Central America
US, EU, Spain give money to address C.American migrant crisis
AFP/Editor
The United States, European Union and Spain on Thursday pledged more than $85 million in aid to Mexico and Central America to offer alternatives to would-be migrants seeking a better life.
Washington has pledged $57 million on top of $310 million in humanitarian aid for the region already announced in April by Vice President Kamala Harris, a government official said in Costa Rica ahead of a presidential summit.
“This money will be used to support efforts in building asylum systems, enabling governments to address the pressures of the migration itself,” Amy Pope, the White House senior advisor on migration, told a gathering in San Jose.
“This is part of president Biden’s much comprehensive approach to migration, is not all about the United States border, it is about what is happening that causes people to feel that they do not have any other choice than to flee,” she said.
Pope spoke at an event in solidarity with forcibly displaced people preceding a summit of heads of state and government of countries in the Central American Integration System (SICA), and Spain.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the event his government would contribute $7.6 million to the cause, while the EU pledged another $22.5 million.
“We recognize that without a regional solution, we cannot address this problem,” said Pope.
Undocumented migration from Central America to the United States has been on the increase since 2018, and is a major headache for the administration of President Joe Biden.
Detentions of undocumented migrants, many fleeing poverty or violence at home, hit a 15-year-high along the US-Mexico border in April, with nearly 180,000 people intercepted, according to the US authorities.
Biden is allowing unaccompanied minors to stay and be united with relatives living in the United States.
The Republican opposition has accused Biden of creating a “crisis” on the country’s southern border.
Harris, on a visit to Mexico and Guatemala this week, said countries must work together to address the root causes of the problem, but told would-be migrants “Do not come” to the United States.
“The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders… If you come to our border, you will be turned back,” she said.
Earlier Thursday, Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei said Biden’s administration was tempting migrants through what he called humanitarian messages.
“Because there they said, ‘we are going to encourage family unification.’ And the coyotes (smugglers) took children and adolescents to the US, and the border filled up, not just with people from Guatemala. A ton of people,” Giammattei told Fox News.
Central America
El Salvador to host World Cup qualifiers vs. Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán
El Salvador’s national football team will host its final round World Cup qualifying matches against Guatemala and Panama at Estadio Cuscatlán, the honorary president of the National Sports Institute (INDES), Yamil Bukele, announced Thursday via a statement on his X account.
The official explained that this decision comes after the American rock band Guns N’ Roses, originally scheduled to perform at Estadio Cuscatlán on Saturday, October 4, will now hold their concert at Estadio Jorge “El Mágico” González. This change allows both of La Selecta’s qualifying matches to be played at the “Coloso de Monserrat.”
“After a series of efforts and in response to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that our senior national team’s CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matches next October (Oct. 10 vs. Panama and Oct. 14 vs. Guatemala) will take place at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement reads.
Bukele also thanked the event promoters and the band for agreeing to the stadium change. “We sincerely thank Guns N’ Roses and StarTicket for agreeing to move the concert originally scheduled for October 4 at Estadio Cuscatlán,” the statement adds.
Additionally, Bukele expressed gratitude to the FESFUT Regularization Commission for their efforts with CONCACAF to make this possible, and he urged fans to stay tuned to official channels to purchase tickets and support La Selecta in their World Cup qualifying campaign.
Central America
Honduran president Xiomara Castro suspends activities due to influenza
Honduran President Xiomara Castro announced on Thursday that she has “temporarily” suspended her public activities due to a severe influenza virus.
“A strong influenza virus requires me to rest, trusting that I will be fully recovered for the grand celebration of our National Independence Day” next Monday, Castro stated on the social media platform X.
The president had planned to participate in several inaugurations across the northern, central, and eastern regions of the country throughout the week. She added that “these events will be rescheduled for new dates.”
Central America
Nicaragua’s government expels bishops, priests, and nuns in religious persecution
At least 261 religious figures, including the president of the Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference, Carlos Enrique Herrera, have been expelled as part of the persecution by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo’s regime against the Catholic Church, reported the NGO Colectivo Nicaragua Nunca Más in its report Faith Under Fire.
The report details that among those expelled are bishops Silvio Báez, Rolando Álvarez, Isidoro Mora, as well as the Apostolic Nuncio in Managua, Waldemar Stanislaw Sommertag, along with approximately 140 priests, over 90 nuns, ten seminarians, and three deacons from different dioceses in the country.
“Since the expulsion of Nuncio Sommertag in March 2022, relations between Nicaragua and the Vatican have significantly deteriorated,” the NGO noted.
The report also documents the closure of 5,609 non-profit organizations, of which 1,294 were religious, including churches, universities, schools, clinics, and humanitarian organizations. Most of these had their assets confiscated by the Sandinista government. Additionally, the telecommunications regulator TELCOR shut down 54 media outlets, including 22 religious radio stations and TV channels.
Repression has extended to other religious denominations, with forced disappearances and criminalization of evangelical pastors, control over temples, media censorship, fiscal pressure, property confiscation, and the cancellation of legal status for the Moravian Church. Pastor Rudy Palacios remains in detention as part of this pattern of persecution.
The NGO emphasized that churches, especially the Catholic Church, played a key role in the 2018 national dialogue, denouncing abuses and providing refuge to injured protesters, which fueled the government’s hostility.
In 2023, Pope Francis described Ortega’s regime as a “blatant dictatorship”, to which the Nicaraguan president responded by dissolving the Society of Jesus and labeling the Church as a “mafia” and “anti-democratic.”
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