CENTRAL AMERICA

There’s no doubt that after the blue skies and sunshine of December 1st, there are already clouds on the horizon. But the role of an engaged citizen cannot be to simply cross your arms and watch the storm roll in while saying “I told you so”. Giving President López Obrador the benefit of the doubt is to replicate the old styles of rulers who demanded unconditional support for their actions and cloaked themselves in authoritarian power and self-praise. Seeing treachery before it happens ignores the need for facts-based judgement and closes doors.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador was inaugurated Saturday, in a ceremony unlike any other seen in Mexico. What’s next for the new president?

This year the Caravan of Central American Mothers arrived in Mexico City to participate in the first World Summit of Mothers of the Disappeared with mothers, other relatives of the missing and allies from Mexico, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania, Spain, Italy and the United States to compare notes and gain a deeper understanding of the problem, across borders.

Former President Elías Antonio Saca was sentenced to ten years in prison. He thus became the first Salvadorian ex-president to be sent to prison for the crimes of corruption and misappropriation of public funds.

The battle to stop the spread of extractive industries pits indigenous and peasant communities against powerful business interests, backed up by politicians who encourage the foreign investments that convert millennial ways of life into cash for them.

Claudia is not the first migrant murdered by the Border Patrol, nor will she be the last. The Border Patrol kills people with impunity in the name of “border security”.

The bloodshed in Nicaragua today is the brutal repression unleashed by autocratic power in response to a popular uprising. The international community has a responsibility to denounce it.