MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Central America is experiencing a wave of unrest that is remarkable even for a region whose history is riddled with turbulence. The most recent example is\u00a0political upheaval in Guatemala\u00a0as the country heads for a runoff presidential election in August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A look at various events roiling Central American countries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guatemala is locked in\u00a0the most troubled presidential election\u00a0in the country\u2019s recent history. The first round of elections in June ended with a surprise twist when little known progressive candidate\u00a0Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo\u00a0of the Seed Movement party pulled ahead as a front-runner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now headed to an August runoff election with conservative candidate and top vote-getter Sandra Torres, Ar\u00e9valo has thus far managed to survive\u00a0judicial attacks\u00a0and attempts by Guatemala\u2019s political establishment to disqualify his party. It comes after\u00a0other moves\u00a0by the country\u2019s government to manage the election, including banning several candidates before the first-round vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While not entirely unprecedented in a country known for\u00a0high levels of corruption, American officials call the latest escalation a threat to the country\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
El Salvador has been radically transformed in the past few years with the entrance of populist millennial President Nayib Bukele. One year ago, Bukele\u00a0entered an all-out war\u00a0with the Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatruchas, or MS-13, gangs. He suspended constitutional rights and threw 1 in every 100 people in the country into prisons that have fueled allegations of\u00a0mass human rights abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sharp dip in violence that followed Bukele\u2019s actions, combined with an elaborate propaganda machine, has ignited a\u00a0pro-Bukele populist fervor\u00a0across the region, with other governments trying to mimic the Bitcoin-pushing leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, Bukele has announced he will\u00a0run for reelection\u00a0in February next year despite the constitution prohibiting it. He has also made moves that observers warn are gradually dismantling the nation\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Daniel Ortega is in an all-out\u00a0crackdown on dissent. For years, regional watchdogs and the U.S. government raised alarms that democracy was eroding under the leader of the Sandinista National Liberation Front. That came to a head in 2018 when Ortega\u2019s government began a violent crackdown on\u00a0protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most recently, Ortega forced hundreds of opposition figures into exile,\u00a0stripping them\u00a0of their citizenship,\u00a0seizing their properties\u00a0and declaring them \u201ctraitors of the homeland.\u201d Nicaragua has thrown out aid groups such as the Red Cross and a yearslong crackdown on the Catholic Church has\u00a0forced the Vatican\u00a0to close its embassy. The tightening chokehold on the country has prompted many Nicaraguans to\u00a0flee\u00a0their country and seek asylum in neighboring Costa Rica or the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
President Xiomara Castro took office last year as the\u00a0first female president\u00a0of Honduras, winning on a message of tackling corruption, inequality and poverty. The wife of former President Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a military coup, she won a landslide victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But her popularity has dipped as many of her promises for change have gone unfulfilled. At the same time, the government has sought to\u00a0mimic neighboring El Salvador\u2019s crackdown\u00a0on gangs, responding fiercely to a\u00a0grisly massacre\u00a0in a women\u2019s prison in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once known as the land of \u201cpura vida\u201d and mild politics compared to the surrounding region, Costa Rica has seen rising bloodshed that threatens to tarnish the country\u2019s reputation as a secure haven. Homicides\u00a0have soared\u00a0as the nation has become a base for drug traffickers. President Rodrigo Chavez, who took office last year, has\u00a0promised more police\u00a0in the street and tougher laws to take on the uptick in crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, a migratory flight from Nicaragua has\u00a0overwhelmed the country,\u00a0which is known as one of the world\u2019s great refuges for people fleeing persecution. The government has since\u00a0tightened\u00a0its asylum laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panama is headed into presidential elections in May, with\u00a0simmering frustration\u00a0at economic woes, corruption and insecurity acting as a potential harbinger for change. Any shift could have global significance due to Panama\u2019s status as a\u00a0financial hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nation has also become the epicenter of a\u00a0steady flow of migration\u00a0through the perilous jungles of the Darien Gap running along the Colombia-Panama border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belize is often seen as a place of relative calm in a region that is anything but. A former British colony named British Honduras, Belize\u2019s government system is still\u00a0tightly tethered\u00a0to the country. But Prime Minister\u00a0Johnny Brice\u00f1o\u00a0has sought to distance his nation from the monarchy. The nation is also one of the few in the Americas\u00a0that maintains formal ties with Taiwan\u00a0amid a broad effort by China to pull support away from the island country by funneling money into Central America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MEXICO CITY (AP) \u2014 Central America is experiencing a wa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2635\/revisions\/2637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}