🗞Photo Essay: Honduras' extraditions through a camera lens
🗞️Honduras' Supreme Court Election: How it works? Why does it matter? What happened?
🚌 The Other side of Migration: Migrant encampments, CPB One App, and end of title 42?
🌎 Central American News Roundup: The Ortega gov't stripped Nicaraguan citizenship from political opponents.
👩🎤🎸In other news:Puras Mujeres: A Honduran feminist band
Photo Essay: Extraditions from Honduras through a camera lens
One year ago, millions of Hondurans woke up to these images, it was actually happening…Former President Juan Orlando Hernandez was being extradited to the United States for drug-trafficking charges.
El Tigre Bonilla handed over to the DEA Photo CC/Jorge Cabrera
Herlinda Bobadilla is transferred for extradition Photo CC/Jorge Cabrera
With the reputation of a narco-state, extraditions in Honduras have become quite common. From a former president to a gentle-looking matriarch, this ritual of special forces, DEA agents, and walks of shame, has become a fixed image in Honduras' news cycle. In a way, they are like Honduras’ tabloids, letting Hondurans know who has fallen off their throne.
But the question is, how do we get these images? Well, our director of photography, Jorge Cabrera takes us into his journey through covering Honduras' numerous extraditions.
Moment in which former president Juan Orlando Hernández is transferred to be handed over to the DEA for extradition to the United States. Photo CC/Jorge Cabrera
Cabrera details how for extraditions, photojournalists have carefully strategized on the location and angle to get the best shot. But in the case of these coverages, the duty and responsibility are bigger.
As he puts it “ It is said that a picture says more than a thousand words; it is true, especially when it comes to showing an ex-president captured to be extradited, the image makes it all real in the eyes of a people hurt by the abuses of their rulers. “
Check out this story to read the arduous work of Honduras’ photojournalists and their extradition coverage. 🌎
Honduras' Supreme Court Election: what happened?
⚖️Things you need to know:
Honduras’ Supreme Court is composed of 15 magistrates
All 15 of them serve a term of 7 years
They are elected by the National Congress (Unicameral)
The list of candidates is chosen by a nomination board ( La Junta Nominadora) and the court of 15 is elected by Congress
🧑⚖️How does the election work?
During the election year, a nominating board (La Junta Nominadora) is created for the selection of candidates.
The nominating board is composed of representatives from different sectors of the country such as:
Honduras’ National Association of Lawyers (CAH)
Honduras Council on Private Business (COHEP)
Civil society organizations (local non-profits, community orgs)
The National Commissioner of Human Rights (CONADEH)
Honduras’ Worker Confederation (CTH)
Honduras’ Supreme Court
A Faculty member of Honduras’ Law School (UNAH)
The nominating board creates a list of at least 45 candidates from a pool of around 200 eligible judges, lawyers, and law professionals.
Fun Fact: In July 2022, Congress passed a new nominating board law, which was originally going to prevent justices from being affiliated with political party leadership and from having family ties to government officials, but in the end, those restrictions were not included in the final law.
Currently: At least 2 final candidates are related to top officials of Xiomara Castro’s government.
The board provides each candidate a score based on a rubric that measures the following:
Personal and Professional Integrity: 25%
Professional Ethics: 20%
Suitability & Capability: 55%
Once a list is created, anyone from the community is able to present complaints or disqualifiers based on an array of factors such as criminal records, corruption scandals, ties to the government, and more.
Fun Fact: The nominating board is allowed to dismiss criminal records through a vote when given enough context.
Currently: At least 19 candidates with some sort of complaints were included in this year’s final list of candidates. Representatives from civil society explained that a lot of the dismissals were given due to particular interests in the different political sectors.
The final list of 45 is sent to the National Congress and then the 15 magistrates are elected.
Currently: This year, the National Congress took 22 days to elect a court with multiple voting sessions being held on different days, something that some experts considered unconstitutional.
Fun Fact: Congress needs ⅔ majority (86/126) in order to pick a court. Based on the Honduran constitution, Congress needs to elect a court no later than January 25.
🏛️Why is this Supreme Court so important?
In the past, the Supreme Court played a key role in the deterioration of the political stage of Honduras.
In 2015, the court undermined a constitutional parameter that outlawed the re-election of Honduras’ president. This allowed for there-election of JOH, who is currently on trial for drug trafficking in New York.
In 2021, the court allowed for the creation of a special jurisdiction zone for employment and economic development areas (ZEDEs), which undermined local communities for the profit and the benefit of private corporations.
Now, the upcoming Supreme Court will play a key role in reforming the nation and its 12-years legacy of unconstitutionality and corruption.
Due to the division of political parties, Congress was unable to elect a court until this past Thursday, February 16.
The three major political parties: Libre Party, the National Party, and the Liberal Party went back and forth on their proposals for magistrates.12 magistrates were set in stone from the beginning, but the rest were still up for debate.
The whole election procedure was filled with confusion, given the multiple sessions it took for Congress to elect a court. There was also a constitutional crisis, when the president of Congress named the old magistrates, a “de facto” court. Originally, Congress was supposed to elect a court on January 25, but it took 5 attempts and multiple congressional sessions for the different parties to agree on the 15 magistrates.
👩⚖️ How does the new Supreme Court look?
Here is how the new court looks. The distribution of magistrates based on political parties are the following:
6 Libre Party
5 The National Party
4 Liberal party
This distribution resembles the current distribution in Congress. The court is also majority women, which is not something that Honduras has not seen often.
Out of the 15 candidates, 8 of them have been linked with some sort of connections to the previous corrupt governments, and 2 of them have been accused of corruption and have defended corrupt officials.
The Other Side Of Migration: The root of all... Title 42
Title 42 seems to be the determining factor in the immigration trends of South, Central, and North America. The policy has radically changed the way we understand the United States asylum-seeking process and the future of thousands of migrants hanging on its restrictions. But how did it work before title 42? Check out this episode to learn how Title 42 has changed the way the U.S asylum process works.
🚌 Migrant Encampments
Title 42 expulsion policy continues to force migrants from certain nationalities to settle in encampments on the Mexican side of the U.S southern border. Many of them are waiting for a Customs and Border Patrol appointment or the termination of title 42.
However, the conditions of these camps are usually not suitable for the thousands of migrants waiting for their process. Border Report, reports how shelters and encampments have been suffering from Chickenpox outbreaks and unsafe sanitary conditions. On February 7, a shelter in Juarez had to stop receiving migrants due to a chicken outbreak, according to Mexican officials this is the third time in three years the center has gone through an outbreak.
The Washington Organization on Latin America (WOLA), also reported that shelters in Tijuana have been attacked and received multiple threats. In one, an individual opened fire on the shelter from outside, while in another, multiple individuals threatened to burn down the place. There have also been multiple instances of direct violent attacks and extortion toward migrants.
🚌 CBP One App issues
The mobile application of Customs and Border Patrol, CBP One, has shown some problems regarding tech and features, but most importantly accessibility, especially for Haitian migrants.
According to WOLA, asylum seekers are having issues with language, compatibility, internet access, and more. It is said that it is only available in Spanish and English, excluding mainly Haitian migrants who speak Creole. Also, some media outlets have reported that the facial recognition feature appears to have issues with darker skin.
🚌 Deadline for Title 42?
Although Title 42 is still up to debate in the U.S Supreme Court, the Biden administration said that it will terminate on May 11, 2023. Biden will end the Covid-19 state of emergency on that date, thus it’s expected that Title 42 will be terminated due to it being declared as part of the health emergency back in 2020. This is the third time that the officials have set a deadline for
Central America News Roundup 🌎
🇬🇹Guatemala- As Guatemalan general elections approach, concerns over transparency and human rights emerge. Last month, the Guatemalan Electoral Tribunal denied the participation of two critical candidates for the presidential elections. The two are Indigenous Mayan leader, Thelma Cabrera and Former attorney for human rights, Jordan Rodas.
🇸🇻El Salvador- El Salvador’s state of exceptions remains strong. At almost a year, experts fear that the policy will continue as President Bukele begins his 2024 re-election campaign.
🇧🇿Belize- This past week, the Belizean government received the president of Cuba, Canel-Bermudez, for a diplomatic visit. Belize’s Prime Minister Johnny Briceo thanked the entire Cuban community for the ongoing support of Belize throughout the years.
🇨🇷Costa Rica- The European Union has placed Costa Rica on its “gray list”, a list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes. Costa Rica was put on the list due to its inability to reform its tax system to tax passive offshore income.
🇵🇦Panama- At least 40 people died in a bus crash in Panama this past week. The bus was transporting 66 migrants with nationals from Ecuador and Cuba. Out of the 28 wounded passengers, at least 10 were under the age of 15.
🇳🇮Nicaragua - On February 9, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega released more than 200 political prisoners and sent them to the United States. Among the released were known Nicaraguan writers, artists, politicians, journalists, organizers, and more. The action came as a surprise for many and it is reported that not even family members were informed of the decision.
The Nicaraguan government also stripped 94 political opponents from their citizenship, forcing them to abandon all of their connections to their homeland. Members of Contracorriente joined in solidarity along with The Network of Central American Journalists and released a statement condemning the attack of the Ortega government on the journalist and opponents of the government.
Our condolences and support to all those great minds that keep contributing to Nicaragua and Central America despite the persecution.
Check out this feminist Honduran band group called Puras Mujeres (Just Woman). The group just released a new song inspired by one of Honduras' most iconic poets, Margarita Velasquez Pavon aka Juana Pavon. The song called, Loca Juana, centers on the life of the poet, who was a revolutionary feminist during her time.
The musical group is composed of 7 talented women, and it was founded in 2016 with the goal of creating a space led by women. The group continues to empower women throughout Honduras, and its music continues to highlight the story and talents of Honduran women.
