The Latin American Report # 238

Nicaraguans abroad continue transferring a lot of dollars to their relatives at home

During the first quarter of the year, Nicaraguans living mostly in the United States sent more than 1.1 billion dollars to their relatives in the Central American country. The figure represents an increase of nearly 12% over the same period in 2023, when annual record levels were reached (4.6 billion in total, equivalent to just over a quarter of GDP). More than 930 million dollars were transferred from the United States last quarter, 12.3 % more than last year. Far behind are the contributions from the southern neighbor of Costa Rica and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain), which represented 8% and 6%, respectively.

The growth of Nicaraguan emigration has meant that, taking 2013 as a base, the receipt of family remittances has quadrupled. Although a representative part of the new emigration is due to the internal political conflict that intensified since 2018, many Nicaraguans continue to leave the country with strictly economic expectations. In this sense, it is necessary to look for more context to assimilate the statistics coming from Managua. While quite positive general numbers are reported by institutions such as the World Bank, it continues to be denounced that growth is concentrated in an economic and political elite while those at the bottom also grow in number and hardship.

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Thousands of Argentinean retirees are active in the labor market

This is not a problem created by Javier Milei. Sometimes it is not necessarily a problem. That is, working after retirement may sometimes be due to an intellectual need, or to attempts to grow capital while satisfying basic needs. It begins to become a problem when the distortions of the economy cause the water to reach their necks and push them back into the labor market. And it becomes entrenched when they still cannot overcome the inflation barrier. Or when they are exposed to precarious employment options. "Those who manage to retire in Argentina receive a ridiculous pension, which is far from covering a minimum basket of basic needs", said the Ombudsman for the Elderly of the City of Buenos Aires.

About 330,000 retirees are formally employed, although just over one-fifth are salaried workers under a formal contract. Interestingly, some 1,330 retirees over the age of 90 are working. Informal employees over 60 years are more than 720,000, facing a context in which "they are paid very little" or perform tasks "that do not correspond to their age or chronic pathologies". Thus, many work in "real pigsties" in exchange for food and shelter, while others are exploited in "clandestine sewing workshops" and are even employed as "couriers" for drug traffickers, ending up in prisons in some cases. No matter how hard they work, adults receiving the minimum pension cannot cover their basic needs due to the rising cost of living.

_{Dr. Eugenio Semino is the Ombudsman for the Elderly of the City of Buenos Aires and President of the Ibero-American Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics (source of the image). He has been warning for years about the situation of Argentine adults, who have also been the most affected by the upsurge in dengue fever this year.}

Some Salvadoran gang members sentenced to more than 110 years in prison

A court in the Central American nation punished 14 gang members with harsh sentences for homicides perpetrated between 2017 and 2019. "These criminals deprived the victims of their freedom, took their lives, and buried them in clandestine cemeteries. Among the victims is a policeman," stated sources from the Salvadoran Public Ministry. The convicts were members of the Mara Salvatrucha. This gang emerged in the slums of Los Angeles, United States, in the 1980s, formed by immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Washington's massive deportation of thousands of them—without alerting the corresponding governments—led to an outbreak of crime that has only recently subsided in El Salvador. Since Bukele declared war on the gangs two years ago, authorities have arrested some 80,000 suspected criminals, of whom about 10% have been released.

Mexico, business as usual

In the State of Mexico, two hitmen on a motorcycle killed a former local official of Tlalnepantla de Baz last Saturday, when he was driving his truck near a shopping mall. His daughter and his wife were also traveling with him but were unharmed. I understand they were both riding in the back. Below I share a photo (source) in which you can see the bullet impacts on the passenger window, followed by footage recorded from a car security camera.

Meanwhile, a mayoral candidate in Chiapas—again Chiapas—was kidnapped late on Saturday, when armed men arrived at his home in SUVs and loaded him up.

More policemen fell in the line of duty

In the municipality of Chignahuapan, state of Puebla, four policemen were killed on Sunday in a confrontation with armed criminals, in which two state troopers were wounded. So, there are 101 police officers killed this year in Mexico, according to the count of an independent NGO. The official version indicates that the agents detained individuals in possession of tactical equipment, but were intercepted on the way to the station. Three alleged criminals were killed in the shootout, but the armed group removed them from the scene as they fled. Just Mexico.

In Paraguay, bank robberies are on the rise

Between 10 and 15 gunmen used explosives on Saturday night during an efficient attack on a branch of Paraguay's state-owned Banco Nacional de Fomento, located in the department of Itapúa, bordering Argentina. Authorities in Asunción have alerted their counterparts in Buenos Aires about the potential passage of the criminals into Argentine territory—across the Paraná river—with their loot, amounting to some US$ 140,000 in cash. Some US$ 40,000 are in guaraníes. The explosives were used to break through the bank vault and open its safe.

Three policemen who "were in a space next to the bank" took refuge after being outnumbered and outgunned. The robbers also took the precaution of blocking the deployment of the officers at the police station in Natalio, the district where the events occurred. Below I share a local report showing how the entity was left. At the beginning of this month, in another district of Itapúa, an armed group subdued police officers—something easy given the small size of the police force in these localities—to take an ATM with more than 45,000 dollars.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.

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