The abduction and murder of a nine year-old girl in the southern department of Chiquimula has fueled fears that an increasing number of infants are being snatched by child smugglers and sold to adoption agencies. The case has led to a heightened sense of fear and paranoia in many rural communities and has led to an increase in mob lynching, as suspected child snatchers are seized, savagely beaten and burnt alive. In many cases, the widespread belief that the authorities are corrupt and act in collusion with child snatchers has led mobs to vent their wrath on police agents and government officials. The most recent case of mob lynching, which occurred in the northern department of Petén, led to a three-day riot which wreaked havoc in a rural community. This latest incident has also led to suspicions that individuals possibly linked to drug trafficking might be deliberately inciting acts of violence to operate under a cloak of immunity while communities sink into widespread anarchy.

The nation's energy deficit, which more than doubled in the past month, has reached unprecedented levels. Energy rationing, which began on June 4, has expanded accordingly. This latest phase arose when neighboring countries, worried about their own deficits, stopped selling energy to Nicaragua. But the underlying problem lies with deteriorating infrastructure – the government says two electricity plants under repair will not return to service until late August. Even then, the nation will be vulnerable to shortages. An odd assemblage of foreign patrons and private interests, ranging from the Taiwanese government to the Venezuelan government to US business, have proposed various plans to end, or at least alleviate, the crisis.

This year, the US has been deporting a record number of Central Americans. On a daily basis, planeloads of Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans are returned, usually having lost thousands of dollars in their attempt to reach the United States. Isthmus politicians have met with US officials, even traveling to Washington, to urge US officials to cease or reduce the deportations. But the pleas of Central American governments are butting up against a massive and well-orchestrated anti-immigration drive in the US. Moreover, enforcement in the US is increasingly decentralized; local police agencies are now taking it upon themselves to detain illegal immigrants. In Honduras, which has been suffering from the greatest number of deportations, the crisis has taken on a strange dynamic. President Manuel Zelaya recently met with Hugo Chávez, provoking criticism from both the US and Honduran politicians – one of whom warned that the US will retaliate by ratcheting up the deportations.

A number of former government officials may soon be brought to trial for helping attempted assassins of Fidel Castro flee the country – including Luis Posada Carriles, the infamous international terrorist who has escaped prison time to date. Posada Carriles was pardoned by former president Mireya Moscoso after being convicted in a plot to kill the Cuban president; few believe that he will ever be brought to justice. However, the lawyer who prosecuted Posada Carriles is hopeful that the court will overthrow the pardon on constitutional grounds. If the court does not do so, the lawyer says, the Panamanian state will have forsaken the rule of law.