tarheelbillie
Exceptional Member
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That was before their messiah arrived and told them the “truth”.
Latin America Politics General Thread
- Thread starter CRHeel94
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- Politics
CRHeel94
Esteemed Member
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State Department upgrades travel advisory for El Salvador
www.msnbc.com
Lost in all this, I actually like El Salvador. People are very warm and inviting. Love myself some pupusas (the local dish, tortilla dough filled with beans, cheese or chicharron among other things...now found in many US cities). I've been traveling there for the last 30 years; one of my jobs took me to the most dangerous neighborhoods...the rough places in the US are child's play compared to those. Safety was a disaster for decades with one of the highest homicide rates around. Truth be told, Bukele has really cleaned it up and it feels very different. Last couple of years I felt normal walking around in San Salvador.
That safety has come with rather draconian measures (its estimated that about 5% of persons imprisoned under their martial law are innocent) and there is little due process. Bukele wiped his ass with their constitution, which prevented consecutive terms for presidents. He has a singular hold on power that is more similar to Venezuela and Nicaragua than to the democracies of the region.
State Dept. gives El Salvador a massive upgrade as it disappears U.S. immigrants
The Trump administration lowered a travel advisory for El Salvador, as its leader holds hundreds of U.S. immigrants in a brutal prison.
www.msnbc.com
Lost in all this, I actually like El Salvador. People are very warm and inviting. Love myself some pupusas (the local dish, tortilla dough filled with beans, cheese or chicharron among other things...now found in many US cities). I've been traveling there for the last 30 years; one of my jobs took me to the most dangerous neighborhoods...the rough places in the US are child's play compared to those. Safety was a disaster for decades with one of the highest homicide rates around. Truth be told, Bukele has really cleaned it up and it feels very different. Last couple of years I felt normal walking around in San Salvador.
That safety has come with rather draconian measures (its estimated that about 5% of persons imprisoned under their martial law are innocent) and there is little due process. Bukele wiped his ass with their constitution, which prevented consecutive terms for presidents. He has a singular hold on power that is more similar to Venezuela and Nicaragua than to the democracies of the region.
donbosco
Inconceivable Member
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Been a while since I've been to El Salvador. I drove there back during the civil wars -- it was a roundly stupid thing to do but welp...there you go. Spent some time on the side of the road with my car being searched by soldiers (the only thing they confiscated was a box of Tijuana Fats' matches and a copy of Steppenwolf). Spent a couple of wild days in San Salvador which at the time was only barely functioning -- street signs were largely missing and stop lights were sometimes working, sometimes not. But there was beer.
August is big time holiday month there and in the old days Salvadorans would vacation in Guatemala during those weeks. Just get rowdy and tear shit up pretty often. A couple of times I was hired by Guatemalan friends that owned bars just to be a white guy behind the bar in hopes that would help keep the insanity down (they believed that would make a difference -- maybe it did).
August is big time holiday month there and in the old days Salvadorans would vacation in Guatemala during those weeks. Just get rowdy and tear shit up pretty often. A couple of times I was hired by Guatemalan friends that owned bars just to be a white guy behind the bar in hopes that would help keep the insanity down (they believed that would make a difference -- maybe it did).