Central America

Migration

'We're dead here': Migrants stranded in Panama rainforest amid coronavirus

The World

April 30, 2020

With borders closed and entire countries on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, some 2,000 migrants — many of them children under age 5 — have been detained for months in Panama, near the rainforest separating South and Central America.

Environment

Rainforests are 'worth more alive than dead,' according to science — and economics

Living on Earth

November 22, 2019

Earth’s rainforests are astonishingly biodiverse ecosystems that can drive the climates of faraway continents, but they’re disappearing in the name of the kind of economic development that values rainforests more when logged, mined, or turned into farmland. A new book argues that the world’s rainforests are most valuable when kept intact.

How Trump’s bilateral deals with Central America undermine the US asylum system

The World

October 02, 2019

For the US, the deals with Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to take back migrants are like a fortification, shielding the country from taking responsibility for people seeking international protection. They add yet another line of defense to other drastic measures the US has recently taken to keep them out.

Immigration

As Trump eyes more family detention, experts say it puts kids at risk

The World

April 24, 2019

Doctors inspecting detention centers found problems with recruiting and retaining qualified pediatricians and mental health care providers, and a lack of access to emergency and specialty care, given the remote locations of most of the facilities.