This is the transcript of episode 67 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.
SAUL: Since September 2025, the United States has unlawfully killed at least 151 people in military attacks on 45 civilian vessels on the high seas. These unprovoked serial extrajudicial killings have no justification under international law and gravely violate the right to life.
GRESSIER, HOST: Two weeks ago, in Guatemala City, a panel of international human rights experts condemned the Trump administration’s boat strikes against civilians accused of drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
You just heard Ben Saul, the U.N. special rapporteur for protecting fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. He was addressing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
This Wednesday, the U.S. Southern Command sped ahead anyway: They announced yet another boat strike, killing four people.
Ongoing U.S. boat strikes
Since the U.S. began bombarding boats of individuals accused of drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in early September, 47 attacks have been carried out, resulting in at least 163 deaths. That’s 12 more deaths in the last two weeks.
The U.S. Southern Command says it’s applying “total systemic friction on the cartels.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called on the Inter-American Commission to establish a panel of experts to investigate U.S. attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific waters.
The ACLU was also joined by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the International Crisis Group, and United Nations human rights experts, who argued that the U.S. policy of lethal strikes violates both domestic and international law.
The most recent strike this week, which killed four people, was announced by the Southern Command on social media with a 15-second video clip showing a stationary boat floating in the water before suddenly exploding.
In the hearing, the human rights experts highlighted that under both U.S. and international law, it is illegal to use the military to kill civilians suspected “only of crimes.”
To this day, the Trump administration has not provided evidence of drug smuggling in any of the attacks. This week, they only claimed that “intelligence confirmed” the vessel’s drug ties.
During the hearing, Carl Anderson, Senior Advisor of the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, requested that the IACHR refrain from holding the session, noting that internal judicial processes in the United States address these matters.
State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott followed up with a statement saying that the Commission “exceeded its mandate and acted beyond its competence by holding a thematic hearing on U.S. counterterrorism operations in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific.”
This despite the fact that it was a standard information-gathering hearing, not part of an international legal complaint. The Commission regularly holds hearings on human rights issues around the region.
The ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights are representing two of the victims’ families and have also separately filed a lawsuit seeking the release of the Trump administration’s legal report justifying these attacks.
Third-country deportations
Next, to Costa Rica. On Monday, March 23, the government of Rodrigo Chaves signed an agreement to receive third-country migrants deported from the United States — which is odd, because they were already doing precisely that since last year.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, governments across Central America have agreed to receive nationals from third countries deported from the United States. Guatemala and Honduras, as we covered in episode 34, signed deals last June.
Podcast: Trump Strikes New Third-Country Asylum Deals in Honduras, Guatemala
Even tiny Belize, which is part of the British Commonwealth, signed its own “safe-third country agreement” with Trump last October. Last year, Panama, El Salvador, and Costa Rica also received hundreds of migrants from other countries.
Costa Rica signed the deal following a visit by Shield of the Americas special envoy Kristi Noem. Chaves, accompanied by President-elect Laura Fernández, agreed to accept up to 25 migrants from third countries per week.
Migrants will be granted temporary status until they can safely return to their countries of origin, according to the agreement.
The necessary costs of this process will be covered by the United States and with support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
President-elect Fernández told CNN that “Costa Rica is a partner in an alliance, and when there is an alliance, common goals are pursued, such as peace in the hemisphere and the fight against organized crime.” Which is odd, because she didn’t mention the removals to Costa Rica themselves.
In February last year, Costa Rica had already signed an agreement under which 200 migrants from third countries were received and transferred to the Temporary Migrant Care Center in the south of the country.
They remained there for months without being able to move freely and without any temporary immigration status. The Center for Justice and International Law denounced human rights violations for “arbitrarily and illegally detaining them for more than 60 days, denying them adequate information, and failing to guarantee the principle of non-refoulement.”
This matter reached the Costa Rican courts, leading a tribunal to order the release of the migrants held at that shelter. Now, the government has agreed to take more migrants from third countries.
Almost all of Central America, except Nicaragua, is playing ball. But did they really have a choice?
Life sentences in El Salvador
Today, the state of exception in El Salvador turned four years old. According to official figures, more than 91,300 Salvadorans have been captured since the measures took effect on March 27, 2022.
As we covered two weeks ago, the Bukele regime is facing searing international reports of human rights abuses including possible crimes against humanity under the emergency measures.
In response, President Nayib Bukele didn’t focus on refuting the substance of the findings, but rather on discrediting those who produced them. State media sought to spread the idea that human rights experts are calling for the release of all gang members.
Podcast: Bukele Dismisses Findings of Crimes against Humanity
In parallel with this fight over narratives, the ruling party approved a constitutional amendment on March 17 that allows for life imprisonment for crimes such as homicide, femicide, rape, and gang membership.
This went hand in hand with a battery of reforms to the Penal Code, the Juvenile Criminal Law, the Law Against Acts of Terrorism, and the Law for a Life Free of Violence Against Women. It was all passed with 58 of the 60 votes.
It was supported by the ruling party Nuevas Ideas and allies, along with the traditional right-wing party ARENA. Only the tiny VAMOS party voted against it.
Life in prison has now been approved in El Salvador, applying even to juveniles between 12 and 18 years old in the cases of the serious crimes mentioned in the reforms.
Those sentenced to this punishment may be eligible for supervised release after serving 25 years in prison if they are minors, or after 30 years if they are adults.
This means that a child sentenced at age 12 could be eligible for release by age 37. Could be.
This episode was written by Leyrian Colón Santiago, Yuliana Ramazzini, and Graciela Barrera, with editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.