Central America
Bernardo Arévalo called Attorney General Consuelo Porras to a meeting
The president of Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, called a meeting next Wednesday with Attorney General Consuelo Porras, whom he accuses of leading an attempted “coup d’état” and who is expected to ask her to resign, as previously announced.
The government issued a statement this Friday reporting that the president, who took office at the beginning of the week, sent a formal invitation to Porras for a meeting in the presidential office, without specifying whether the request included his resignation.
The appointment is scheduled for January 24 at 10:00 a.m. local time (16:00 GMT) at the National Palace in the capital, according to the statement.
The social democratic president, 65, had previously announced that he would summon Porras this week to ask him to resign. Under the law, the president does not have the power to dismiss the attorney general.
“We will summon her to the office to ask her to resign. I have said it publicly and I reiterate it: at that appointment I will ask her to resign and I hope she has the good sense to hand it in,” Arévalo said in an interview with CNN in Spanish last Wednesday.
Porras, 70 years old and considered “corrupt” and “undemocratic” by the United States, is accused by Arévalo, protesters and the international community of undermining democracy and endangering the presidential transition due to questioned investigations.
The Prosecutor’s Office led by Porras initiated legal action against Arévalo after he surprisingly advanced to the runoff in June.
In addition, he managed to get a judge to suspend Arévalo’s party, Semilla, for alleged irregularities in its formation in 2017.
The Prosecutor’s Office also maintains that last year’s elections are “null” due to alleged irregularities in the minutes containing the votes.
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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