History of Censorship in Central America
The history of censorship in Central America reflects a complex interplay of power dynamics, violence, and a longstanding struggle for freedom of expression. Since the Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the region has been characterized by the dominance of elite groups over a largely impoverished and oppressed majority. Censorship has often manifested as violence against dissenting voices, with state armies, private militias, and death squads targeting journalists and political opponents alike.
After gaining independence in the early 19th century, Central American countries faced civil wars and political upheaval, further entrenching mechanisms to control information. Despite constitutional guarantees for free speech, these rights have frequently been curtailed during states of emergency or through vague legislative measures. Particularly in the late 20th century, while some improvements in freedom of expression were noted following civil wars, the legacy of self-censorship and intimidation continues to stifle open dialogue.
Journalists, opposition political figures, and indigenous leaders have frequently been victims of systemic repression, resulting in a media landscape marked by both physical danger and economic constraints. The challenges of censorship in Central America underscore the ongoing tension between elite interests and the rights of marginalized populations to express themselves freely.
History of Censorship in Central America
Description: The land mass connecting North and South America, comprising the modern nations of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama
Significance: Governments in this region have historically been among the world’s most ruthless suppressors of free expression
Central America, made up of the seven countries between Mexico and Colombia, has a history characterized by some of the world’s worst abuses of freedom of expression. Since its colonization by Spain in the sixteenth century, Central American society has been divided, with small and powerful elites dominating social, political, and economic life, and the vast majority of people poor, weak, and frequently oppressed. Before independence, the Spanish military and administrative elite, along with the Roman Catholic church, controlled almost all information coming into the New World, through monopoly of education and the media. Since independence—which occurred in the early nineteenth century for most of the countries—the nations of Central America have experienced numerous civil wars and other forms of political upheaval. Censorship in Central America, as a consequence, has often taken the form of killing those speaking against the interests of particular groups—of both the Left and the Right. Numerous mechanisms have developed over the last century to control the dissemination of information in this region.
Mechanisms of Control
One of the most common forms of information control in Central America is the use of violence by state armies and private militias and security forces. These types of “unofficial” purveyors of violence have existed since the early period of Salvadoran independence, for example. The Salvadoran government has sponsored some of these forces and winked at others—such as right-wing death squads during the civil war; others have been sponsored by the government’s opposition. Both the extreme right and extreme left in El Salvador have regularly used assassination to eliminate opposing voices.
During Manuel Noriega’s presidency in Panama in the 1980s, more than one hundred private security agencies employed about twelve thousand thugs, who roamed the countryside, using intimidation to fix elections, and suppressing the dissemination of information that the government considered contrary to the interests of the country’s elite class. Since 1978, right-wing death squads in Guatemala have murdered dozens of moderate-left leaders to prevent them from organizing opposition parties.
In addition to silencing political opposition, violence has also been frequently directed against journalists in Central America. Between 1980 and 1984, eleven Salvadoran and ten foreign reporters were murdered in El Salvador alone. In Honduras, nearly 150 journalists disappeared during this same period and many others were interrogated and their papers confiscated, by both governmental agencies and extralegal death squads.
Many Central American nations have had governmental agencies responsible for regulating the expression of opinions in society. In Panama, the Moral and Ethics Commission possessed broad and vague powers to regulate the press and entertainment industries. El Salvador’s government has had the power to shut down radio or television stations at any time and for any reason. The government of Honduras can legally engage in a priori censorship on the pretext of protecting the ethical and cultural values of the nation, especially the young. Such censorship reflects the continued significant role of the Roman Catholic church, and its moral code, in Central American society.
Most Central American governments have had laws regulating specific groups that are regarded as potentially antagonistic to elite interests. Honduras, for example, has had laws against “excessive” activities by labor groups, though these groups are generally free of government controls. Journalists in Honduras must be licensed by a professional guild, which is subject to government pressure if an individual reporter discusses the wrong issues or digs too deeply in the wrong places. Frequently such reporters are dismissed by the authorities with accusations of being “Sandinista spies.”
The national constitutions of Central American countries contain guarantees of free speech and press. For long periods, however, these guarantees have been suspended during official “states of siege” or declared emergencies. Freedom of expression provisions in the Salvadoran constitution, for example, were suspended from 1980 until 1987. In many countries the laws designed to protect free speech and the press are purposely vague. During the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua (1979–90), for example, the press was free to publish information as long as it was “within the bounds of social responsibility” and not “harming the people’s interests and destroying the gains achieved by the people.” Such provisions have typically been used as justifications to arrest, harass, or detain journalists whose reporting political leaders have disapproved.
Treatment of Groups
One of the most frequently oppressed groups in Central American society is the press. Journalists have been subjected to harassment, both physically and professionally, throughout Central America. Opposition papers, such as La Prensa in Nicaragua, have been periodically suspended for excessive criticism of the government, while some have been shut down.
Since the beginning of Spanish colonization of Central America, native peoples have not been free to practice their ways of life. In Guatemala, the Indian population has scarcely been integrated into the larger society. The government has usually been swift and merciless when Indian leaders are believed to be pressing too hard for change, by seeming to threaten violence or social upheaval, for example.
The academic community is also a frequent target of censorship, often violent. Dozens of university professors and left-wing students have disappeared in Guatemala, for example. Leaders of the Roman Catholic church, to the extent that they act as opponents to elite interests, are also sometimes subjects of governmental censorship. In Guatemala, for example, Radio Catolica was shut down by the Sandinistas for a long period during the 1980s. Specific political parties, particularly communists, are often outlawed or suspended.
Late Twentieth Century Trends
After the mid-1980s, the nations of Central America began seeing some improvement in the protection of expression. After the civil war in El Salvador ended in 1992, for example, news from across the political spectrum, often critical of the government, was openly discussed; however, foreign journalists were still harassed frequently. In 1990 Nicaraguan opposition parties were granted access to the media, and rules for their organization were loosened. This change enabled an opposition candidate to defeat the Sandinistas in that year’s presidential election.
Despite these improvements, the expression of diverse views, particularly in the media, remained limited, largely by self-censorship, often out of fear of violent reprisals by private groups. News coverage of previously taboo topics remained relatively restrained. A continuing mechanism of news control has been the common Central American practice of putting journalists on government payrolls. Reporters’ regular salaries have been so low that the danger of losing government money has kept journalists from probing into sensitive areas. Newspapers and other media are also often owned by individuals who are tied into the national elite power structure, and therefore not likely to tolerate criticism of the government in their own papers.
Twenty-First-Century Censorship in Central America
Freedom of the press in Central American remains limited, and investigative journalists are particularly targeted. In Panama and Nicaragua individuals and publishers who have denounced government corruption have been subject to extended audits and fines. The government of Nicaragua has also encouraged unions to take action against the media, and unions have blocked the distribution channels of local newspapers on several occasions. In Honduras, journalists have to worry not only about the government, which might sue them for libel, slander, or defamation if they are too critical, but also about organized crime groups, which have been known to threaten journalists who report on their activities. In 2011 the offices of the paper La Tribuna in Honduran capital Tegucigalpa were fired on by gunmen following the paper's publication of a report that linked police officers to the murders of two university students. Nine journalists and one media worker were killed in Honduras in 2014 and six journalists and three media workers in 2015; of these cases, only two have been prosecuted. Guatemala has also seen increasing numbers of murders of and attacks on journalists in the 2010s.
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