El Salvador Perspectives

San Salvador fire A collection of recent news from El Salvador. Fire in San Salvador Claims Five Lives in Historic District Blaze  (Tico Times, Feb. 14, 2026) -- A major fire in the historic center of San Salvador killed five as it tore through warehouse space, business and residences.  The burned-out block is two blocks south of Plaza Libertad, part of the zone gradually being gentrified into a tourist destination by the current government. ( More at EDH ).  Shakira’s 5-show El Salvador residency fuels Bukele’s push to remake the country’s image  (AP, Feb. 13, 2026) -- A five-concert “residency” by singer-songwriter and superstar Shakira in El Salvador’s capital builds on Nayib Bukele ’s years long effort to use events such as surfing competitions and the Miss Universe pageant to mold the Central American country’s international image as a safe tourist destination. Trump to host Latin American leaders in Miami on March 7 (AFP, Feb. 12, 2026) -- Donald Trump wi...

The price of Bitcoin this morning was around $67,250, down 45% from its high above $120,000 in October.   This represented a decline of roughly $300 million in the value of the country's Bitcoin reserves in just four months.  In an article titled  Fall in bitcoin puts pressure on El Salvador's debt and complicates the relationship with the IMF , Bloomberg suggests that this fall in value of the volatile crypto-currency and the corresponding decline in El Salvador's reserves may be causing international investors to question the country's finances.  When the Bukele government finally reached agreement with the IMF on the terms of the $1.4 billion loan facility in December 2024, the IMF required El Salvador to undo the law which made Bitcoin legal tender in the country, and to sell off the government's Bitcoin wallet "Chivo."  The country promised not to increase its exposure to Bitcoin risks.   In a  staff statement  on December 22, 2025...

Over the last month, Nayib Bukele has been attributing public security in El Salvador to either mass incarceration or a miracle from God for those who pray. Presidential Visit to Costa Rica Bukele traveled to Alajuela, Costa Rica, on January 14 to join President Rodrigo Chaves for the groundbreaking for a new prison.  The month before, in December 2025, Chaves had visited the CECOT prison in El Salvador to see Bukele's most famous incarceration site. Bukele laid the first stone in the groundbreaking ceremony for Costa Rica's new "Centro de Alta Contención del Crimen Organizado" (CACCO), a maximum-security prison. Bukele has said that El Salvador sent the CECOT  architectural plans to Chaves so the new prison could use them as a model. In remarks at the groundbreaking for CACCO, Bukele told those assembled that the only way to resolve a nation's crime problem was through the use of force.   The trip came three weeks before presidential elections in Costa Rica....

Last week El Salvador and the US signed a new trade agreement .   El Salvador agreed to a number of measures designed to make it easier for US producers to get their goods into the Central American country in return for removing the 10% tariff Trump imposed in the spring of last year. One provision involved opening up access to minerals in El Salvador to the US according to  Reuters : The United States and El Salvador signed an agreement on Thursday aimed at encouraging investment in the exploration and export of critical minerals, which U.S. President Donald Trump has described as essential to economic and national security. The deal signed in Washington would allow U.S. companies to operate across the critical-minerals supply chain in El Salvador.... Bukele has highlighted the presence in El Salvador of minerals such as rhenium and silicon, recently added to an expanded U.S. list of critical minerals that guides Washington's priorities for clean energy, defense and manu...