Caribbean & Central America - October 2026

We begin this October 2026 edition of the Latin American Regional Report: Caribbean & Central America in Nicaragua where lawmakers recently passed various constitutional reforms designed to further cement the power of authoritarian co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo and secure a dynastic succession, drawing major international criticism, as the first piece explores.

The second article looks at the return of former president Juan Orlando Hernández (Partido Nacional, PN, 2014-2022) to Honduras. Having been pardoned late last year by President Donald Trump in relation to a drug and weapons related conviction for which he was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the US [SSR-26-01], Hernández returned to Honduras at the end of July, has now been cleared in a domestic corruption case, and is effectively a free man. The next piece focuses on Guatemala where digital media outlet República recently released a controversial dossier mapping “the convergence of political power, organised-crime interests, narcotics-trafficking structures, territorial control, and political financing in Guatemala”. The report has reignited longstanding concerns regarding links between politicians and organised crime ahead of June 2027 general elections.

We then turn to Panama where Ilya Espino de Marotta has taken over as administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) at a time when the Canal is facing myriad challenges, before returning to Honduras where President Nasry Asfura has succeeded in pushing through a reform to shake up the country’s troubled energy sector.

President Donald Trump’s administration has been clear about its determination to keep the Western Hemisphere aligned with US policies and to exclude, where possible, outside influence. The small states of the English-speaking Caribbean are in no position to resist this assertion of US hegemony, but at the same time they haven’t become entirely aligned, as the next piece explores.

We then look at tourism in the Caribbean where, while overall the situation is one of modest recovery, there are very sharp variations. Cuba’s tourism sector is suffering a catastrophic contraction; Jamaica is trying to rebuild hotel capacity after Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall there in October 2025; and the Dominican Republic continues to surf a rising tide. The final focus piece ends in Cuba where the government appears to remain committed to its sweeping market-friendly economic reforms, a total of 176 measures first announced in June.