Central America
Nicaragua threatens Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and R. Dominican Republic for impasse in the SICA
Nicaragua threatened Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic with taking “some measures” against them for opposing the election of former Nicaraguan Chancellor Denis Moncada as the new secretary general of the Central American Integration System (SICA), according to an official statement released this Friday.
“We have received your disrespectful and taxing Joint Note of today, November 28, 2024, which highlights its continuous, illegal and inappropriate blockade of Nicaragua, according to all the Treaties and Regulations governing the Central American Integration System,” said Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke, in a note addressed to his colleagues from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, and to all SICA Governments.
“In the face of this unusual insubordination of Governments and Foreign Ministrys that do not respond to the Law that governs us according to the Jurisprudence of our System, Nicaragua is considering some measures that we will communicate in a timely manner, on the contempt in which the countries subscribing to the Note have shamefully fallen, which also deny, absolutely and insanely, the power of our country to designate our own candidates,” he continued.
According to Jaentschke, former Chancellor and retired general Denis Moncada “has had and has the recognition of Governments, peoples and countries of the World, recognition and respect that cannot be ignored and / or denied by those who subscribe to this absurd communication.”
They invite you to reconsider
“We call for reconsideration of what we consider to contravene all the Presidential Agreements that have governed and govern the SICA, including the national sovereignty of our countries,” urged the Nicaraguan Foreign Minister.
Referring to the note from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama and the Dominican Republic, Jaentschke indicated that it “exhibits a denialist, exclusionary and discriminatory position, which is unacceptable from all points of view and that we are forced to denounce.”
Three weeks ago, the Government chaired by Daniel Ortega proposed a new tern of candidates as the new general secretary of the SICA, headed by former Chancellor Moncada, and also integrated by the Sandinista deputy Arling Patricia Alonso Gómez, and the Minister of the Family, Johana Flores, after two previous ternas presented did not reach consensus.
The previous terna was composed of Deputy Alonso; the Minister of the Interior, María Amelia Coronel Kinloch, and the presidential advisor for health issues and former Minister of Health, Sonia Castro, all sanctioned by the United States and in Castro’s case also by Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, for violation of human rights.
The first terna, presented on November 16, 2023, was headed by Jaentschke himself and included Violeta Irías Nelson, from the Attorney General’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights, and the official deputy Irís Marina Montenegro Blandón.
One year without the General Secretary of the SICA
Nicaragua, which holds the temporary presidency of that body, had convened an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SICA for last November 15 “in order to advance in this process”, present the new terna and interview the candidates proposed by Managua, which was not held due to lack of consensus.
The General Secretariat of the SICA has been vacant since in mid-November 2023 the Nicaraguan lawyer Werner Vargas resigned from the position for the period 2022-2026, for which he was appointed as a proposal for Nicaragua.
Nicaragua has also denounced and rejected the “usurpation” of the General Secretariat of the SICA by an “Executive Directorate” of that body, which according to Managua has asked the governments of the region “to analyze a proposal for a work agenda and a draft budget of a General Secretariat that does not exist because it is unbrainering.”
The SICA, created in Tegucigalpa in 1991, is integrated by Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic as full members, while Mexico, the United States and other countries have the category of regional observers.
Central America
Arévalo warns of ‘Dark Interests’ targeting human rights defenders in Guatemala
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo de León warned on Thursday that human rights defenders are facing serious threats, aggression, and criminalization by “dark interests” embedded within the structures of the State.
“Today we are facing serious levels of threats, aggression, and criminalization against people who promote respect for human rights, coming from actors and criminal networks—sometimes embedded in State institutions—that refuse to accept that Guatemala is changing,” Arévalo said during a public event held at the former Government Palace.
During the event, authorities presented the Public Policy for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders 2025–2035, an initiative developed in compliance with a 2014 resolution from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), issued in response to the killing of activist Florentín Gudiel Ramos in 2004.
Central America
Newborn found in Costa Rican dump survives two days in unsanitary conditions
Costa Rican media outlets report that a newborn baby was found in a garbage dump, where he had reportedly spent two days in unsanitary conditions.
Police located the infant after a resident alerted authorities upon hearing crying coming from a clandestine dumping site in the Rancho Guanacaste area. The newborn was discovered alive inside a drainage channel, covered in waste. He was immediately taken to the National Children’s Hospital, where he received medical care and is now in stable condition.
“The National Children’s Hospital confirms that we indeed received a newborn approximately four or five days old who was found in a wooded area near the Alajuelita roundabout. He was first taken to the Solón Núñez Clinic and then transferred to this hospital. As of now, the baby is in the emergency department in good condition. He arrived a bit cold, but he has been warmed, fed, and his initial physical exam is completely normal,” explained hospital director Carlos Jiménez Herrera, according to CR Hoy.
Central America
Arévalo accuses Porras and judge of undermining democracy in Guatemala
Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo denounced a new attempt at a “coup” orchestrated by the Attorney General’s Office. He also requested an extraordinary session at the Organization of American States (OAS) to address the country’s ongoing political crisis.
The president has been at odds with Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union for being “corrupt” and “anti-democratic.” Since 2023, Arévalo has accused Porras of launching investigations against his party, Semilla, and the 2023 elections as part of a scheme to prevent his inauguration in January 2024.
From the presidential office, Arévalo has said he continues to “resist” the “coup plotters,” but tensions escalated last Friday when Judge Fredy Orellana, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office, ordered the electoral court to annul the Semilla party’s promoter group. Arévalo interpreted this as an attempt to revoke the positions won by the party.
“Orellana, a hitman who distorts the law in service of Consuelo Porras, is attempting to force […] the unconstitutional removal of a mayor, 23 elected deputies […], the vice president, and the president of the country,” Arévalo said in a televised address on Sunday.
“We call on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the coup being attempted in Guatemala,” he added, speaking alongside his cabinet and congressional members at the National Palace in Guatemala City.
Arévalo requested that the Organization of American States hold an extraordinary session to present “the serious threats” to the Guatemalan Constitution and democracy perpetrated by Porras and Orellana.
Yesterday, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Ramiro Martínez reaffirmed the president’s statements, emphasizing the need “to go and expose the situation” Guatemala has been facing since last week due to the actions of the Attorney General’s Office.
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