate on the Salvadoran Supreme Court (CSJ), formerly worked as defense attorney for the most influential leader of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), Borromeo Enrique Henríquez, alias “Diablito de Hollywood,” according to CSJ documents published on Wednesday.

El Faro obtained audio recordings of conversations between a senior Bukele administration official and the Mara Salvatrucha, detailing the unraveling of covert negotiations for a reduction in homicides. In one of the recordings Carlos Marroquín, the official leading the talks, blamed Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro for the collapse that led to an unprecedented wave of violence in March. He also confirmed to the gang that he personally took Helmer Canales Rivera, alias “Crook,” out of prison to Guatemala despite pending criminal charges and a U.S. extradition request.

The government not only extended the politically popular state of exception for another month on Sunday; it also seized the moment to temporarily exempt security spending from legal oversight. Despite widespread flak from human rights groups as evidence accumulates of police abuses and arbitrary detentions, Bukele’s party passed legislation to allow for government land expropriation to build more prisons. The country has the second-highest incarceration rate in the Americas.

On the fourth anniversary of April’s protests and the ensuing brutal repression, the opposition seems unable to find a response to the imprisonment of its key leaders and the kidnapping of the electoral process. But the Ortega-Murillo government’s weaknesses are also evident, as shown by recent internal divisions in the Sandinista party. Given the failure of international pressure, a future democratic opening may rely on the eventual implosion of the regime.

Days after the passage of a law to criminalize media using gang sources, officials and even the president are smearing and threatening journalists with criminal investigations. El Faro journalists and a renowned expert on gangs, who left the country for his safety, have been at the center of these attacks. The IACHR asked El Salvador Wednesday to revise the text of the law and the U.S. State Department cited escalating restrictions on the press in its annual report detailing human rights abuses in El Salvador.

On Tuesday Bukele ordered changes to the Penal Code that press advocates warn censor journalism about gangs and would impede news outlets from questioning the official narrative on issues such as security policy and the government’s secret negotiations with the gangs. The reforms could criminalize El Faro’s newest revelation that an anti-mafia judge documented a top MS-13 leader’s unlawful release from prison. The measure comes on the heels of the declaration of a 30-day state of exception on

After a tense run-off election marked by personal invective and mass voter abstention, the controversial conservative economist Rodrigo Chaves will take office as the next president of Costa Rica in May despite past sexual harassment and an open investigation for illicit campaign finance. The former World Bank official and treasury minister has promised a hard break with the country’s political establishment.