Search (El Salvador)

El Salvador passed a foreign agents law last month that imposes various requirements on foreign entities operating in El Salvador that receive funding from outside the country. Those failing to comply could face legal an...

In February, the U.S. government designated eight Latin American transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and specially designated global terrorists (SDGT). This report aims t...

Since March 2022, El Salvador has undergone a radical shift in its security environment under an ongoing state of exception. This report reviews how the security environment has shifted since the implementation of the st...

This OSAC report format provides a brief update on recent events in Latin America & the Caribbean.

Several key elections will be held this weekend and over the coming months in Latin America. This report summarizes key issues at stake in upcoming elections, and links to other OSAC reports about specific operational co...

Last summer, the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador revised its security posture to provide more detail about areas that are off limits to official travel. Since then, the Government of El Salvador implemented and continues to...

This report summarizes our analytical conclusions about the security challenges that organizations operating in El Salvador face. Although the recent Bitcoin crash has raised questions about economic stability in th...

On April 26, the Government of El Salvador extended its “State of Exception” in response to a spike in homicides that began in late March. This State of Exception suspends some pre-trial protections and constitutional ri...

On September 7, El Salvador officially adopted the cryptocurrency Bitcoin as legal tender, to be used alongside the country’s previously adopted currency, the U.S. dollar. While the currency’s official rollout itself hit...

An understanding of irregular migration and its driving forces in Latin America reveals regional dynamics that reflect security challenges for OSAC members. Organized crime, incidental violence, social unrest, and corrup...

On February 28, El Salvador will hold elections for all 84 seats in its Legislative Assembly. The elections will determine if President Bukele’s party, New Ideas, can win control over an institution that has acted as a c...

In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele’s strict nationwide lockdown has exacerbated the executive branch’s pre-existing differences with other branches of government. The spread of the virus threatens the security of El...

COVID-19 has not only crippled economies around the world, but has also impacted criminal groups and their illicit revenue streams. Criminal organizations across the region are adapting by turning to different crimes suc...

Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama lie along the Pacific Rim of Fire and all have significant zones of very high seismic and volcanic risk. Infrastructure in many locations in thes...

The Salvadoran Minister of Public Health announced on June 18 that a typhoid fever epidemic is impacting 26 municipalities in El Salvador.

El Salvador’s revised national homicide rate of 103 murders per 100,000 people has propelled the small Latin American country into the dubious position as the Western Hemisphere’s most violent country for 2015. The murde...

The Salvadorian government has distanced itself from supporting a truce between the country’s two most notorious criminal gangs. In the first four months of 2015, El Salvador’s homicide rate surged and there was a signif...

The responses of many governments in the Americas to the West Africa Ebola outbreak have trumped local efforts to weaken an epidemic that is far more likely to impact public health: the Chikungunya virus. The resurgence...

Due to the perceived wealth and influence of U.S. private-sector employees, kidnapping continues to pose a significant threat to OSAC constituents operating overseas. In addition to kidnap for ransom by criminal organiza...

The security situation in Central America, already struggling with some of the highest homicide rates in the world, experienced continued deterioration last year, and that trend appears likely to continue as we look forw...