{"id":185232,"date":"2026-03-16T00:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/sin-categoria\/central-americas-failed-transitions\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T15:19:30","slug":"central-americas-failed-transitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/central-americas-failed-transitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Central America\u2019s Failed Transitions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In March 2018, when no one could yet foresee the outbreak of the nationwide protest<\/a> against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that would erupt in Nicaragua just weeks later, we commemorated National Journalists\u2019 Day with a forum to discuss the role of journalism in the fight against corruption and impunity in Central America.<\/p>\n\n

The main speakers were Jos\u00e9 Rub\u00e9n \u201cChepe<\/em>\u201d Zamora, director of elPeri\u00f3dico<\/em> in Guatemala, and Carlos Dada, director of El Faro<\/em> in El Salvador\u2014both World Press Freedom Heroes of the International Press Institute.<\/strong> Their investigative reporting in their respective countries was generating winds of change, thanks to the indispensable work of public institutions responsible for prosecuting corruption.<\/p>\n\n

In Guatemala, the Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office, first under Claudia Paz y Paz, brought former dictator Efra\u00edn R\u00edos Montt to trial. Later, under Telma Aldana\u2014supported by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG, 2006\u20132019)\u2014it uncovered the La L\u00ednea<\/em> case, which put President Otto P\u00e9rez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti on trial. In El Salvador, former presidents Francisco Flores, Tony Saca (both imprisoned), and Mauricio Funes (then a fugitive in Nicaragua), along with other high-ranking officials, had been charged and prosecuted for corruption by the Attorney General\u2019s Office. <\/p>\n\n

The lessons from the fight against corruption and impunity<\/a> in Guatemala and El Salvador shed light on the darkness in Nicaragua, where the collapse of the rule of law prevented the Comptroller\u2019s Office, the Prosecutor\u2019s Office, and the courts from investigating and prosecuting corruption\u2014despite the evidence presented by Confidencial<\/em> about the diversion of five billion dollars in Venezuelan state aid into the private coffers of the ruling family. Since Daniel Ortega\u2019s return to power in 2007\u2014after dismantling democratic institutions through what he called \u201ca coup from above\u201d\u2014the Ortega-Murillo family dictatorship had governed in a corporatist alliance with major business elites in the region, offering economic stability and investment opportunities at the cost of democracy and transparency. <\/p>\n\n

CONFIDENCIAL and El Peri\u00f3dico<\/em>, founded in 1996, and El Faro<\/em>, created two years later in 1998 under the slogan \u201cthe first digital newspaper in Latin America,\u201d were children of the transitions in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador in the 1990s. These were three distinct postwar processes\u2014with very different characteristics\u2014based on negotiations and\/or political agreements and electoral democracy, which resulted in what political scientist Terry Karl called \u201cCentral America\u2019s hybrid regimes,\u201d where \u201cpockets of authoritarianism and pluralism\u201d coexisted. Among these was an independent press conceived as an agent of democratic change, tasked with holding power accountable and promoting public debate. <\/p>\n\n

At the forum titled Corruption, Impunity, and Historical Memory<\/em>, Zamora spoke with cautious optimism about the first decade of CICIG: \u201cIn Guatemala, for the first time in the 60 years I\u2019ve been alive, there is fear before the majesty of the law. Some cases have been brought to justice, and everyone is being measured by the same standard. These are small steps,we can\u2019t say institutional change has been achieved, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d Dada explained that in El Salvador, \u201ccorruption cases did not begin in the Prosecutor\u2019s Office, but in newsrooms,\u201d and highlighted that, under a still fragile separation of powers, \u201csome magistrates who arrived almost by accident to the Constitutional Chamber\u2014the so-called \u2018Fantastic Four\u2019\u2014imposed their criteria against violations of the law.\u201d Meanwhile, the audience of Nicaraguan journalists and civil society members listened eagerly to these modest advances, contrasting them with Nicaragua\u2019s authoritarian regression, where the press persisted in documenting historical memory, waiting for better times when justice might finally be achieved. <\/p>\n\n

Eight years later, after the massacre of Nicaragua\u2019s April 2018 civic uprising, democratic transitions have derailed, and independent journalists have ended up either in exile or in prison.<\/p>\n\n

Jos\u00e9 Rub\u00e9n Zamora has just temporarily regained<\/a> conditional freedom after spending 1,295 days in prison for doing journalism against corruption, the result of an onslaught by the \u201cpact of the corrupt\u201d that continues to hold President Bernardo Ar\u00e9valo\u2019s democratic governance in check. Zamora describes Ar\u00e9valo as \u201ca decent man,\u201d whose legacy of respecting the law and the Constitution \u201cwill be better appreciated over time.\u201d Still, he insists that \u201cto achieve a lasting shift in the balance of power,\u201d it is necessary to \u201crefound Guatemala\u2014a viable Guatemala that is no longer captured by organized crime and other de facto powers, by the military high command, and by (economic) groups that finance electoral campaigns.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In El Salvador, \u201cthe two-party system between Arena and the FMLN showed an enormous capacity for corruption, regardless of ideology, and failed to solve the population\u2019s major problems, including security and the economy,\u201d recalls Carlos Dada. \u201cNayib Bukele broke away from the FMLN and capitalized on national outrage against political parties. He presented himself as the great avenger against corruption,\u201d and after winning the 2019 election, he dismantled the gangs, imposing a state of emergency for four consecutive years and clearing the path for his indefinite reelection. \u201cWhile the \u2018pact of the corrupt\u2019 in Guatemala<\/a> is a project of impunity for political and economic elites,\u201d Dada argues, \u201cBukele\u2019s project is one of elite replacement: he controls the entire system of government\u2014the three branches of the state, the Attorney General\u2019s Office, and the security forces\u2014and enjoys the highest approval ratings of any Latin American leader.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In Nicaragua, after the 2018 massacre and the imposition of a police state that eliminated all democratic freedoms, Ortega jailed all opposition candidates in 2021<\/a>, nullifying any possibility of a democratic election and securing his reelection without political competition. The regime\u2019s radicalization sealed a totalitarian path, shutting down more than 5,500 civil society organizations and unleashing a fierce persecution of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, the family dictatorship has evolved into a dynastic succession, with \u201cco-president\u201d Rosario Murillo now governing in the shadow of her husband, \u201cco-president\u201d Daniel Ortega, in what Transparency International ranks as the second most corrupt country in Latin America. <\/p>\n\n

In 2026, the judicial machinery of the \u201cpact of the corrupt\u201d keeps elPeri\u00f3dico<\/em>shut down, but Jos\u00e9 Rub\u00e9n Zamora remains a symbol of resistance <\/a> for the Guatemalan and Latin American press. Confidencial<\/em> has been illegally confiscated in Nicaragua, but we will celebrate its 30th anniversary by continuing to do the best journalism possible\u2014documenting from exile the corruption of the co-dictatorship, its internal purges, and the hopes for change. Meanwhile, the journalists of El Faro <\/em>who investigated the pacts between President Bukele (and previous Salvadoran governments) and the gangs, also now in exile, will continue to report on the concentration of power, corruption, and human rights violations.<\/p>\n\n

At a time when the collateral effects of the \u201cDonroe Doctrine\u201d <\/a>are being debated, and whether Venezuela is undergoing a negotiated settlement or a transition that could be replicated in Cuba and eventually in Nicaragua, it is worth asking, as Vargas Llosa\u2019s Zavalita would put it, \u201cwhen did things go wrong?\u201d when it comes to Central America\u2019s transitions. Just as transitions are never linear processes, their failure is not inevitable under authoritarian pressure when democratic institutions take root, endure, and become a counterweight to power. None of that happened in Central America, and the independent press has already told part of that story. Sooner rather than later, we will have to tell how the new dictatorships of the 21st century fall and, above all, accompany societies as they dismantle the pillars of authoritarianism and begin national reconstruction grounded in democracy. <\/p>\n\n

*This article was originally published in El Pa\u00eds.<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In March 2018, when no one could yet foresee the outbreak of the nationwide protest against the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship that would erupt in Nicaragua just weeks later, we commemorated National Journalists\u2019 Day with a forum to discuss the role of journalism in the fight against corruption and impunity in Central America. The main speakers were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":165610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_eb_data_table":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15445],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-185232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCentral America\u2019s Failed Transitions - Confidencial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Failed transitions in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and the role of the independent press in holding power accountable from exile\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/central-americas-failed-transitions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Central America\u2019s Failed Transitions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Failed transitions in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and the role of the independent press in holding power accountable from exile\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/en\/english\/central-americas-failed-transitions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Confidencial\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/confidencial.com.ni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-16T06:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-18T15:19:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/confidencial.digital\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/41573445752_31d120a355_k.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos F. 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