Podcast: NYT and WOLA Indicate U.S. Boat Strikes Received Logistical Support from El Salvador

This is the transcript of episode 84 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

ISACSON: El Salvador is getting pretty close to being an accomplice in some very serious crimes.

GRESSIER, HOST: That’s Adam Isacson, director of the Defense Oversight Program at the Washington Office on Latin America. Talking about U.S. boat strikes in Latin America, he says that if a country provides logistical assistance, intelligence, or other material support to acts violating international law, then they, too, can be held liable by an international tribunal.

I’m your host, Roman Gressier. On today’s episode: U.S. boat strikes receive logistical support from Salvadoran soil, Guatemalan Indigenous leaders face terrorism charges, and Costa Rica declares security spending a state secret.

From the studios of El Faro English, this is Central America in Minutes.

U.S. boat strikes and El Salvador

According to the Washington Office on Latin America, or WOLA, the Trump administration’s deadly military strikes against alleged drug-trafficking boats have killed at least 221 people since last September.

And the New York Times reported that the U.S. military has conducted a quiet buildup in El Salvador, including for anti-narcotics missions in the Caribbean. According to the Times, the planes have been stationed at a military outpost of El Salvador’s national airport in Comalapa.

WOLA cited this reporting in a July 24 report on U.S. boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific. They say El Salvador has “almost certainly” provided logistical support and that the Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago also “appear” to be involved.

The authors of the report, called Killing Spree, described the attacks as “murder under domestic law and extrajudicial killings under international human rights law.”

According to the report, many of the victims could be civilians. The attacks stopped in late June and it’s still unclear why.

The New York Times reported that the U.S. military increased the number of covert attack aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drones operating from bases in El Salvador.

The exact number and type of aircraft involved remain classified, as does much of the official information regarding Operation Southern Spear, the name used for the campaign.

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Since 2000, SOUTHCOM has maintained a “cooperative security location” at the Comalapa International Airport.

The New York Times last November showed that the Comalapa site, which was barely used by the Biden administration, now frequently accommodates a wider range of U.S. aircraft.

According to DEA analysts, the 10-month campaign of strikes on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific had failed to affect the supply or price of cocaine in the United States.

According to a Washington Post count, Trump has claimed on at least fifteen occasions that the attacks have reduced maritime drug trafficking into the country by 97 or 98 percent.

Last March, in Guatemala City, international human rights experts condemned the boat strikes before the Inter-American Commission.

In a speech this week in Panama, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned that the International Criminal Court could investigate U.S. military actions in Latin America.

And he called on Latin American defense coalition partners to join their “all of government” effort to dismantle the ICC.

Trial of Guatemalan Indigenous leaders

Next, to Guatemala. On August 4, two leading Indigenous leaders, Luis Pacheco and Héctor Chaclán, were placed under house arrest and ordered to post bail. They’d been held in pretrial detention for over a year on charges of terrorism and obstruction of justice.

Pacheco and Chaclán are former leaders of the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán, one of Guatemala’s most influential Indigenous leadership structures.

In 2023, they organized peaceful marches, road blockades, and a weekslong sit-in in front of the Public Prosecutor’s Office headquarters to protest an attempted coup aimed at preventing President Bernardo Arévalo from taking office.

The mobilization was so extensive that it turned into a national strike. That led prosecutors to accuse the two men of acts of terrorism.

It was also a swipe at Arévalo. Luis Pacheco joined his administration and was serving as Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines when he was arrested in April 2025.

Pacheco and Chaclán were criminalized by the Public Prosecutor’s Office under Consuelo Porras, the former attorney general sanctioned for corruption by more than 40 countries.

During the months they spent in pretrial detention, the defense asked for house arrest instead. But the hearings were repeatedly postponed or suspended until now.

With the new house arrest order, both were able to return home to Totonicapán, but they must report once a month to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. They cannot leave the country and must pay bail of 160,000 quetzales each. That’s around 21,000 dollars.

And in Pacheco’s case, he cannot return to his post as vice minister.

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The judge who reviewed their measures upheld an order previously issued by an appeals court charging them with a new offense: illicit association. That means those charges will move forward.

On August 5, one day after the hearing, their lawyers submitted the bail payment receipts. The money came from their families and a contribution from the political group Raíces, which emerged from the ruling party, Movimiento Semilla.

According to the newspaper La Hora, their relatives stated that they did not accept Raíces covering the full amount of the bail to avoid political and legal issues.

That same day, they returned to their homes in Totonicapán, four hours from Guatemala City. Now, under house arrest, their legal problems will continue.

Institutional clash in Costa Rica

On August 10, the Costa Rican government classified as secret all information related to budgets, purchases, and contracts of its various security portfolios.

The scope of the decree isn’t yet clear. But the announcement has already drawn criticism from transparency organizations including the Inter-American Press Association.

A few days after the announcement, President Laura Fernández tried to soften the blow.

FERNÁNDEZ: All information related to security will remain freely accessible. But information that could endanger national security will not be open to the public.

GRESSIER: This announcement comes as the Fernández government marks its first three months. Critics accuse Fernández of already crossing democratic boundaries.

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Over the last four years, Costa Rica has seen setbacks. The Liberal Democracy Index shows a moderate decline in democracy over the last decade.

The World Justice Project reports setbacks in the rule of law, institutional checks and balances, and civic freedoms. And the press freedom report by Reporters Without Borders saw Costa Rica drop 30 places since 2022, when former president and current top minister Rodrigo Chaves took office.

In late July, President Fernández accused the Judiciary of pushing an “institutional” coup d’état against the executive branch. The Supreme Court of Justice had just extended the terms of alternate magistrates pending an ongoing nomination process to replace them. Fernández called the ruling illegal.

The president also announced budget cuts that affect the performance of Costa Rica’s judicial system. The Executive Branch has already cut 42 percent of operational expenses for the coming months.

On July 20, Constitutional Judge Jorge Araya openly accused Fernández of undermining justice in a working session of the Supreme Court that was open to the public.

“In the past, democracies ended with military coups. Today, democracies end with budget cuts. And where are we heading? Toward authoritarianism, I have no doubt,” Judge Araya said.

He concluded: “The process of shutting down the Judiciary has already begun. Anyone who has not realized this simply does not want to see it.”

This episode was written by Leyrian Colón Santiago, Yuliana Ramazzini, and Gabriel Labrador. Editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.