The Biden administration has banned from U.S. territory the prosecutor and judge who attempted to interfere in Guatemala’s run-off election and who incarcerated journalist José Rubén Zamora. The sanctions also include a dozen Nicaraguan officials involved in the banishment of political prisoners but steer clear of the inner circles of the presidents of El Salvador and Honduras in a sign of a shifting U.S. strategy in Central America.

On May 30, Salvadoran police arrested two Bureau of Prisons officials including Wilfredo Hernández Molina, right-hand man of Vice Minister of Security Osiris Luna, for allegedly charging bribes from drug traffickers for prison benefits. Two years ago the top aide had been named as an accomplice to Luna in the now-shuttered corruption probe called “Operation Cathedral”.

Left-of-center opposition legislator Bernardo Arévalo shattered all forecasts in seizing second place in the presidential elections on Sunday and advancing to an August runoff. Arévalo will face political boss Sandra Torres in a test of whether Guatemalan voters can achieve political change via the ballot despite the profound suspicions of presidential efforts to contaminate the election.

Reports of bribery from President Giammattei to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, disputes over the electronic vote-counting system, and suspicions of illicit campaign financing are piling onto a widely condemned elimination of presidential front-runners. These ingredients make this Sunday’s elections the most precarious and uncertain in decades.

Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora was convicted to six years of prison for money laundering this Wednesday in Guatemala. It’s the outcome of a tilted process where Zamora never appeared to have a chance. Investigative journalism reference media elPeriodico, the newspaper he founded 27 years ago, was forced to close one month ago.

Eight months before the elections, President Nayib Bukele announced last night that the 262 Salvadoran municipalities will be cut to 44 and the 84-seat legislature to 60. In his prime-time speech marking four years in power, he also announced the seizure of ex-president Alfredo Cristiani’s assets on unknown charges.

Eight months before the elections, President Nayib Bukele announced last night that the 262 Salvadoran municipalities will be cut to 44 and the 84-seat legislature to 60. In his prime-time speech marking four years in power, he also announced the seizure of ex-president Alfredo Cristiani’s assets on unknown charges.

Civil society movements are nearing an agreement with El Salvador’s four most influential opposition parties on a joint ticket for the 2024 presidential elections. In a bid for a broad front against Nayib Bukele’s unconstitutional reelection, the initiative harks back to historic anti-dictatorship alliances of the 1970s despite strategic, ideological, and partisan tensions.

In the world of YouTube, Nayib Bukele is cast as an invincible hero admired by Elon Musk and Kim Kardashian. First-of-its-kind research analyzed a sample of 70 channels that amplify the Salvadoran president’s message, amassing billions of views. The influencers say they are “just normal people,” unlike “media elites” and “biased journalists,” although some have demonstrated government ties. Political content creation thrives while traditional media, under Bukele’s government siege, loses ground.

As democracies deteriorate across Central America, conditions for the free exercise of journalism have become increasingly dire. Sadly, our 25th anniversary comes on the very day the final edition of elPeriódico of Guatemala goes to press, as the paper shuts down operations in the face of government persecution and a political and judicial system that is corrupt, intolerant of criticism, and radically anti-democratic.