Central America News Roundup Sept 21, 2011: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua

article from September 21, 2011

By Jamie Douglas

Guatemala

The elections are headed for a runoff. On Sept 11, a massive 66% of 7.3 million eligible voters went to the polls for the general elections, which were to determine the presidency, the vice presidency, members of Congress and the Central American parliament as well as municipal elections. As usual, there were some shenanigans leading up to the elections, such as the wife of President Álvaro Colom, Sandra Torres, divorcing her husband in order to circumvent Article 186(c) of the constitution, which explicitly forbids relatives of the current president from participating in the presidential election. Nice try; but in the end, she was called out on her little gimmick. (Good thing for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from Argentina that there is no such law on the books there, where the husband-and-wife team was set to rule indefinitely in a laughable presidential relay, had Néstor not suddenly perished before he could take up the baton again.) The runoff will pit the two top vote winners, Otto Pérez Molina from the Patriotic Party (36.02%) and Manuel Baldizón of the renewed Democratic Liberty Party (23.21%), against each other. The runoff will be held November 6, 2011.

El Salvador

El Salvador is dealing with the pesticides used by the large multinationals operating there with impunity, having destroyed and contaminated a large portion of the nation’s water supply. Heavy metals are present in concentrations of more than one million times the norm. The presence of arsenic and other poisons lead to birth defects and a slow wasting away for the victims affected.

Unfortunately, crime is still a major problem in this small country, with every week counting more record-numbers of murders, armed robberies, assaults and rapes. Peace please!

Honduras

Honduras has been in the grip of a crime wave of its own for many years now, and it seems to have spilled over onto the formerly relatively peaceful Bay Islands, where recently, an Australian was shot in his spine for parking his bicycle in the bushes and obviously displeasing someone. Like El Salvador, the police forces are corrupt and incompetent, with the number of crimes solved hovering around 12%. It is the petty crimes that are being solved, while the narco-related murders are committed with impunity. I personally get the creeps every time I have to pass through Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula. To compound the worsening situation, the leading crusader against police corruption, Security Minister Oscar Alvarez, has resigned his portfolio after meeting with President Porfirio Lobo on Sept 10. I feel that his departure was not entirely voluntary, as he has been a source of irritation to the many corrupt police commanders blanketing the country. The good news is that they did not just assassinate him. It is rumored that he was forced to resign because top officials felt their major source of wealth was being threatened.

Nicaragua

Last weekend, Nicaragua celebrated Volks Fest, with over 90 different Volkswagen Beetles cruising the streets of Managua. The parade was made up of 40 Nicaraguan Bugs, as well as another 50 from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica. Many different models were seen, including the old VW camper, the 23-window van, Brazilian-made vans and the ever-popular Cabriolet.

President Daniel Ortega promised credit to a half a million campesinos along with 150,000 land titles during an appearance in Chichigalpa, in a blatant attempt to tilt the outcome of the coming election. Under cloudy skies that turned into a massive downpour, forcing the cancellation of the rest of the event, Ortega, accompanied by a few ministers as well as his wife, children and grandchildren, made the usual pre-election promises politicians all over the world make: A chicken in every pot – and so forth. I am sure all the poor campesinos have heard it all before, but the prospect of having their very own parcel of land will surely have them voting him back into office.

Jamie Douglas

San Rafael, Mendoza

Where that Fine Malbec wine is ever present! Salud!

I encourage you to write me at cruzansailor [at] gmail [dot] com with any questions or suggestions you may have. Disclaimer: I am not in any travel-related business. My advice is based on my own experiences and is free of charge (Donations welcome). It is always my pleasure to act as a beneficial counselor to those who are seekers of the next adventure.

The Lowest Cost of Living in the World for Expats: Central America

article from July 19, 2011

by Julie R Butler

The latest information about which cities have the lowest costs of living for expats has come out, but many of those cities are not attractive destinations for retirees or people looking to build new lives. I would like to address those cities that might be of interest to people who are looking for not only a low cost of living but also a challenge. The expat communities in these locations are not as large and well developed as others that have been popular for some years now.

The cities from the list of the lowest cost places for expats that hold the greatest potential fall into three regions of the world: Central America, South America, and the former Soviet Union. I will begin in Central America.

San Salvador, El Salvador

San Salvador is the cosmopolitan capital of Central America’s smallest and most densely populated nation. From its very beginnings, social inequalities and struggles have defined the country, as the indigenous population of Pipiles and Lucas put up a fierce guerilla resistance to the Spanish Conquest. Such struggles continued on and off, leading up to a brutal twelve-year civil war that came to an end in 1992. After a peace accord was reached, the country has grown economically. However, San Salvador still suffers from a high crime rate and gang violence. Meanwhile, the police force is notoriously corrupt. Despite these factors, Salvadorans have a reputation for being very kind and friendly people.

To get a good idea of what life in San Salvador is like, check out the blog that Jamie included in his list, What’s Up El Salvador. This is up to date and covers many aspects of expat life as experienced by a couple that moved there a few months ago who were involved in the coffee trade. The author, Nanelle, gives the best answer I have seen yet to the question, “What is the cost of living in Central America?” – a question that has no cut-and-dry answer due to different needs and expectations. Nanelle also has some great advice for learning how the pricing structure differs from what you would be used to if you are from North America and how to simplify your life to take advantage of the cost savings that do exist.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

This city is the sprawling capital of El Salvador’s neighbor, Honduras. It is a dangerous city, where pickpockets, very aggressive beggars, and clever muggers are a constant problem. I am not convinced that this city has anything to offer expats who are shopping around for a place to live other than a low cost of living. What I do know is that Jamie and I have driven through Tegucigalpa five times on our comings and goings in Central America, and we found it to be the most poverty-stricken and saddest city that we ever encountered. Yes, Mexico City has similar sprawl and poverty, but that city is so enormous that there are areas where this isn’t so crushingly evident. Tegucigalpa is in a crowded bowl with slums covering the steep mountainsides all around, so the sense of being trapped inside is inescapable. Most expats who would be living in Tegucigalpa are of the diplomatic, corporate, or NGO type, whereas the more extensive expat communities of Honduras are on the Caribbean islands of Roatán and Utila.

While there was no civil war per se in Honduras during the 1980s, the country was nonetheless a pawn in the Cold War as a staging ground for US covert operations that helped keep the guns and drugs flowing and the entire region destabilized. The Honduran elites maintain close ties with US business interests, and the coup d’état of 2009 that illegally unseated President Manuel Zelaya was the latest frothing over of the continuing Cold War in Central America.

Managua, Nicaragua

According to the list, this is the least expensive city in all of Central America for expats to live in. Again, it is the capital and largest city in its country. Managua is home to the second-largest population in Central America (Guatemala City is the most populous). So it may come as a surprise to find that it is also the most pleasant and user-friendly of the three capital cities being discussed here.

Nicaraguan history follows a similar path to that of neighbors El Salvador and Honduras, emerging as the second poorest country in all of the Americas behind

Haiti. US intervention in Nicaragua has played no small part in the inability of the country to raise itself up out of this situation, with the likes of William Walker, whose goal it was to establish a slave state in Central America, circumventing US law in order to provide mercenary fighters to conflict in Nicaragua that predates the Iran-Contra Affair by 130 years.

I feel it is important to understand the history and the political climate of these countries, because behind the smiling faces that are happy to take your tourism or expat retirement dollars, social problems still simmer and, as in Honduras, the possibility for social and political instability exists. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega does belong to the Marxist-Leninist Sandinista National Liberation Front, whom the Contra mercenaries were fighting, and he is allied with Hugo Chávez as well as Gaddafi of Libya and Ahmadinejad of Iran in the name of anti-imperialist opposition to the US.

In addition to Managua, the colonial city of Granada and San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific Coast, and apparently even Esteli, in the mountains of the north, have become popular destinations for expats seeking low cost retirement living.

I highly recommend the blog, Monday (or something), where you will find very detailed cost of living charts for different locations in Nicaragua and Honduras, as well as providing windows into what expat life in these places is like.

see also: The Lowest Cost of Living in the World for Expats: South America

Julie R Butler is a writer, journalist, editor, and author of several books, including Nine Months in Uruguay and No Stranger To Strange Lands (click here for more info). She is a contributor to Speakout at Truthout.org, and her current blog is Connectively Speaking.

email: julierbutler [at] yahoo [dot] com, Twitter: @JulieRButler