It’s easy to read this year-in-review issue of Central America Monthly as doom, gloom, and crimes of state. But each of these stories contains greater acts of courage, resilience, and ethical judgment.

Honduras approaches the Sunday elections with last-minute institutional infighting, criminal investigations, accusations of fraud, and under a three-year state of exception. With Trump’s Venezuela gunboat diplomacy in full swing, the United States called for an emergency session at the OAS on Tuesday to focus regional eyes on the Honduran election.

One woman had no family left in Guatemala. Some men were snatched from their jobs. Every deportee was distraught, confused, or angry. When Guatemalans flip the coin of abandonment, they often find brutality on the other side.

Crackdown tactics emerging from El Salvador’s Casa Presidencial and the U.S. White House have something in common: the willingness to sow fear and enact cruelty onto a population deemed criminal or expendable.

President Rodrigo Chaves avoided the lifting of his immunity amid a corruption probe, but the head of state now faces a new accusation of interference in the upcoming election. Nayib Bukele made a cameo in a video publicized by the administration, throwing his support behind Chaves’ political project as one of “safety and prosperity.”

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.