Caribbean & Central America - March 2026

Following the US military action in Venezuela to remove former president Nicolás Maduro (2013-2026), and amid extreme US pressure against Managua’s other key ally in the region, Cuba, there are signs that Nicaragua’s authoritarian government led by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo has been making concessions to Washington, as the first piece in this March 2026 edition of the Latin American Regional Report: Caribbean & Central America explores.

We then look at US-Panama relations following a 29 January ruling by Panama’s supreme court striking down a concession for two ports on the Panama Canal owned by Hong Kong-headquartered CK Hutchison Holdings (CKH) via its subsidiary Panama Ports Company (PPC) which is widely considered a victory for the US, which has sought to curb Chinese influence in the region. The next piece focuses on Honduras where in January, an inter-disciplinary group of independent experts (GIEI) investigating the 2016 murder of indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres [SSR-25-03], presented its final report.

On 15 February El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele claimed that the navy had seized 6.6 tonnes of cocaine worth some US$165m in what he described as the country’s biggest single drug seizure. His claim comes amid other security successes trumpeted by his administration, as the following piece highlights. Still focussing on El Salvador, the next article considers the recent crash in the value of cryptocurrency bitcoin which has caused jitters among investors in Salvadorean bonds, and has brought ongoing tensions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) into sharper focus.

We then focus on the continued importance of remittances in Central America’s Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) where remittances were up 20% last year, according to data compiled by the International Organization for Migration. The final focus piece returns to Panama which in mid-February sold global bonds worth US$3bn in the first such deal since President José Raúl Mulino came to power in July 2024.

Turning to the Caribbean we begin with Barbados where for the third election in a row, on 11 February the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley won a 30-0 clean sweep in the house of assembly. The next article focusses on Cuba where, amid an intensifying energy crisis, an unglamorous piece of everyday transport equipment, the ISO tank, has jumped into the centre of attention. This month’s edition concludes in Guyana where, at the end of January, Finance Minister Ashni Singh presented the largest budget yet to parliament, totalling G$1.558tn (US$7.45bn).