Thanks to U.S. intransigence, a Salvadoran crisis repeats itself [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Felipe De La Hoz, June 11
History Unheeded

THE PRESIDENT OF EL SALVADOR arrives at the Legislative Assembly for a special session on heavy-handed anti-crime measures he’s proposing. Only he doesn’t arrive alone: along with the standard entourage of presidential advisers and staff, he’s accompanied by police officers and a retinue of soldiers in military fatigues carrying what appear to be U.S.-made M16 rifles in a clear display of force.

Opposition figures describe the situation as an “attempted coup,” and the United Nations calls for dialogue. A few Latin American national governments condemn the move, joined by a smattering of U.S. lawmakers. The U.S. ambassador tepidly writes that he “didn’t approve” of the soldiers’ presence, but otherwise there are crickets from the State Department. Less than two months later, in a statement on foreign assistance for Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the secretary of state writes that the United States will fund “support programs to continue our joint efforts to deter illegal immigration to the United States” and “complement existing security plans.”

When does this scene take place? Absent knowledge of the specific events, a reasonably well-informed observer might pin it sometime in the 1970s, leading up to the 1979 coup that overthrew Carlos Humberto Romero, or perhaps the latter half of the 1980s, after elections were again allowed by the military junta. In actuality, these events all transpired this year. The Salvadoran president in question is current President Nayib Bukele, who marched troops into the assembly in February, as part of a broader turn toward despotism.

Bukele appears to relish over-the-top displays of state power and aggression. In April, rights groups recoiled at horrific photos of imprisoned men handcuffed together in long lines, their medical masks a darkly absurd detail as they were sandwiched against each other during the worst pandemic in a hundred years. A couple of days later, additional photos showed workers hunched over sheets of metal, sparks flying as they were cut to be placed over cell doors.

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