Nicaragua remains violently divided more than a week after contested national municipal elections. On Nov. 18, the opposition Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) candidate for mayor of Managua, Eduardo Montealegre, called off a planned march, charging intimidation by followers of the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), who poured into the capital in the prelude to the planned rally. Montealegre, who called the march to protest what he called fraud in the Nov. 9 elections, said Sandinistas armed with sticks, stones and homemade mortars threatened a confrontation with PLC supporters.

On Nov. 11 Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign. (Miami Herald, Nov. 11 from AP)

After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refineria Costarricense de Petroleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univision, Nov. 16 from AFP)

A criminal complaint has been filed in the Spanish High Court in connection with the Salvadoran army's Nov. 16, 1989 slaying of six Jesuit priests in one of the most notorious events of El Salvador's civil war. Human rights lawyers filed the complaint on Nov. 13 against the Salvadoran president at the time, Alfredo Cristiani Burkard, and 14 former members of the military, for their roles in the killings of the priests and two female employees, and in the official cover-up that followed.

From the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Sept. 16:

On September 4, party workers from the Salvadoran FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) were assaulted in San Salvador, resulting in the hospitalization of four individuals. The attack, carried out against members of the FMLN's Communications Brigade, was attributed to armed supporters of Norman Quijano, the right-wing ARENA party candidate for Mayor of San Salvador.  The aggression took place on the street of San Jacinto a neighborhood that is only few miles south of San Salvador's downtown. The victims included Otilia Matamoros, Assistant Coordinator of the FMLN Women's Secretariat.

On Aug. 29 Guatemalan interior minister Francisco Jimenez announced the capture of former legislative deputy Manuel Castillo at a luxurious residence he owned near the border with El Salvador. Castillo is accused of masterminding the murder of three Salvadoran deputies to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN) and their driver on Feb. 19, 2007. (Siglo Veintiuno, Guatemala, Aug. 29 from EFE)

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced his government will formally recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia—becoming the first country other than Russia to do so. The Nicaraguan decree was read in a Sept. 5 press conference at the Foreign Ministry. Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has expressed support for recognizing the breakaway enclaves, but has not yet taken formal action. (AP, Sept. 5)

An Aug. 5 confrontation between the campesino group "Padre Guadalupe Carney" and landowners left at least nine dead at El Tilín, in the Honduran Caribbean coastal department of Colón. The Honduran Security Secretariat said some 200 armed peasants attacked the property of local police commander Henry Sorto, burning buildings, in a dispute over contested lands. Campesino militants also blocked roads, barring security forces access to the seized property. Campesino leader Rafael Alegría in a statement issued to the media called upon the national authorities to appoint a commission to mediate the conflict. (El Heraldo, Honduras, Aug. 6)