El Salvador

The Bukele government in El Salvador, as well as locking up thousands of alleged gang members is now extending its attacks to communities and those who seek to defend their human rights and their land.

President Nayib Bukele has overturned El Salvador's seven-year-old ban on metal mining (the first such ban in the world) and renewed the assault on communities which campaign against mining. The five water defenders from Santa Marta, Cabañas, now face a new trial because of their opposition to gold mining.

Review of exceptional collection of diary pieces and writing by catholic priest and missionary Tommy Greenan, who lived and worked in Chalatenango, El Salvador, following the teachings of Oscar Romero

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies, Washington, warns that governemnt attacks on water defenders and others likely herald a return to metal mining, banned in the country since 2017. The IPS report also examines the increasing authoritarianism of the Bukele government and the new cllimate of fear it is inducing.

Five top films directed by Latin American women, in celebration of International Women's Day. Including The Eternal Memory by Maite Alberdi.

A state of emergency and ruthless action by the authorities has dramatically curtailed the activity of gangs which previously ruled vast swathes of El Salvador. But there are many innocent victims and the underlying poverty, inequality and injustice remain untouched.

Five water defenders from Santa Marta, Cabañas, El Salvador have been arrested in connection with the 1989 murder of a woman in their community. However, their active membership of an organisation opposed to mining and strong signs that the government wants to subvert the country's mining ban suggest another motive for their persecution

Tim Hollins and Mogs Russell founded a group based in Birmingham, UK, which has accompanied Nueva Esperanza, a community of returned refugees in the Bajo Lempa area of Usulután, El Salvador. Here they describe how this collaboration began, and its successful focus on supporting the community's school and teachers

Cornelia Gräbner describes an extraordinary set of documents which capture the most intense and dangerous phase of repression in El Salvador, leading up to the 1992 Peace Accords.

British journalist Hugh O'Shaughnessy, who died on 1 March 2022, was one of the founders of Latin America Bureau. He reported from Latin America for the Financial Times and the Observer.