Starting on Friday, August 21, El Faro English’s short-form podcast, Central America in Minuteswill be distributed on the Pacifica Network, a storied group of over 200 listener-supported community radio stations spanning the United States, Canada, and multiple countries in Europe.
Every week, Central America in Minutes provides reported briefs and analysis on the politics shaping our region. Pacifica’s flagship station, KPFA, will broadcast the podcast on The Pacifica Evening News: its prime time 6 pm news program serving the San Francisco Bay Area and broader California. All Pacifica affiliates can air Central America in Minutes on their own programs.
The podcast will remain available every week on El Faro English channels, including Apple, Spotify, amazon, iHeartand YouTube.
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“We’ve been looking for a partner like Pacifica since we launched the podcast two years ago,” said El Faro English editor Roman Gressier, the host of Central America in Minutes. “This paves the way for a closer connection with US and diaspora listeners who believe in the power of radio.”
Gressier added, “In the current political context, journalism must bridge geographical divides, reminding audiences in Central America and the US that we’re one region breathing the same air.”
Journalism that crosses borders
El Faro is one of the most respected newsrooms in Latin America. Founded in San Salvador in 1998, we’re a bilingual, multimedia, independent news outlet covering Central America and its diasporas.
In late 2019, the newsroom launched its English-language edition in a bold bet on bilingual, cross-border journalism. Our mission is to show that Central America, too, can tell the story of our region to the broader world.
Since then, El Faro has faced sustained lawfare, illegal digital surveillance, and financial pressure under the Bukele government in El Salvador. This forced us to relocate our headquarters to Costa Rica in 2023. Last year administrative, amid a wave of state repression and threats of arrest against El Faro journalists and staff, members of the newsroom left El Salvador and are working in exile from different places.
Government harassment has not ceased and includes recent smear campaigns in El Salvador. Nor has this destroyed our commitment.
El Faro English has its own homepage, elfaro.net/en. Our team not only translates and adapts reporting —editorially and culturally— from Spanish; we also produce original reporting for a primarily US-based international audience. In June, we released the latest issue of our digital magazine Beacon. We also publish photography, a newsletter, and Central America in Minutes.
Every Friday you receive the most relevant news of the week and recommendations.
“Today, the work of journalists on the ground, and those forced to continue reporting from exile, is as vital as ever,” said Lauren Schmitt, Director of News at KPFA. “The KPFA Pacifica Evening News is honored to partner with El Faro to bring that reporting to listeners across California and the United States.”
“This partnership,” Schmitt added, “carries forward a shared commitment: to shine a light where those in power would prefer darkness, amplify the work of independent journalists, and ensure that borders do not become barriers to truth.”
International partnerships
This alliance with the Pacifica Network expands the scope of El Faro’s strategy of international collaboration. Last year, Central America in Minutes co-produced three long-form episodes with Latino USA, the longest-running Latino-focused program on US public media.
Futuro Studios, which produces Latino USAwon a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. In 2025, we covered El Salvador’s total abortion banhow to white house lie about “sex changes” in Guatemala helped slash global USAID funding, and on the fallout from the Trump administration’s family separation policy.
In April 2026, El Faro co-produced a documentary with the PBS series FRONTLINE: The Deal: Trump, Bukele, and the Gangs of El Salvador. The film relied on years of investigative reporting by El Faro into Bukele’s secret gang negotiations and subsequent efforts to cover them up with the aid of the Trump administration.
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In 2023, El Faro English co-published investigative reporting with ProPublica on abuses against Central American dairy farmers in Wisconsin. That same year, we also co-produced a special podcast episode in English with The thread —the Spanish-language news podcast from Radio Ambulante Studios—on attacks against the press in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
“This partnership with Pacifica is a strategic move to expand the presence and impact of our journalism in the United States,” said El Faro editor-in-chief Carlos Dada.
“Partnerships like these allow us to better fulfill our mission to report the news,” he added. “Pacifica Network audiences will find that the political and social situation in our region is directly relevant to their communities and their country as well.”
