Displaying items by tag: El Salvador

Three retired colonels have been sentenced to fifteen years in prison for orchestrating the 1982 killings of four Dutch journalists during El Salvador’s civil war. They are former defence minister Jose Guillermo Garcia (91), Francisco Moran (93), and Mario Adalberto Reyes Mena (85). The journalists had been filming with leftist rebels when ambushed by soldiers in a planned military trap. A 1993 UN truth commission had previously identified the ambush as orchestrated by Reyes, who remains in the USA despite an extradition request. Garcia and Moran are currently under police watch in a private hospital. The case was revived in 2018 after El Salvador's supreme court struck down a postwar amnesty. Advocacy from the victims’ families and international bodies, including the Dutch government and EU, pressured authorities to bring long-delayed justice.

A US federal judge may hold the Trump administration in contempt for defying a court order which temporarily halted deportation flights carrying over 200 individuals to El Salvador. The administration had invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, typically reserved for wartime powers, to justify the removals. James Boasberg criticised their ‘wilful disregard’ of his ruling, saying their responses were unsatisfactory. Though the Supreme Court later affirmed Trump’s decision, Boasberg insists that does not excuse the violation of his earlier temporary restraining order. If the administration does not provide the information he has requested by 23 April, he will seek to identify the individuals who ignored the order to stop the deportations. Trump officials deny wrongdoing, asserting that the individuals deported were gang members and the flights had departed before the court's intervention: Trump has also called Boasberg a ‘troublemaker and agitator’. El Salvador agreed to take in the deportees in exchange for $6 million in aid: Trump has expressed an interest in sending more deportation flights there.

Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela have colossal crime rates which undermine growth, threaten human welfare, and impede social development, according to the UN and World Bank. The region registers 40% of the world’s murders despite having only 9% of the global population. One in four Latin Americans was assaulted and robbed in 2018. Wealthy Brazilians have to provide their own security. Pray for the church and the police to bring security and peace to Brazil’s vulnerable population. Massive street marches in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil protesting against violence have made it difficult for politicians to avoid dealing with the issue and, in many countries, tackling crime is a central theme in political party platforms across the region. Pray for God to raise up strong, wise men and women with God’s anointing to lead the countries back to His purposes.