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☆ Human rights court begins review of high-stakes El Salvador abortion case
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mayela LopezSAN JOSE/SAN SALVADOR, March 22 (Reuters) - The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Wednesday began hearing the historic case of a Salvadoran woman who was denied an abortion in 2013 despite doctors' calls to terminate her high-risk pregnancy. They recommended an abortion but would not perform the procedure given El Salvador's severe prohibition. Beatriz appealed to the Supreme Court and the IACHR, but the Salvadoran court rejected her request and in June 2013 she underwent a C-section. The court's public hearing, which is being held in San Jose, Costa Rica until Thursday, was marked by both anti-abortion protests and demonstrations of support for Beatriz. Reporting by Alvaro Murillo in San Jose and Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ El Salvador Congress extends year-long anti-gang crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN SALVADOR, March 16 (Reuters) - El Salvador's Congress passed yet another extension suspending some constitutional rights in the Central American country's year-long fight against gangs late Wednesday. [1/3] Gang members wait to be taken to their cell after 2000 gang members were transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center, according to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout distributed to Reuters on March 15, 2023. "We need to keep fighting criminal groups, we need to give assurance to Salvadoran families, for their lives and their property." Since the measure was enacted, extortion cases have dramatically dropped, and El Salvador has gone 215 days without a murder reported, according to the government. El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

☆ Despite constitutional ban, Salvadoran leader heavily favored for reelection, poll shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, March 14 (Reuters) - Nearly 70% of Salvadorans favor popular President Nayib Bukele's bid for a second term, a local newspaper poll showed on Tuesday, despite an explicit constitutional prohibition against serving consecutive terms. In September, Bukele announced he would run for reelection, defying the Central American country's constitution's longstanding ban. The Supreme Court, filled with recently-installed Bukele-backed judges, ruled in 2021 that a consecutive term was allowed, citing Bukele's human right to run. "Salvadorans remain divided on whether the constitution allows immediate re-election," newspaper La Prensa Grafica said in the poll. The poll, conducted in February, showed 68% of the 1,500 respondents supported Bukele's reelection, with 13% against.

☆ El Salvador begins transfers to 'mega prison' amid gang crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/8] A prison agent guards gang members as they are transported to their cells, after 2000 gang members were transferred to the Terrorism Confinement Center, according to El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in this handout distributed to Reuters on February 24, 2023. Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia/Handout via REUTERSSAN SALVADOR, Feb 24 (Reuters) - El Salvador's government moved thousands of suspected gang members to a newly opened "mega prison" on Friday, the latest step in a controversial crackdown on crime that has caused the Central American nation's prison population to soar. "This will be their new home, where they won't be able to do any more harm to the population," President Nayib Bukele wrote on Twitter. Around 2,000 accused gang members were moved to the 40,000-person-capacity prison, considered to be the largest in the Americas, early Friday morning. In a video posted by Bukele, prisoners stripped down to white shorts, with their heads shaved, are seen running through the new prison into cells.

☆ Jamaica willing to take part in military intervention in Haiti, PM says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness addresses the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, U.S., September 22, 2022. REUTERS/David 'Dee' DelgadoKINGSTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Jamaica would be willing to take part in an international military deployment to Haiti, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told lawmakers on Tuesday, saying the Caribbean island country could also support its neighbor on electoral reforms. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry has pleaded for foreign military support. The U.N. envoy to Haiti, Helen La Lime, has called for more urgency, saying the police cannot win without outside support. "Jamaica would be willing to participate in a multinational security assistance deployment to Haiti under the appropriate jurisdictional parameters to support a return to a reasonable level of stability and peace," Holness told lawmakers.

☆ El Salvador opens 40,000-person prison as arrests soar in gang crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A general view shows the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador in a handout distributed to Reuters on February 1, 2023. The 40,000-capacity Terrorism Confinement Center was inaugurated on Tuesday to help relieve some of the overpopulation in the country's prison system. With nearly two percent of its adult population behind bars, El Salvador has the highest incarceration rate in the world. El Salvador's largest prison, La Esperanza, currently holds 33,000 people despite having a capacity of 10,000. By 2021, El Salvador's prison system had 20 penal centers with a capacity for 30,000 holding 35,976 prisoners.

☆ El Salvador arrests Colombian linked to Paraguayan prosecutor's murder
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Margareth Lizeth Chacon Zuniga, who, according to the authorities, participated in the murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, assassinated on the island of Baru near Cartagena, Colombia, is presented to the media after her detention in San Salvador, El Salvador January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Jose CabezasSAN SALVADOR, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A Colombian suspect in the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor last year was arrested in El Salvador and will be handed over to Colombian authorities, El Salvador's government said on Wednesday. Chacon arrived in El Salvador on May 26 and has since traveled to several Latin American countries, returning regularly to the capital of San Salvador, Salvadoran Minister of Justice and Security Gustavo Villatoro said. She will be handed over to Colombian authorities later on Wednesday, Villatoro said. Two other people authorities say are suspected of planning, paying and hiring Pecci's murderers were captured in Colombia on Sunday.

☆ Salvadoran girls found on Rio Grande at U.S.-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Mexico National Immigration Institute (INM)/Handout via REUTERSMEXICO CITY, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Mexican immigration agents found three unaccompanied Salvadoran children stranded on an islet on the Rio Grande, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, Mexico's immigration institute said. Members of Mexico's National Guard first issued an alert for the children, according to the institute. Salvadoran consulate officials in Mexico were aware of the incident and in talks with local authorities, El Salvador's foreign ministry said. Rio Grande crossing dividing the United States and Mexico is one of the last hurdles migrants face before reaching the United States, often after arduous journeys. The three children were placed in the care of Mexico's System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), the immigration institute said.

☆ Salvadoran lawmakers pass digital asset issuance law in bitcoin haven
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"The purpose of this law is to establish the legal framework that grants legal certainty to transfer operations to any title of digital assets used in public issuance offers," according to the legislation. Public offerings may be made by issuers using existing digital assets, with the opportunity to create new ones through them, the law indicates. The law also establishes the creation of the National Commission for Digital Assets and the Bitcoin Funds Administration Agency, which will be in charge of managing, safeguarding, and investing the funds from public offerings of digital assets carried out by the government. It also would not apply to digital assets that by law are legal tender such as bitcoin, in addition to the video game ecosystem or Non-Fungible Tokens. Nonetheless, President Bukele shared on Twitter a message from the country's bitcoin office saying the law also paves the way for volcano bonds to be issued soon.

☆ The 'world's coolest dictator' rounded up 60,000 people in a supposed crackdown on MS-13. A shrimp farming community is fighting back.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Danielle Mackey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

SISIGUAYO, EL SALVADOR — On the morning that Walber Rodriguez was arrested last May, he was just two minutes from his home in Sisiguayo, El Salvador. Outside El Salvador, Bukele is best known for adopting Bitcoin as a national currency. All around them in Sisiguayo and the surrounding Bajo Lempa valley, people were arrested with no satisfactory explanation. Residents of the Bajo Lempa who'd been touched by the arrests had begun meeting weekly at a nearby retreat center. A meeting of the Bajo Lempa families on June 17, 2022.

☆ The 'world's coolest dictator' rounded up 60,000 people in a crackdown on MS-13. A shrimp farming community is fighting back.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Danielle Mackey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

☆ El Salvador conducts anti-drug military operation on Christmas Eve
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN SALVADOR, Dec 24 (Reuters) - El Salvador started Christmas Eve with a military operation against drug dealers in a San Salvador community, the government said on Saturday, part of the country's controversial attempt to fight criminal gangs. The government deployed 1,000 soldiers and around 130 police officers who have been participating since dawn in an operation in the impoverished Tutunichapa community, President Nayib Bukele said on Twitter. Security forces arrested six suspected criminals in the community in El Salvador's capital, well known for drug dealing and which already faced a military intervention in October 2020. "All terrorists, drug traffickers and gang members will be removed from this community. Honest citizens have nothing to fear and can continue to lead their lives normally," Bukele tweeted.

☆ El Salvador's Congress approves pension system reforms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN SALVADOR, Dec 20 (Reuters) - El Salvador's Congress on Tuesday approved reforms to increase pensions and create a state entity to supervise the retirement income system, despite criticism from experts who argued the measures were insufficient. El Salvador's population is 6.7 million. Congress also endorsed the creation of the Salvadoran Pension Institute, a state entity that will oversee the pension system and private funds. The changes, approved by the congress with a pro-government majority, will take effect in January 2023 for all workers affiliated with the pension system. The pension system in El Salvador has operated privately since 1998.

☆ Nayib Bukele war on gangs: El Salvador has arrested 2% of its adult population. Other countries are taking note
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Tara John | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Eight months since El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced a war on gangs, an estimated 2% of the country’s adult population – or roughly 100,000 people – are now behind bars. In 2015, El Salvador surpassed Honduras as the most violent country in the world, with a murder rate of more than 100 per 100,000 inhabitants. El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele speaks to around 14,000 soldiers in El Salvador. Alleged gang members at a maximum security prison in Izalco, El Salvador, on September 4, 2020. “It is not that they are interested in El Salvador (they never were), their fear is that we will succeed, because other governments will want to imitate it.

☆ El Salvador deploys 10,000 troops to gang-run capital suburb
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Troops walk in the suburb of Soyapango, after El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced the deployment of 10,000 security forces to the troubled area which for years has been considered a stronghold of the violent Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs, in San Salvador, El Salvador December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Jose CabezasSAN SALVADOR, Dec 3 (Reuters) - El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele announced Saturday the deployment of 10,000 security forces to a suburb of San Salvador known to be a stronghold for gangs. Images released by the government showed troops carrying heavy weapons, helmets and bulletproof vests, traveling in war vehicles. The municipality has a population of about 300,000 and was previously considered impregnable for law enforcement. Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Edited by Noé Torres and Alexander Villegas and Franklin PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ El Salvador investigative journalists sue spyware maker in U.S. federal court
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Journalists from an investigative news outlet in El Salvador sued NSO Group in United States federal court Wednesday after the Israeli firm’s powerful Pegasus spyware was detected on their iPhones. In January, the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, an internet watchdog, reported that dozens of journalists and human rights defenders in El Salvador had their cellphones repeatedly hacked with the spyware. Among them were journalists at the El Faro news site. NSO Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit. Apple and WhatsApp have pending lawsuits against NSO Group in the same U.S. court in the Northern District of California.

☆ Trolls, propaganda & fear stoke Bukele's media machine in El Salvador
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

In examining Bukele’s media operation, Reuters interviewed more than 70 people, including former media operatives and social media researchers. It showed Bukele with an 86% approval rating in El Salvador, making him the most popular leader in the region. “The threat in El Salvador used to be from the gangs, now it's from the state,” said Angelica Carcamo, the organization's president. “I found a lot more manipulation in El Salvador than in Mexico,” Escorcia said. A native of Guatemala, Torres has been critical of the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for creating conditions that spur migration.

☆ El Salvador govt seeks Congress approval to issue bitcoin-backed bonds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The government of El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, is seeking congressional approval to issue investment bonds in the cryptocurrency. El Salvador's government-controlled legislature announced late on Tuesday it had received a bill dubbed the "Digital Assets Issuance Law," aimed at regulating the offering of such bonds to local and foreign investors. The proposal comes a year after President Nayib Bukele announced he would launch so-called "volcano bonds" to raise $1 billion to finance his "Bitcoin City" project, which included building a town on the Salvadoran coast funded by bitcoin-backed bonds. Bukele later revealed the bonds were named after El Salvador's 170 volcanoes, which would provide geothermal energy to support bitcoin mining projects. Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tumbling bitcoin overshadows El Salvador's crypto conference
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A worker talks on a stand during the launch of Adopting Bitcoin – A Lightning Summit in El Salvador, in San Salvador, El Salvador November 15, 2022. Crypto exchange "Bitfinex will redouble its efforts to build a free, unstoppable, resilient and open bitcoin and technology infrastructure for El Salvador," said Paolo Ardoino, the firm's chief technology officer. Ifinex, Bitfinex's parent, has agreed to collaborate with El Salvador's government to create a digital asset and securities regulatory framework. "El Salvador will become the financial and tech center of Central America. The noise won't distract the builders," Ardoino added after meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

☆ U.S. extends protected migrant status to mid-2024 for six nationalities
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SAN SALVADOR, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The United States has extended a protected status program that prevents migrants from being deported to mid-2024 for citizens of six countries, including Haiti and three Central American nations, its immigration service said on Thursday. The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will be extended to June 30, 2024, for citizens of Haiti, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sudan, Honduras, and Nepal, according to a document filed by the U.S. The TPS program provides recipients work permits and can protect them from deportation if their home countries go through extraordinary events such as natural disaster or armed conflict. The extension will affect about 392,000 people, of whom some 242,000 are citizens of El Salvador, according to USCIS data. "Thanks be to God," said Salvadoran Ambassador to the United States Milena Mayorga, tweeting a link to the document.

☆ Prison deaths mount in El Salvador's gang crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +14 min

For more than two months, Jesús carried a clipping of that photo to every prison in El Salvador, and then to every hospital. When police and soldiers fanned out across El Salvador to make their arrests, Bukele tweeted the daily number of “terrorists” detained and talked tough about making their lives miserable. A soldier frisks a motorcyclist at a checkpoint outside Comasagua, El Salvador, on Oct. 6. They should be kept behind bars for as long as possible, said Gallegos, who is also a proponent of the death penalty in El Salvador. After forming in Salvadoran immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s, gang members brought their criminal networks back to El Salvador.

Data from Bloomberg Economics shows that El Salvador tops its ranking of emerging market countries that are vulnerable to a debt default. Another survey by the institute found that 76 out of 100 small and medium-size enterprises in El Salvador do not accept bitcoin payments. But in 2022, recent data shows that only 1.6% of remittances were sent to El Salvador via digital wallets. Meanwhile, its other national currency, bitcoin, is revered for the fact that it, too, is impossible to mint out of thin air. "Bitcoin doesn't solve any of El Salvador's important economic problems," he added.

☆ Julia kills 14 in Central America as it churns toward Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Nelson Renteria | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Residents clean a mudslide in a road while Tropical Storm Julia hits with wind and rain, in San Salvador, El Salvador, October 10, 2022. REUTERS/Jose CabezasSAN SALVADOR, Oct 10 (Reuters) - The death toll from Tropical storm Julia rose to at least 14 on Monday, officials said, with victims confirmed in El Salvador and Honduras, as the weakening storm dumped heavy rainfall on a swath of Central America and southern Mexico. Authorities in both El Salvador and Guatemala also canceled classes on Monday. In Nicaragua, Julia left a million people without power and heavy rains and floods forced the evacuations of more than 13,000 families. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Nelson Renteria in San Salvador; Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa and Brendan O'Boyle in Mexico City; Editing by Richard ChangOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ I was in El Salvador, where bitcoin was accepted everywhere. Here's why their risky crypto experiment just might work.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-16 | by ( Alex Kantrowitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Bitcoin enthusiasts are waiting to see if if the bitcoin experiment will succeed, or tragically implode. Right after I hopped out the back of a pickup in El Zonte, El Salvador, I recognized I wasn't in an ordinary beach town. The bitcoin movement in El Salvador began in El Zonte when a California surfer named Mike Peterson received an anonymous $100,000+ bitcoin donation for the town's residents. For bitcoin's true believers, there's a ton riding on the El Salvador experiment. El Salvador's bitcoin experiment may not work, it could implode, but there's a chance it succeeds, and that makes it worth trying.

☆ Un fost polițist arestat pentru două crime. Avea în curte un adevărat cimitir, cu 40 de cadavre
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-21 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +1 min

Autoritățile din El Salvador excavează un cimitir clandestin din curtea unui fost polițist, existând suspiciunea că aici s-ar afla în jur de 40 de cadavre, majoritatea femei. Căutările au început după ce fostul ofițer, Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chávez, în vârstă de 51 de ani, a fost reținut, la începutul acestei luni, pentru uciderea unei femei și a fiicei acesteia. Echipele criminalistice i-au percheziționat casa fostului polițist și au descoperit cel puțin șapte gropi care conțineau cadavre, unele din ele îngropate de cel puțin 2 ani. Chávez a fost arestat, la fel și alți nouă suspecți care i-ar fi fost complici. 70 de femei au fost ucise anul trecut și 111 în 2019.

Persons: Hugo Ernesto Osorio Chávez, Guardian, . Chávez, Mauricio Arriaza, Chávez Locations: Salvador, San Salvador, America Latină

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