Former President Juan Orlando Hernández Returns to Honduras
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández returned to Honduras four years after being extradited to the United States for his drug trafficking trial; Hernández received a presidential pardon from President Trump in December after being sentenced to forty-five years in prison in the United States (AP).
El Salvador President Nominated to Seek Third Term
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was nominated by his ruling Nuevas Ideas party for the 2027 presidential election following legal changes that cleared the way for him to seek a third term (Reuters).
U.S. Designates Ecuador’s Chone Killers Gang as Foreign Terrorist Group
The U.S. State Department designated the Ecuadorean gang Chone Killers as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, imposing sanctions on the group, which has been accused of carrying out attacks on civilians and public officials (Reuters).
Nationwide Strikes in Honduras Reflect Dissatisfaction With Government
Public schools and doctors’ offices in Honduras closed as teachers and medics launched a nationwide strike, demanding pay adjustments and better working conditions; the strikes reflect broader discontent in the education and health sectors amid unmet government promises of salary increases (Reuters).
Guatemala Outlines Deal for U.S. Assistance in Drug Trafficking
Guatemala has requested U.S. military cooperation to assist its operations against drug trafficking, President Bernardo Arevalo said; the support would include access to equipment, training, and experts, but would not include U.S. military operations on Guatemalan soil (Reuters).
Twenty-Five Killed in Honduras Attacks
At least twenty-five people, including six police officers, were shot and killed in two separate attacks on the Honduran coast, which authorities blamed on organized crime (AP)
Founder and Leader of Barrio 18 Gang Dies in Salvadorian Prison
Carlos Mojica, the founder and leader of Barrio 18, has died in El Salvador, the government announced; he had been in a maximum-security prison since 2003 after being convicted of ordering dozens of murders and facing accusations of other crimes (Reuters).
Mass Trial in El Salvador
A court in the country began a trial of 486 alleged gang members, who face charges of homicide, femicide, extortion, and arms trafficking, among others; mass detentions and trials are pillars of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s security strategy, but human rights groups say the mass trials violate defendants’ due process rights (Reuters)
International Jurists Accuse El Salvador of Crimes Against Humanity
A group of international jurists filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that Salvadoran authorities have committed systematic torture, murder, and forced disappearances under President Bukele’s four-year-old state of exception; the report claims reasonable grounds exist to believe these acts constitute crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute (Reuters)
Mexico, El Salvador Seize Cocaine in Pacific Operations
Mexican and Salvadoran naval forces seized over ten tons of cocaine in the Pacific this week, including nearly four tons recovered from a semisubmersible vessel south of Manzanillo; Mexican authorities said the operation relied on intelligence shared by U.S. Northern Command and Joint Interagency Task Force South (AP)
Guatemala Ends State of Emergency After Police Killings
Guatemala lifted its state of emergency imposed after suspected gang members killed ten police officers, ending measures that allowed arrests without a warrant; President Bernardo Arevalo said authorities arrested eighty-three gang members during the period and reported declines in homicides and extortion compared to the previous year (AP)
Asfuras Sworn in as Honduran President
Asfura will serve a four-year term; he pledged to fight corruption, poverty, and crime (Reuters)
Guatemala Sends Troops and Police Into Gang Stronghold
Guatemalan security forces moved into Zone 18, a Barrio 18 stronghold and the capital’s deadliest district, detaining nearly three hundred people within forty-eight hours under emergency powers declared by President Bernardo Arevalo after a spike in gang violence (AP)
Guatemala Gang Attacks Kill Nine Police Officers
Officials confirmed the death toll from coordinated gang attacks rose to nine police officers; their death follows the recent prison riots where inmates from the Barrios 18 gang took forty-six guards hostage across three prisons (Reuters)
Guatemala Declares State of Emergency
President Bernardo Arévalo declared a monthlong state of emergency following a spate of gang-related violence; Arévalo characterized the gang unrest as a response to his crackdown on crime (X)
Gangs took hostages inside three maximum security prisons; as security officials retook the facilities, seven police officers were killed outside the prisons (AP)
Honduras Prepares Special Recount in Election
The recount will cover 2,700 tally sheets with irregularities, enough to alter the outcome; the recount could begin within days, as the November 30 presidential vote remains unresolved with conservative candidate Nasry Asfura holding a narrow lead (Reuters)
The tense counting process has fueled anger across the country, with Honduras’ permanent commission of congress saying it will not ratify the November 30 election results due to alleged domestic manipulation tied to U.S. President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Asfura (Anadolu Agency)
Arrest Warrant for Former Honduran President
The Honduran attorney general said his office had issued an international arrest warrant for former president Juan Orlando Hernandez, following his pardoning by President Donald Trump in the United States (NYT)
Meanwhile, ballot counting continues a week after national elections in Honduras, prompting additional frustration and claims of irregularities from all three major candidates; election officials have blamed website crashes and logistical issues for delays (AP)
Anti-Crime Efforts Across the Northern Triangle
Guatemalan police arrested seventeen suspects who were accused of running a human trafficking ring uncovered during “Operation Shark Club” on November 20 (Prensa Libre)
The Guatemalan Interior Ministry also began meetings to develop strategies to implement the country’s new Anti-Gang Law (La Hora)
Meanwhile, in El Salvador, police detained three men and three women affiliated with the MS-13 gang (Prensa Grafica)
Allegations of Fraud in Honduras Election
Centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla accused electoral authorities of manipulating vote data after National Party candidate Nasry Asfura narrowly overtook him in Honduras’ presidential race; officials said about 17 percent of the vote tallies would be reviewed amid an already delayed and contested count (Reuters)
Separately, the Trump administration’s new national security strategy devotes the bulk of its attention to the Western Hemisphere, where it aims to reduce migration, fight crime, and preserve access to critical supply chains; it reasserts the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, rejecting external influence in the region (White House)
Delays in Honduras Election Vote Count
Centrist candidate Salvador Nasralla took a narrow lead in Honduras’ presidential race as technical failures and multiple delays in vote counts left thousands of ballots uncounted; the failures prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to allege fraud and pushed Honduran electoral councilor Cossette Lopez Osorio to condemn the contracted company responsible for displaying real-time results (Reuters; Anadolu Agency)
Honduras’ Election
With around half of the votes counted, two conservative opposition candidates are neck-and-neck after yesterday’s presidential election; Trump endorsed the National Party’s Nasry Asfura ahead of the vote and announced he would pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, also of the National Party, who is serving a forty-five-year U.S. prison sentence for drug trafficking (AP)
Condemnations of El Salvador’s Emergency Measures
Human rights organizations reported that at least 464 people detained as part of the state of emergency have died since its enactment, including dozens showing signs of violence and many lacking prior criminal records; the group said deaths continue to mount across major prisons. (Prensa Grafica)
Coordinated Police Raids in Guatemala
The National Civil Police (PNC) conducted the raids in seven departments, targeting suspects tied to killings and drug trafficking, with warrants aiming to locate and arrest members of organized criminal structures (La Hora)
Preparations for Honduras Elections
Amid upcoming presidential elections on November 30, the United States and the Organization of American States have warned about safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process, with contenders accusing each other of attempts at electoral fraud (Reuters)
The European Union announced it would send additional observers to help monitor the elections (Prensa Honduras)
Guatemalan Police Arrest Two Barrio 18 Hitmen
Authorities accused the hitmen of fatally shooting a private security guard (La Hora)