Caribbean & Central America - April 2026

El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele and his Nuevas Ideas (NI) government are facing renewed criticism over the state of human rights under the state of exception first implemented in March 2022 to tackle gangs, which remains in place. This March a panel of international jurists found reasonable grounds to conclude that crimes against humanity are being committed under the state of exception. Also last month a new report by prominent human rights group Cristosal looked at how El Salvador’s judicial system is being used to target government critics, as the first piece in this April 2026 edition of the Latin American Regional Report: Caribbean & Central America explores.

In late February, the governments of Costa Rica and Nicaragua agreed to boost security cooperation aimed at combatting cross-border illegal gold mining, as we discuss in the next article. The agreement, which drew attention given that Costa Rica’s right-wing populist President Rodrigo Chaves is not exactly ideologically aligned with Nicaragua’s authoritarian co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo, again highlights the issue of illegal gold mining on the border, which the Costa Rican government warns has evolved into a new phase. The next piece looks at Guatemala where in February the government announced it had completed its first ever census of its prison system. The move is in line with its efforts to address the prison crisis [SSR-26-02].

We then consider the various government responses to higher energy prices due to the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East, while the final focus piece on Central America ends in Honduras where, in late February, lawmakers approved a bill that aims to improve the sustainability of public finances, handing the executive branch more power to cut government spending.

Turning to the Caribbean, the next piece starts in Cuba where power blackouts, a collapsing economy, and intense US political pressure all point to one thing: the country is likely to experience major change or even social upheaval this year. In this article, written at the end of March 2026, we look at four possible scenarios.

In theory Haiti should have an elected government by the end of the year, but the odds are stacked against this long-sought transition happening smoothly and on schedule, if at all, as the next article explores. The final focus piece considers discussions held at the beginning of March by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) with the focus on “Migration and the Caribbean Workforce”. The strong message emerging from the discussions was that a combination of an ageing population, declining birth rates, and outward migration is resulting in labour and skills shortages.