This is the transcript of episode 94 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.
GRESSIER, HOST: On October 17, Guatemala suffered its highest-profile assassination in years. Police picked up two suspects, only for them to be released the next day. The men accused the police of planting a weapon, and Interior Minister Marco Antonio Villeda, Guatemala’s security chief, ordered an internal investigation.
VILLEDA: The Police have been involved in reprehensible acts many times. I’ve said it many times and I said it when I joined the president at the Palace. I won’t cover for anyone.
GRESSIER: I’m your host, Roman Gressier. On today’s episode: Guatemalan police muddle a high-profile murder probe. The U.S. conducts military training in Panama, Honduras, and Colombia. Costa Rica opens a supermax prison modeled on El Salvador.
From the studios of El Faro English, this is Central America in Minutes.
Muddled Guatemalan murder probe
After nine in the morning on Saturday, October 17, a former Guatemalan antimafia prosecutor and tax chief, Juan Francisco Solórzano Foppa, known as, well, “Foppa,” was gunned down along with a bystander, Gustavo Aguilar, on a popular turf soccer field in Guatemala City.
In recent years, Foppa cultivated a following on social media in videos denouncing corruption and organized crime.
According to a preliminary investigation, four assassins entered the field disguised as soccer players. They left over 50 bullet casings and disappeared.
Hours later, in his first public report on the case, Interior Minister Villeda noted that Foppa had a security detail for over a decade, when he prosecuted high-profile gang cases including against leaders of Barrio 18, the 18th Street gang.
But they didn’t know why his two security guards present that day didn’t stop the attack.
At a viewing in Guatemala City, Foppa’s uncle Julio stated that the purpose of the attack was to “create fear, distrust, and destabilize the country.”
Villeda said over the weekend that authorities hadn’t ruled out any hypothesis. He also underscored that elections are around the corner, set for June and August of next year.
Guatemalan Gangs Step Into Politics and Drug Trafficking
Before Congress on Wednesday, October 21, police brass acknowledged that Foppa’s assassination pointed to a well-planned attack.
The Police arrested two brothers from a Maya Q’eqchi’ town in Alta Verapaz, who said they were delivering food for the app PedidosYa. The men, brothers Rigoberto and Daniel Choc Toz, accused the police of planting a weapon in their backpack, smashing their phone, and forcing them to change clothes.
Police brass placed multiple officers on leave and acknowledged that the two men were taken to a subdelegation building without approval from higher-ups.
Hours after they were taken into custody, a judge ordered the Choc brothers’ release. The Public Prosecutor’s Office had found no convincing evidence to hold them. So the Interior Ministry ordered Internal Affairs to investigate the officers.
Prosecutors called in the FBI to help investigate. If Minister Villeda determines that there was deliberate foul play by the arresting officers, he promised that “heads will roll.”
U.S. soldiers in Panama, Honduras
Next, to Panama. The New York Times reports that a 600-soldier battalion from Fort Drum, a U.S. Army base in Upstate New York, has started deploying to a jungle training facility in the country.
According to the Times, officials said the troops will eventually train with local forces in Colombia and Honduras, and that they could also provide support to the U.S. Special Operations troops advising militaries conducting raids against accused drug traffickers.
But the U.S. Embassy in Panama denied that the Pentagon plans to send 600 soldiers to the country. They said a smaller U.S. contingent will participate in a temporary training mission in the jungle.
“Currently, 120 U.S. service members from the 10th Mountain Division are participating in a two-week jungle training course in Panama. Upon completing their training on October 25, they will return to their home base at Fort Drum, New York,” countered the Embassy.
According to the Embassy, other U.S. service members will participate in regional exercises, including Southern Vanguard in Peru.
The statement didn't specifically address reports of possible military exercises in Colombia and Honduras.
Podcast: Arévalo Downplays Report of Imminent Joint U.S. Military Strikes
Two days after the Times publication, The Hill reported that the troops could participate in additional training with Guatemalan forces and that they will not conduct training activities related to the fight against drug trafficking.
“This sharpens the capabilities of U.S. and partner nation troops in harsh jungle environments like the remote areas in which cartels hide,” a Pentagon official told The Hill.
In late September, Gen. Francis Donovan, head of U.S. Southern Command, told the Wall Street Journal that the United States wanted “all options on the table” to combat drug cartels, including land strikes, arrests, the takedown of safe houses, and increased use of cargo scanners at border checkpoints.
Last year, the U.S. military and Panamanian security forces restarted jungle warfare training for the first time in more than 20 years.
Panama and the United States signed a three-year agreement that allows the U.S. military to deploy troops to the country for training purposes and to use Panamanian government facilities.
After the agreement was signed, thousands of Panamanians protested against the increased U.S. military presence in areas near the Panama Canal.
Costa Rica opens supermax prison
Now, Costa Rica. On October 14, President Laura Fernández opened a maximum-security prison in Alajuela, 23 kilometers from the capital, San José.
FERNÁNDEZ: Yes, we will take an iron fist approach to crime, because those who break the law must face the consequences. But we will also honor Costa Rica’s tradition of respecting the basic human rights of people who will be held here.
GRESSIER: Nayib Bukele’s government shared the technical plans for its construction. Costa Rican authorities say the new prison will reduce overcrowding by 44 percent.
Fernández’s government has used the new prison to suggest it is following Bukele’s approach to fighting crime. Fernández opened the prison, called the High-Security Center Against Organized Crime, or CACCO in Spanish, just days before visiting El Salvador.
She said she wanted to “learn as much as possible from the prison system that brought peace back to a country that suffered decades of criminal violence.”
But there are already major differences between CACCO and El Salvador’s CECOT prison.
The biggest difference is that CACCO allows family and conjugal visits, phone calls, time outdoors, and opportunities for education and work activities under prison rules.
At CECOT, these are prohibited, according to official regulations and news reports. The only prisoners allowed to work at CECOT are trusted inmates. They spend up to eight hours a day cleaning the prison. For each day of work, they get two days taken off their sentences.
In Costa Rica, high-risk prisoners will be allowed family and attorney visits once a month, and even be allowed conjugal visits once every two months. In El Salvador, all visits, including by defense attorneys, have been banned since 2016, under the administration of Salvador Sánchez Cerén.
The prisons are also different in their design. CACCO will hold just over 5,000 inmates. Each cell can hold 60 people and has three toilets and three shower areas. In El Salvador, each cell can hold 90 people. There are no showers, only two toilets and two water basins.
In Costa Rica, every inmate has the right to a sleeping mat. In El Salvador, prisoners sleep directly on the metal surfaces of their bunk beds and are given only a sheet.
Fernández’s government has promised reforms to limit prisoners’ rights at CACCO, but it remains unclear whether those changes will happen.
This episode was written by Roman Gressier, Leyrian Colón Santiago, and Gabriel Labrador. Editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn.
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