Dánae Vílchez is a Nicaraguan journalist based in Guatemala. She became openDemocracy’s Mesoamerica correspondent in March 2022. She is also Central America correspondent with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
The first round of the local elections took place against a backdrop of widespread creeping fascism in France and comes after a brutal offensive by the far right, during which the traditional ‘Republican’ right has decisively broken from much of its historical framework and values.