There is a Salvadorean poster around here. I forgot his name, but he is active and I hope he chimes in. A few of my Salvadorean students talked to me about Bukele. They and their families like him. I wish him well. EDIT: @conquistador#11 ?
El Salvador isn't really winning at anything when it comes to quality of life and government. It has long been a country of instability, corruption, crime and horrendous wealth disparity. The people of El Salvador are like the people in the Phillipines or Brazil or even Venezuela and Mexico. People are sick of the violence and wealthy disparity and social ills - so they tend to swing to the extreme politically back and forth. It is almost predictable.... and I even understand it to a point. Look at Venezuela. It had a very small and very corrupt and oppressive wealthy class in the hills while everyone else was in the slums. There was no chance to leave the slums......... so the people had enough, swung the other way and Chavez and Maduro took control........ and soon the cycle will start there again.
I just got back from El Salvador a week ago, the country has basically been transformed. You basically had to live with MS13 in nearly every aspect of life before Bukele. Own a business? Have to pay rent to cartels, want to visit family in another district? You have to ask the local gang for permission to enter the territory.. You want to enjoy the night life? Nope, too dangerous. You want to go out with friends and family? Nope too dangerous. Flash forward to today, everyone is loving not having to worry about crime. People are starting to move forward with their lives. The country is finally united and healing. You can actually see the projects the government is establishing. For example, the airport in El Salvador was jaw dropping. I couldn't believe I was in El Salvador. So what else has the government done? Well, how about give children tablets for educational purposes? What about the older children in high school? Free laptops. I was skeptical of this until this recent trip where a friend of mine had both a tablet and laptop provided to his children with a Salvadorian Government sticker on em. My grandpa showed me the Covid 19 kits they were handing out during the pandemic. Basically a box with tons of medicine free of charge. Not to mention Bukele's dream of turning up the tourism in the country and establishing growing areas like Surf City as attractions. I can't say enough about the job Bukele is doing. I knew he was going to be good when he was elected but I had no idea he would be this good. He basically had to take down two corrupt political parties that had torn the country to the ground for nearly 40 years. I'm glad to finally see El Salvador moving forward.
El Salvador isn't swinging in any way towards a radical political party, the previous political party was FMLN.... Pretty much commie buddies with Venezuela and Cuba. The other party was the rich corrupt party Arena. They were both trash and corrupt. Both parties sucked the country dry of finances. Bukele established a new party, unprecedented. Since the two previous parties had governed for over 40 years. Bukele is not a radical, his actions may seem so because of what he had to do in order to establish peace in El Salvador. He had to be brutal and firm. People in El Salvador are not swaying in any way, they now know what it is to have a good leader. They finally have something to be proud of. I doubt the people are wanting to go back to the crime riddled streets. El Salvador will continue to grow, in just 4 years the country has changed in ways I never thought possible.
Controversial lol... These dudes are fing animals, they honestly don't deserve the nice prison Bukele has built them. I wish our governments here in the U.S took crime this seriously instead of catering to delusional people trying to defend criminals.
It’s not like the police don’t know who the criminals are They keep coming in and out jail but the woke people here don’t want people in prisons Woke shields don’t woke , you will get killed Ask the people going to get a tummy tuck in Mexico
Before the gangs the two previous governments were indeed recruiting children for war. Many of the people in charge of war crimes and atrocities against humanity were still in power just 4 years ago before Bukele took over. Once Bukele got in they fled the country as many other corrupt politicians. What about justice for the children and families that lost their lives because of these people? Nah, lefties are worried about the treatment of murderers being persecuted by Bukele trying to bring justice to the country. In this documentary you can see children already being trained to be killers. Now imagine what The U.S would look like with a president this passionate for his people, for justice, for our country.
Was discussing this in another thread but many of the tactics to combat gangs in the US violated civil rights. From what I’m hearing is that a lot of that has been going on during El Salvador’s state of emergency with arbitrary and long detentions of anyone even with a suspicion of being in a gang. https://www.latimes.com/world-natio...-group-leaked-el-salvador-data-confirm-abuses
Most of the criticism i've heard about El Salvador/Bukele comes from the American democracy perspective. The humanitarian rights of many must be sacrificed for the legal rights of a few. Which seems odd considering americans love their comicbook super hero vigilantes. I hope El Salvador can maintain this path and build a much better nation and free themselves not just from their domestic issues but global pressures as well.
Interesting topic. I was at the aiport there a couple of months ago and it was really nice. I think it had breast-feeding privacy pods, and my Quebecois partner was not a fan of that, lol. I'm reading that Bukele is imprisoning 1% of the population. @Salvy, do you know of anyone who thinks he has gone too far with his power and mass arrests or is everyone pretty much happy that he got rid of the gang violence? I think his approval rating is in the 80's. Are people worried at all that he can become a dictator? I think he's joked about that too, or is every cool now because the gangs were so bad?
What is creepy is that a former Venezuelan President gave almost this exact same speech roughly 20 years ago.
