Latest Central America News

Alumni grieve for Jesuit-run university seized by Nicaraguan government that transformed their lives

Aug. 29, 2023 08:01 AM EDT

MÉXICO CITY (AP) — Long before it was confiscated by President Daniel Ortega's government in mid-August, the Jesuit-run University of Central America in Nicaragua was a special place for the thousands whose minds and lives it transformed. “The university was the only center of...

Nicaraguan government seizes highly regarded university from Jesuits

Aug. 16, 2023 22:57 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua’s government has confiscated a prestigious Jesuit-run university alleging it was a “center of terrorism,” the college said Wednesday in announcing the latest in a series of actions by authorities against the Catholic Church and opposition figures. ...

Patrick Hamilton, ex-AP and Reuters photographer who covered Central American wars, dies at 74

Aug. 16, 2023 21:03 PM EDT

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) — Patrick Hamilton, a combat veteran of the Vietnam War who covered civil wars in Central America as a photojournalist for The Associated Press and later worked at Reuters covering the first Gulf War in Iraq, has died after a long struggle with cancer. He...

Oregon crabbers and environmentalists are at odds as a commission votes on rules to protect whales

Aug. 04, 2023 20:34 PM EDT

In the wheelhouse of a crab boat named Heidi Sue, Mike Pettis watched the gray whale surface and shoot water through its blowhole. Tangled around its tail was a polypropylene rope used to pull up crab traps. It took two men with serrated knives 40 minutes to free the whale, which...

State Department sanctions 2 former Salvadoran leaders, dozens of officials in Central America

Jul. 19, 2023 19:57 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The State Department announced Wednesday it was imposing sanctions on two former Salvadoran presidents and dozens of other officials and judges in Central America. The report said that those sanctioned “have knowingly engaged in actions that undermine...

A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean shakes Central America

Jul. 18, 2023 21:17 PM EDT

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of El Salvador shook much of Central America from Nicaragua to Guatemala on Tuesday, sending residents in some cities streaming into the streets. The U.S. Geological Survey...