Three masked men kidnapped Guatemalan attorney and university professor Gladys Monterroso on March 25 as she was eating breakfast in a restaurant in Guatemala City and held her for 13 hours before leaving her on a street in the Atlántida neighborhood. She said the men burned her with cigarettes, beat her and subjected her to sexual and psychological abuse; at one point they put a pistol in her mouth and said they would kill her. They didn't demand a ransom.

The National Security Archive (NSA), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit institute, posted declassified US government documents on its website on March 18 that it says show the US government knew US-backed Guatemalan officials were behind the disappearance of thousands of people during Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld March 17 a district court decision finding former Salvadoran military commander Nicolas Carranza liable for murder and torture committed during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s. In 2005, a Tennessee federal jury found Carranza liable for acts of murder and torture in El Salvador under the Alien Tort Statute and the Torture Victims Protection Act. Carranza had appealed the verdict, claiming that the district court abused its discretion by not granting comity to a Salvadoran amnesty law.

Shortly after El Salvador's Supreme Electoral Tribunal issued its second bulletin confirming the FMLN's lead late March 15, president-elect Mauricio Funes addressed the nation, saying that with their vote the people had signed "a new accord on peace and reconciliation"—an invocation of the 1992 agreement that ended the country's long civil war and saw the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) transform from a guerilla army to an electoral party.

On March 10, a march was held in San Salvador against the Central America free trade agreement (AdA, for Acuerdo de Asociación) currently being negotiated with the European Union. Many of the signs carried also called for a repeal of the US-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Protesters charge the AdA would increase the gap between rich and poor, privatize public services, and legalize the depletion of biodiversity and natural resources. The march, organized by the group Red Sinte Techan, concluded at the Legislative Assembly, where a statement was delivered to lawmakers.

On March 11—just four days before El Salvador's historic election for president and vice-president—five Republican Congressmen gave speeches on the floor of the House of Representatives threatening that Salvadorans living in the US would lose their immigration status and be outlawed from sending money home to their families if voters in El Salvador elect the opposition FMLN party's candidate. "Those monies that are coming from here to there I am confident will be cut, and I hope the people of El Salvador are aware of that because it will have a tremendous impact on individuals and their economy," stated Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN). Similar threats by US officials were made during the 2004 Salvadoran presidential campaign.

On Feb. 16 indigenous Hondurans closed off roads in Intibucá department at the beginning of a 12-day mobilization organized by the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) against the destruction of forests in the territories of the Lenca people. COPINH said the protesters succeeded in maintaining "three strategic takeovers...completely paralyzing the exploitation of timber," and that the mobilization also resulted in the temporary suspension of authorizations for cutting trees in San Marcos de Sierra municipality and in Wise community in Intibucá municipality.

A Colombian refugee living in Panama was killed on Feb. 18 near the town of Boca de Cupé in Darién province, a jungle region bordering Colombia that has experienced incursions in the past by Colombian armed groups. Government and Justice Minister Dilio Arcia said the victim was killed when he went outside with his son to work on his property. Local media reported that the victim was named Aureliano Graciano Sepúlveda ("Bolaños" and "Mono Bolaños"); he was granted asylum in 1996, they said, and the three armed men who killed him were probably from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). (Telemetro Reporta, Panama, Feb. 18; Univision, Feb. 18 from AP; Crítica en Línea, Panama, Feb. 19)