Publisher Jose Rubén Zamora is released on house arrest, a Salvadoran judge dismisses the case against the ‘Santa Marta Five’, and Alianza Américas warns of the effects of the rightward swing of US immigration politics for diaspora communities.

Brenda buried her second daughter on Dec. 11, 2020. Since then, she has not visited her grave. “There’s no time for sadness,” she says, “I gave everything for her when she was alive. Now I have to take care of my other three children.” In rural Chiquimula, Brenda represents many women abandoned by their partners and by the state.

After 13 months under house arrest, a sentencing tribunal ruled that the Attorney General’s Office failed to present proof of murder in the case against five environmentalists from Santa Marta, Cabañas.

In August, President Nayib Bukele sent a delegation to talks to establish a free-trade agreement with China. The leaders of his economic cabinet delegation are the founders of the company Chivo, which manages the government’s public cryptocurrency wallet.

Conservative administrations and legislators are seeking to roll back what limited progressive health and education policies have been implemented in the region in favor of LGBTQ+ people. Sex education is facing possible curtailing in Guatemala and El Salvador and access to HIV treatment is being challenged by doctors' “conscientious objection” in Costa Rica. Meanwhile, the Honduran state was found responsible in July for the death of trans woman Leonela Zelaya, the second such ruling in four years.