It can be said about El Salvador like it can be said about Honduras: There is evidence that all three political machines of the last three decades secretly partnered with organized crime for their political benefit.

In El Salvador, financial asphyxiation, intimidation, and the new Foreign Agents Law threaten university stability. In Guatemala, lawfare against students and electoral fraud at the public university reflect the decay of the political system. Nicaragua is the most brazen: Under a grinding assault on freedoms, university autonomy no longer exists.

After the murder of Roberto Samcam, a prominent Nicaraguan exile, the Costa Rican president has remained silent, while victims of persecution accuse the Nicaraguan regime of running intelligence operations out of its Embassy. The investigation highlights the threat faced by Nicaraguan dissidents and reflects rising insecurity within Costa Rica.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of 18 current and former members of El Faro in a major international spyware lawsuit against NSO Group, the Israel-based developer and vendor of Pegasus software. The judges reversed a March 2024 dismissal and sent the case back to the Northern District of California.

A police intelligence source asserts that Security Minister Gustavo Villatoro ordered two senior National Civil Police leaders to plant false evidence of drug trafficking against members of El Faro. A source inside the justice system reports the existence of a list of dozens of names for whom prosecutors were ordered to fabricate criminal cases, including El Faro journalists.

From Nicaragua to Guatemala to El Salvador, a new Central American exile is upon us. There is somber poetry to the fact that El Faro is telling this perpetual story of Central America, one of political persecution and refuge, from outside the country that birthed it.

Last month, prosecutors charged alleged members of Los Cachos for recent murders of campesinos in Bajo Aguán, a land conflict that President Xiomara Castro promised in 2021 to address through agrarian reform and U.N.-backed initiatives like a Truth Commission. Four years later, as elections unfold again, unresolved land disputes, private and partisan interests, militarization, and organized crime hobble advances.