Podcast: Millions of Central Americans Go Hungry | The Lighthouse

This is the transcript of episode 91 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

GRESSIER, HOST: At mealtime in El Salvador, a question arises for many: Do we eat now, or wait a little longer? Sometimes they have to buy less food. Or ration what’s in the kitchen for tomorrow. When there isn’t enough, they skip meals.

This is Elmer Adonay Quintanilla, a 53-year-old fisherman at El Icacal Beach in La Unión, in eastern El Salvador.

QUINTANILLA: There are times when you just have to tough out hunger. You eat whatever bits you can. You’ve already had a piece of bread, you’ve had your juice, a cold lemonade, maybe a cup of coffee, things like that. But you have to go without a proper meal.

GRESSIER: I’m your host, Roman Gressier. On today’s episode: millions of Central Americans go hungry, a Guatemalan man dies in a car crash in Michigan while being pursued by ICE, and the region seeks to respond to electoral repression in Nicaragua.

From the studios of El Faro English, this is Central America in Minutes.

Food insecurity in Central America

In El Salvador, 41.7 percent of the population face moderate to severe food insecurity, reports Graciela Barrera. That’s according to an August 2026 report by the Citizens’ Foundation for Responsible Consumption.

Their report cites data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In Honduras, a slightly lower 39 percent go hungry. In Guatemala, the figure jumps up to 49 percent.

According to the FAO, in 2023 the three countries were home to 35.1 million people. And a staggering 15.7 million went hungry, on average, each year between 2023 and 2025. That’s over two-fifths of the population.

Costa Rica registered at a much lower 13.9 percent. Figures weren’t available for Nicaragua, which withdraw from the FAO last year after a report found that a slightly increased 19.6 percent of Nicaraguans were undernourished.

In El Salvador, the basic food basket costs around $260 in urban areas — more than half the minimum wage, currently $400.

According to the International Labor Organization, 63.3 percent of the employed population in El Salvador works in the informal sector, depending on day-to-day income.

As for fisherman Elmer Quintanilla, he doesn’t know how much money he’ll have at the end of the month. In a good week, I can earn about $70 in sales. Over the span of a month, that barely covers the basic food basket.

According to the Integrated Phased Food Security Classification, families in the Trifinio region—shared by El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—are reducing portion sizes, eating fewer meals, or skipping meals to feed their children.

Two factors are behind this: less rainfall, which has affected crops, and more expensive food, reducing purchasing power.

This year, the El Niño phenomenon continues to strengthen in the Pacific Ocean. According to the El Salvador government’s latest Climatological Report, temperatures could reach historic intensity by the end of 2026.

The WMO, the UN meteorological agency, projects a nearly 100 percent probability that El Niño will continue through February.

Guatemalan immigrant dies in Michigan

Now to Michigan. On September 20, a Guatemalan man died when his car crashed into a tree while fleeing from ICE agents, reports Yuliana Ramazzini.

Mario David Coronado Juárez, 36, was from a Maya community in Comitancillo, San Marcos, in Western Guatemala.

CBS News spoke with his family in Guatemala, who stated that Coronado had moved to the United States to work, because his entire family lives in poverty. They received money from him every week.

The Department of Homeland Security stated that Coronado Juárez was not the person ICE intended to detain. The operation was targeting the vehicle’s owner, who was also Guatemalan, undocumented, and allegedly wanted in Guatemala on charges of drunkenness.

Coronado Juárez had already been detained and sent back to Guatemala in 2021. DHS called his re-entry a felony.

Michigan Congresswoman Hillary Scholten demanded answers from ICE. She called for “a transparent investigation into facts we don’t yet know.”

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Coronado’s wife told CBS that her children have been the most affected since their father stopped calling.

As of a week ago, the Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs was coordinating his repatriation with the Consulate in Chicago. There is no information on when this will take place.

In Austin, Texas, on the same day as Coronado Juárez’s accident, ICE shot a Venezuelan DoorDash delivery driver.

Coronado’s death comes weeks after ICE agents killed Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. According to the New York TimesIn that case, too, agents said they were pursuing two different men — one of whom was also from Guatemala.

Electoral repression in Nicaragua

GRESSIER: Last, to Nicaragua. Electoral repression by co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is drawing out differing views within the international community and the Nicaraguan opposition. That includes what they want from the Trump administration, reports Leyrian Colón Santiago.

Since July, the Nicaraguan regime has walked back Ortega’s announcement that “there will be no more elections.” But a constitutional amendment cut off the path to free elections more aggressively than in 2021, when seven opposition candidates were arrested.

In early September, the Sandinista-controlled Assembly extended the presidential term from six to seven years and pushed back the general elections to 2028.

They also barred opposition members “linked to coup attempts, foreign funding, international sanctions, or acts against sovereignty” from running for office. It was on similar accusations that Nicaragua has pushed its political opposition into prison or exile.

According to UN investigators, since 2018 the regime has expelled hundreds of dissidents, stripping them of citizenship, property, and political rights.

For many, the repression during the 2021 election cycle was a point of no return.

Juan Sebastián Chamorro, one of the candidates accused of “betraying the country,” El Faro English told that Ortega’s latest election threats only served to reinforce a reality that has been around for a long time.

On the heels of the new reforms, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States “urges international partners to immediately stop business-as-usual operations with this brutal dictatorship.”

In Washington, Nicaragua has been tacked onto Venezuela-Cuba rhetoric but hardly stands out. Since July, a US-led coalition of countries has been pushing for a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Nicaragua at the Organization of American States.

The US coalition proposed that the meeting be held Friday, October 2.

This week, the US Senate confirmed Donald Trump’s nominee, Natasha Franceschi, as the next US ambassador to Nicaragua, filling the position for the first time since 2023.

Dora María Téllez, an exiled former leader of the Sandinista Renovation Movement, told El Faro English that “the dictatorship in Nicaragua is a problem for Nicaraguans.”

In August, 15 opposition groups presented a proposal for a 24-month “orderly transition” with “all options on the table,” including unilateral action by the United States.

But other groups retort that “any proposal that, without a shred of shame or historical memory, calls for military action against Nicaragua—whether unilateral or multinational—is indefensible.”

With Nicaraguan dissidents dispersed in exile, US domestic politics hinder support for their cause. At least six Nicaraguan ex-political prisoners are at risk of deportation.

This episode was written by Graciela Barrera, Yuliana Ramazziniand Leyrian Colon Santiago. Editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn.

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