Podcast: Trump Squeezes In Ambassador Nominations Before Midterms | The Lighthouse

This is the transcript of episode 92 of the weekly El Faro English podcast, Central America in Minutes.

GRESSIER, HOST: In Washington, the Trump administration has tapped new ambassadors to El Salvador and Nicaragua. In a Senate nomination hearing on September 24, Democrats pressed Mark Abreu, Trump’s pick for El Salvador, on democracy and human rights violations.

ABREU: I respectfully must say that the allegations that you refer to are allegations at this point and I take them seriously.

JACKY ROSEN: Will you allow your embassy staff to report through cables or other official documentation if they do see these abuses to our government? Will you allow that transparency?

ABREU: Yes, Senator. That is our obligation under the law.

GRESSIER: I’m your host, Roman Gressier. On today’s episode: Senate Democrats press Trump’s pick for ambassador to El Salvador on human rights. A Guatemalan journalist is murdered in the highlands close to Mexico. And Costa Rica closes a probe into who ordered the murder of a Nicaraguan exile.

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

New ambassadors to El Salvador, Nicaragua

Trump’s pick for ambassador to El Salvador, Mark Abreu, received no questions from Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in his September confirmation hearing.

Democrats pressed him on Temporary Protected Status, political prisoner Ruth López, and US sports imprisoned in El Salvador, reports Leyrian Colón Santiago.

As a career CIA officer, Abreu served as Station Chief in Latin America. He also once worked for Senator Marco Rubio, who is now Secretary of State.

Abreu is the second former CIA officer tapped by Trump to lead the Embassy in El Salvador. The first was Ronald Johnson in 2019, who forged a close personal and professional relationship with President Nayib Bukele.

This is also Trump’s second nominee for El Salvador in less than a year. In April, the White House withdrew the nomination of Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Troy Edgar, a top official under former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.

Time is of the essence. The midterms are on November 3 and Congress is in recess until November 6. Amid a heated race for control of both chambers, the Senate adjourned with a long agenda and few days left to vote on nominations this year.

As for El Salvador, Abreu’s confirmation is pending. Trump’s pick for Nicaragua, Natasha Franceschi, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Levant and Syria, flew through the Senate.

As the Trump administration launched a Nicaragua offensive at the Organization of American States, Franceschi told the Senate committee that she would maintain “diplomatic pressure toward a solution in Nicaragua.”

She was confirmed a week later, on September 30, making her the first confirmed ambassador to Nicaragua since 2023.

But on October 2, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau revealed to a meeting of foreign ministers at the OAS that the regime refused to accept Franceschi’s appointment.

Landau said, “Murillo and Ortega have constantly closed the door to productive dialogue” and that the rejection “demonstrates their lack of diplomacy.”

A similar scene played out in late 2022, when Nicaragua pulled support for Hugo Rodriguez, Joe Biden’s proposed ambassador to the country, amid tough talk over CAFTA sanctions.

Trump’s pick for Guatemala was sent to the Senate months ago, but the administration is back to the drawing board. In late June, Cuban-American lawyer Juan Rodriguez, whose past clients included Guatemalan business eliteswithdrew his nomination citing personal reasons.

Journalist killed in Guatemala

Now to Guatemala. Evelio Lisandro López Sánchez, a Mam Maya journalist, was murdered on October 2 in Huehuetenango, in the western highlands close to the Mexican border. López was on his way home when a car pulled up and shot him.

The journalist founded the news outlet “Huehue es Noticias” and had previously denounced receiving threats, according to to the Guatemalan Journalists’ Association.

A local news outlet reported that the threats dated back to 2021 when he worked as a communications officer for the mayor’s office in his hometown, San Pedro Necta.

One colleague, who preferred to remain anonymous for his own protection, told Reporters Without Borders that López had linked the intimidation to political figures.

Two other journalists also told Reporters Without Borders that Huehuetenango, due to its closeness to Mexico, is an area where “drug trafficking, human trafficking, and political interests converge.” Doing journalism in the area exposes reporters to many risks, including death.

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Following López’s murder, a group of local residents set fire to the town’s National Civil Police substation and a pickup truck that the police had stopped.

No links were found between the driver and the crime, and he was released. But the crowd burned the vehicle.

The US Embassy in Guatemala posted a call on X for those responsible to be brought to justice. This is not the first murder of a journalist recorded in San Pedro Necta. In 2023, Aníbal Napoleón Ramírez Méndez was murdered along with his wife, Mercy Morales.

That same year, journalist César Augusto Leiva Pimentel was murdered in Jutiapa, close to El Salvador. In 2025, Ismael Alonzo González was murdered in Quetzaltenango. This April, Carlos Humberto Cal was murdered in Alta Verapaz.

According to Guatemalan independent outlet OjoconmipistoIn the last thirteen years, the Public Prosecutor’s Office received 986 reports on attacks against journalists and registered 32 deaths.

By 2023, the top daily Prensa Libre reported that Guatemala was the third place in the world with the most crimes against journalists, behind Gaza and Mexico.

Shuttered murder probe in Costa Rica

GRESSIER: Last, to Costa Rica. On October 6, prosecutors closed an investigation into who ordered the assassination of Roberto Samcam, a retired Nicaraguan army major in exile. Samcam was killed in June 2025 outside his home in San José.

Yuliana Ramazzini reports that the prosecutor in charge of the case decided to close the probe, citing “insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion” about who ordered the killing.

Which was striking because, a year ago, Attorney General Carlo Díaz, said that the leading hypothesis It was that the killing was politically motivated, and that they were examining whether the Nicaraguan Army was involved.

Samcam was an outspoken critic of the Ortega-Murillo regime, which claimed a drug trafficking motive in his murder. But Costa Rican prosecutors quickly discarded that hypothesis.

He had informed Costa Rican authorities of a Nicaraguan state intelligence network targeting him and other exiles.

In a judicial document obtained by El Faro English, prosecutors stated that the investigation into the mastermind could be reopened if new evidence emerges. A separate case against five men accused of carrying out the assassination is expected to go to trial in the coming months.

The decision to close the investigation took the plaintiffs by surprise. Almudena Bernabeu, who is representing Samcam’s widow Claudia Vargas, told El Faro English that authorities should have “put Nicaragua in the difficult position of having to refuse, ignore the requests, or deny access to evidence.”

The Samcam case now depends heavily on the outcome of the trial of those accused of carrying out the murder. The outcome will send a message amid increasing violence against Nicaraguan exiles in Costa Rica.

Thanks for listening to Central America in Minutes. This episode was written by Leyrian Colon Santiago, Yuliana Ramazziniand Gabriel Labrador. Editing by Roman Gressier and sound design by Omnionn.

Listen every week on Pacifica Network radio stations. You can also find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and iHeart podcast platforms. Until next week. See you soon.