This is the transcript of episode 63 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.
GRESSIER, HOST: Yesterday, I spoke with Yanira Arias from Alianza Américas, who’s a Temporary Protected Status recipient born in El Salvador and part of the coalition dueling with the Trump administration in court over the future of TPS.
ARIAS: They are very savvy at moving their influences, on how not to use those judges appointed by Republicans in the Ninth District, but also the strategy of intimidation toward judges.
Death threats against federal judge
On February 2, Washington District Court Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Department of Homeland Security from cancelling TPS for Haiti. In a hearing ten days later, she said she and her colleagues had received death threats for doing so.
The program authorizes recipients to stay in the U.S. without a path to citizenship, citing armed conflict, natural disaster, or other “extraordinary and temporary” conditions in their home countries.
The Trump administration quickly cancelled the program for a slate of countries around the world, drawing accusations of racial prejudice and of ignoring home conditions.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled twice last year —in May and October— to allow Trump to cancel TPS for Venezuela. They picked up the cases from the controversial “emergency docket,” offering little to no reasoning.
Meanwhile, the case for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Nepal has ping-ponged between the district and appeals courts. The legal status of around 12,700 TPS holders from Nepal, 72,000 from Honduras, and 4,000 from Nicaragua is on the line.
This is according to congressional figures cited by the National Immigration Forum. The numbers are approximate as of last July.
Protections from deportation expired for these three countries in September, but on New Year’s Eve, a federal judge ruled that ending the program was unlawful. This ruling held protections in place for the three countries.
But weeks later, on February 9, came more whiplash. An appeals court sided with the Trump administration, suspending the December order and allowing the program to indeed come to an end while litigation continues.
The Supreme Court has the last word, but has no obligation to review the case. And TPS advocates are looking beyond the courts for long-term legislative protections.
Next Wednesday, they’ll meet in Washington with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
One judge, two cases
Next, to Guatemala. On February 18, a judge internationally sanctioned for election meddling overturned an arrest warrant against former president and coup leader Jorge Serrano Elías, who’s now 80 years old.
Thirty-three years ago, Serrano Elías staged a self-coup, known as the “Serranazo.” He dissolved Congress and the Supreme Court, leading to more than 13 criminal charges including violating the Constitution, rebellion, embezzlement, and fraud.
Expanding Her Enemy List, Guatemalan AG Accuses Indigenous Leaders of Terrorism
He’s been a fugitive in Panama since 1993, where he regularly comments on Guatemalan politics and even published a book. Now, without an arrest warrant, Serrano Elías could return to Guatemala to resolve his legal situation personally.
Equally revealing is who the judge is: Fredy Orellana, known for efforts in 2023 to prevent President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from coming to power in a sprawling coup attempt.
He has been one of the closest allies of Attorney General Consuelo Porras, who led the efforts to annul the election results, cancel Arévalo’s party, and put him in prison.
Judge Orellana has been a key figure in criminalizing officials, judges, prosecutors, journalists, and human rights defenders.
Last year, prosecutors captured two leaders of an Indigenous Mayan authority known as the 48 Cantons of Totonicapán. They had led a national movement to defend the election results in 2023.
Their names are Luis Pacheco and Héctor Chaclán. They stand accused of terrorism for the peaceful demonstrations and road blockades they organized that year.
With one delay after another, the defendants have been in prison since April 2025. Months passed before a judge was even assigned to the case. And prosecutors have recused multiple judges.
On February 10, they got a new judge assigned, and guess who received the case file? Yep, Judge Fredy Orellana. The defense says that his track record hardly inspires confidence.
Nicaragua siphoning Costa Rican gold
Nicaragua is profiting from Costa Rican gold, Mario Zamora, Minister of Public Security, denounced this week in San José.
ZAMORA: The theft of Costa Rican gold is carried out by coligalleros, who use smuggling routes that pass through the San Juan River and reach Nicaragua.
GRESSIER: That word he used is coligalleros: referring to hundreds of Nicaraguans who extract gold by hand in Crucitas, in northern Costa Rica. The government says these miners smuggle sacks of sediment and sell them to Chinese mining companies.
Official data shows that Nicaragua exports more gold than it produces. Experts believe this is due to smuggling. The Costa Rican government estimates that the gold siphoned from Crucitas is worth $252 million dollars a year.
On the Nicaraguan end, gold’s a top export. Nearly 80 percent of mining concessions were granted since Ortega came to power, and the country is the largest player in Central America.
A report in El Faro English in 2024 announced a “Nicaraguan gold rush, a new frontier of corporate extraction.”
For years, most of the gold has gone to the United States. To step up pressure against Ortega, the Biden Treasury sanctioned Nicaraguan state mining operatives.
Now, with Trump back in the White House and Ortega’s wife Rosario Murillo installed as co-president, Costa Rica requested a high-level meeting with Nicaragua this Saturday, February 28. They intend to discuss more patrols in the area.
MINER: We're leaving, just let us get the people out... Please.
GRESSIER: This is audio from Extra TV in August 2025, when the Costa Rican police raided a mine to expel some 400 miners. The miners said they would leave but needed to get people out first.
Nicaragua’s Gold Rush: A New Frontier of Corporate Extraction
Incidents like this only fuel Costa Rica's attempts to legalize mining. The debate resurfaced this week. The Costa Rican government is inching toward reversing the ban on open-pit mining that they approved in 2010.
The outgoing Rodrigo Chaves administration took the first step at the end of 2025, with a proposal to legalize open-pit mining in Crucitas. They argued this would control gold theft, environmental damage, and the social crisis in the area.
But specialists conclude the initiative isn’t technically sound, and seems more like a way to justify mining while sidestepping enormous environmental costs.
Mauricio Álvarez Mora, from the University of Costa Rica, concluded that the proposal would allow extraction in an area over 100 times larger than the illegal mining in Crucitas.
This episode was produced with support from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives. It was written by Yuliana Ramazzini, Gabriel Labrador, and Roman Gressier, with sound design by Omnionn. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, iHeart, and YouTube.