Central American Countries Backtrack on Metal Mining Ban

Metal mining has a renewed momentum in Central America, encouraged by populist rulers who, in order to soften environmental damage, claim they can develop it in harmony with nature, which is hard to believe

Solar Project Causes Social and Environmental Conflict in Rural El Salvador

With machete in hand, Salvadoran farmer Damián Córdoba weeds the undergrowth covering the trunk of what was once a leafy tree to show the deforestation taking place on the Santa Adelaida farm, where a company seeks to install a solar park in western El Salvador.

El Salvador Is Making Little Effort to Eradicate Illiteracy

El Salvador's efforts to improve the educational level in the country seem to be falling short, with rundown schools, especially in rural areas, and little progress in overcoming illiteracy.

“Trigger-Happy” Laws Expand in Latin America

Violence involving organized crime has made Latin America the most dangerous region in the world and has helped paved the way for a repressive kind of populism with a dangerous future, whose most visible symbol is Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador.

Salvadoran Government So Far Unscathed by US Legal Case Alleging Secret Pact with Gangs

Despite serious allegations by the US justice system that two officials of the government of Nayib Bukele reached a secret agreement with the MS-13 gang to keep the homicide rate low, the Salvadoran president seems to have escaped unscathed for now, without political costs.

Bukele’s Failed Bitcoin Experiment in El Salvador

A year after Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele decided to make El Salvador the first country where bitcoin is legal tender, the experiment has so far failed, as few of the original plan's objectives have been achieved.

The Price of Bukele’s State of Emergency in El Salvador

The body of Walter Sandoval shows a number of dark bruises on his arms and knees, as well as lacerations on his left eye and on his head - signs that he suffered some kind of violence before dying in a Salvadoran prison, accused of being a gang member.

Bukele Speeds Up Moves Towards Authoritarianism in El Salvador

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has been widely criticised for his authoritarian tendencies, but has said that the changes he plans will be long-term - which to his critics means a further undercutting of the weak democratic institutions that he has already begun to dismantle.

Salvadoran Migrants Still Look to the U.S. to Lift Themselves Out of Poverty

The Joe Biden administration's call for undocumented Central American migrants not to go to the United States, as requested by Vice President Kamala Harris during a June visit to Guatemala, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.