El Salvador Perspectives

These were my top 10 tweets of 2021 by number of retweets. They are presented here in chronological order.  Not surprisingly, they are dominated by news created by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.   Jan 31 -- relating to an armed attack on members of FMLN leaving a rally. Nayib Bukele, in an awful tweet when no details are yet available said "it appears that the moribund parties have put in motion their ultimate plan. What desperation to not lose their privileges and corruption. I thought they could not fall lower, but they fell." https://t.co/rsQilUPEvT — Tim Muth (@TimMuth) February 1, 2021 Feb 11 -- after AP reported Bukele had been snubbed asking for a meeting with Biden administration. Bukele tells the diplomatic corps that the international press lies. https://t.co/DMUmnRczcd — Tim Muth (@TimMuth) February 11, 2021 May 7 -- financial market reaction to May 1 impeachment of judges and attorney general. Here is graph if you include the earlier dates for t...

The man who was formerly El Salvador's lead anti-corruption prosecutor has told Reuters his team had proof that officials in the Bukele government had negotiated with gang leaders in prison to lower the homicide rate and to guarantee support for the president's political party, Nuevas Ideas, in the February 2021 elections.  But the investigation was quashed after Nuevas Ideas took control of El Salvador's congress.    From the Reuters story  by Sarah Kinosian today: German Arriaza, who headed an anti-corruption unit within the attorney general's office, said his team compiled documentary and photographic evidence that Bukele's government struck a deal with the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs in 2019 to reduce murder rates and help the ruling New Ideas party win legislative elections in February. Arriaza's comments mark the first time a former Salvadoran official has publicly accused the Bukele government of making a deal with the gangs, which have p...

The flow of humanity from El Salvador across the US southern border persists at some of the highest levels seen in the past ten years. An average of 270 Salvadorans were detained at the US border each day during the 12 months from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. This was the highest total in the past 10 years as shown in the following chart taken from US Border Patrol statistics . The majority (almost 57,000) were expelled immediately under Title 42, the supposed public health measure that lets the US expel without a hearing anyone who crosses the border without documents. Those trying to enter the US would join the 1,412,000 Salvadoran-born immigrants already living in the US as of 2019.   An estimated 750,000 of them lack a documented legal immigration status.  There are currently 194,134 Salvadorans with  pending deportation cases  in US immigration courts.  The almost 195,000 Salvadorans living in the US with Temporary Protected Status ("T...

  One Christmas Eve, St. Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, visited the poverty-stricken community of La Bernal to celebrate with its inhabitants: After the Mass and the First Communions, we fixed up two tables really nice. They were kind of long tables with white tablecloths that hung down to the floor. The children who had received their first communion sat at one table, with Monseñor at the head. The rest of the community sat at the other table. Tamales had been made. "Two apiece!" said the women who were handing them out. There was one regular tamal and one sweet one for everyone. Suddenly a little boy appeared out of nowhere. He was a tiny little kid, about four years old. Light haired and covered with dirt. Barefoot, and with a nose full of snot. He came up to Monseñor Romero from behind and pulled on his cassock with his grubby fingers. "You want some?" Monseñor asked him. The little boy nodded his head a few times. Yes. This kid was filthy with dirt a...

For fifteen years , environmental activists and water defenders have been calling for a comprehensive national water law in El Salvador which would protect the scarce liquid resource from over-exploitation and pollution.   Last night El Salvador's Legislative Assembly, dominated by the president's Nuevas Ideas party, passed a broad Hydro Resources Law , but water activists are denouncing that measure. In June, president Nayib Bukele announced he was sending a water law proposal to the Legislative Assembly for review and adoption.   The Assembly created an ad hoc commission to study the law, which met with a broad variety of interest groups, although water advocates insist that their points of view were not taken into account. Water advocates are claiming that the newly passed law favors mega-users of water and economic interests and does not have a focus on water as a human right.  Local boards which operate community water systems across the country are not g...

This article originally appeared on December 9, 2021 on the website of InsightCrime under the title  US Blacklists El Salvador Officials, Bolstering Accusations of Gang Pacts By Seth Robbins In what appears to be a shot at El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s administration, the United States has imposed sanctions on two officials with close ties to the president, accusing them of corruption and having secretly negotiated with the country’s deadly street gangs. Osiris Luna, El Salvador’s vice minister of security and head of prisons, and Carlos Marroquín, the head of the government’s Social Fabric Reconstruction Unit (Unidad de Reconstrucción del Tejido Social), are accused of engaging incarcerated gang leaders in talks to lower killings in exchange for privileges, such as access to cell phones and prostitutes, according to a December 8 Treasury Department statement . Luna and Marroquín also allegedly negotiated with gang leadership to provide political support to Bukele’s party, N...

Eighth in a series Forty years ago today. We remember the victims of the El Mozote massacre, killed on December 11, 1981 and the days following.  The list of victims shows that this act involved the brutal executions of civillians who were primarily children and women.   El Salvador's government has compiled the first official register of the victims who died in that massacre. Most were children. Of 988 victims executed, 553 or 57% were under 18 years of age and 477 were 12 and under. Twelve infants died in their mothers wombs: They should never be forgotten. The following partial list of the names of the victims was initially compiled by Tutela Legal, and updated by Mark Danner, author of The Massacre at El Mozote, records the ages and professions of 767 people who were murdered by the U.S.-trained Atlacatl Battalion in El Mozote and surrounding communities.  ( Source ). EL MOZOTE 1. DOMINGO CLAROS, 29, wood cutter 2. CRISTINO AMAYA CLAROS, 9, son of Domingo Claro...