LatinNews Daily - 12 November 2024

*El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele has begun a two-day visit to Costa Rica where he has met with his right-of-centre Costa Rican counterpart, Rodrigo Chaves. The two announced a new ‘League of Nations’ aimed at guaranteeing security and prosperity for both countries and other nations which join. They also signed a string of agreements spanning tourism, the economy, investment, the environment, and culture, among other areas. Chaves awarded Bukele with Costa Rica’s highest diplomatic honour, the ‘National Order of Juan Mora Fernández’ (named after the country’s first president), for reducing homicides and crime following a crackdown on gangs that began in late March 2022, and which has sparked major human rights concerns. The Chaves government is facing record homicides which has been attributed to the growing presence of international drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) though unlike Bukele, Chaves lacks control of the legislature or judiciary. Today (12 November) Bukele is due to visit one of the country’s main prisons, La Reforma, in San Rafael, a district of Alajuela canton in the eponymous province. He will also meet with Costa Rican business representatives, the executive president of the Central American Development Bank (BCIE), Costa Rica’s Ana Guissella Sánchez Maroto, and participate in the first BCIE-South Korea business forum. President Bukele also announced humanitarian assistance, including a 300-strong rescue team, medical supplies and food, for the northern province of Guanacaste to assist in rescue efforts following the impact of Hurricane Rafael, which has caused floods, river overflow, and landslides. An 11 November update by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (Echo) cites media reports that as of 10 November, one child had died in Cartago province, due to a landslide, and over 800 people have been displaced in 180 shelters due to floods.