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Police form a line outside a church during a demonstration urging the government to free political prisoners, in Masaya, Nicaragua, Aug. 28, 2019 (AP photo by Alfredo Zuniga).
BriefingThe Americas
In Nicaragua, Attacks on Journalists Are Part of Ortega’s Survival Strategy

In late September, El Nuevo Diario, Nicaragua’s second-largest newspaper by circulation, announced that it would shut down after nearly 40 years in print due to “economic, technical and logistical difficulties.” “We didn’t know anything. It took us by surprise,” Eliud Garmendia, a journalist with El Nuevo Diario, told the Nicaraguan online news outlet Confidencial. The paper’s closure, while sudden, was not entirely unexpected. For months, the Nicaraguan government has refused to release vital supplies like paper and ink from the state customs agency, forcing El Nuevo Diario to stop printing on weekends and reduce its page-count, according to Lori Hanson, […]

A Mexican marine stands guard at the Suchiate River border crossing between Guatemala and Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, June 16, 2019 (AP photo by Idalia Rie).
In-DepthThe Americas
‘Remain in Mexico’ Is Punishing Asylum-Seekers, but Is It Deterring Them?

CHIQUIRINES, Guatemala—In August, Abner Lopez Macario, a 30-year-old farmer and father of two, found himself out of luck and back in Chiquirines, a town in the muggy coastal lands of Guatemala surrounded by sprawling banana plantations. Far from being a bittersweet return after years abroad, Lopez Macario’s homecoming was an admission of defeat. Three months earlier, after a 20-day trek through Mexico guided by a migrant-smuggler, he, his wife and his two sons made it all the way to the border of the United States in the back of a truck. Upon reaching El Paso, Texas, they had sought out […]