tarheelbillie
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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).
donbosco
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"Guatemala City (EFE).- Guatemala’s Public Prosecutor’s Office arrested on Wednesday the Deputy Minister for Sustainable Development Luis Pacheco on charges of “terrorism.”
Pacheco was a leader of the Indigenous organization of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán, and back in 2023, led protests against the Attorney General, María Consuelo Porras, for her attempts to overturn the results of the general elections that gave a victory to President Bernardo Arévalo de León.
The deputy minister was arrested early on Wednesday’s in a raid on his home in Guatemala City by the Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime and handed over to the judicial authorities, according to the National Civil Police (PNC)."
Prosecutors arrest deputy minister who defended President's election in Guatemala - EFE
Guatemala's Attorney General María Consuelo Porras is behind this move...she is a throwback to the time of corruption that preceded the upset election in 2024 of Bernardo Arévalo, himself an outsider to the kleptocracy that typically rules the country. This Wikipedia Entry on Porras is short but gives a good sense of who she is: María Consuelo Porras - Wikipedia (The Links In The References Check Out). In short, the office of Public Prosecutor is an appointed office that can only be vacated by resignation prior to the conclusion of a term of four years. In the case of Porras the previous president (Alejandro Giammattei) appointed her in his last days in office meaning that she can hold the position until 2026. She is a major anti-democracy force in the nation and a thorn in the side of President Arévalo.
Porras was the Organized Crime and Reporting Project's 2023 Person of The year: María Consuelo Porras
Pacheco was a leader of the Indigenous organization of the 48 cantons of Totonicapán, and back in 2023, led protests against the Attorney General, María Consuelo Porras, for her attempts to overturn the results of the general elections that gave a victory to President Bernardo Arévalo de León.
The deputy minister was arrested early on Wednesday’s in a raid on his home in Guatemala City by the Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime and handed over to the judicial authorities, according to the National Civil Police (PNC)."
Prosecutors arrest deputy minister who defended President's election in Guatemala - EFE
Guatemala's Attorney General María Consuelo Porras is behind this move...she is a throwback to the time of corruption that preceded the upset election in 2024 of Bernardo Arévalo, himself an outsider to the kleptocracy that typically rules the country. This Wikipedia Entry on Porras is short but gives a good sense of who she is: María Consuelo Porras - Wikipedia (The Links In The References Check Out). In short, the office of Public Prosecutor is an appointed office that can only be vacated by resignation prior to the conclusion of a term of four years. In the case of Porras the previous president (Alejandro Giammattei) appointed her in his last days in office meaning that she can hold the position until 2026. She is a major anti-democracy force in the nation and a thorn in the side of President Arévalo.
Porras was the Organized Crime and Reporting Project's 2023 Person of The year: María Consuelo Porras
donbosco
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𝙟𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙯𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙖
@jczamora
>> On World Press Freedom Day, we stand in solidarity with journalists who risk everything to tell the truth. My father, #JoseRubénZamora, who has been held hostage in Guatemala for over 1,000 days by the criminal network entrenched in the
@MPguatemala under #ConsueloPorras and her complicit judges within
@OJGuatemala is one of them. Journalism is not a crime. Today would be a good day to free him. #WPFD #PressFreedom #FreeZamora c.
@BArevalodeLeon