Press freedom improved in 2005, starting with the jailing for 25 years of former El Ayote mayor Eugenio Hernández on 27 January for killing the local correspondent of La Prensa and Hoy, María José Bravo, on 9 November 2004.

But Heberto Jarquín Manzanares, of La Prensa, was threatened by an ex-paramilitary he reported had links to the lumber industry mafia. The magazine Trinchera de la Noticia, which backs currently-jailed former president Arnoldo Alemán, was shut down on 15 June, officially for "tax evasion," showing that political tension is still high.

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