El Salvador Perspectives

Saturday, March 26, was one of the bloodiest days in recent memory in El Salvador.   62 homicides were reported just that day, a total never before seen for a single day in this violent country of 6.3 million people.  This came on top of 14 murders the day before.  There were murders committed in 12 of El Salvador's 14 departments.  In contrast, during the entire month of February, there were only 79 murders.  Since 2020, El Salvador had been averaging fewer than 4 homicides per day. There was one message from the weekend's violence:  El Salvador's street gangs maintain the capacity and the numbers to wreak havoc across the country when it suits them.  The relative calm of the past few years meant that the gangs had decided that homicides were not in their interest, whether that decision was the result of negotiating with the government or otherwise, and the relative calm was not the result of Nayib Bukele's militarized "Territorial Control Plan...

Thursday March 24 is the 42nd anniversary of the murder of Saint Oscar Romero.   The archbishop of San Salvador was slain by a single sniper's bullet while saying mass as a consequence of defending the poor and powerless against the oligarchy in El Salvador and its military enforcers.  Romero was declared a martyr and a saint of the Roman Catholic church in a canonization ceremony in 2018.    It seems to me that since the date of Romero's canonization, the memory of his importance and his message, which formerly echoed in every corner of the country, has started to fade.  Political and civic leaders rarely mention his name.  In the churches, he is beloved, but his memory does not call to action the way it once did.   If you have not spent much time with Romero, here are some great resources in English to gain a deeper appreciation for his life and what he meant for the people of El Salvador. Monseñor Romero: Memories in Mosaic   by ...

Since beginning his campaign to be president of El Salvador, one of the signature proposals of Nayib Bukele has been a plan to build an international airport in the eastern department of La Union.   Here he is in the video of his campaign presentation of Plan Cuscatlan in the weeks before the 2019 election. The website of El Salvador's Port Authority ("CEPA" for its initials in Spanish) describes the objective of the airport project:  The Government of El Salvador seeks to convert the eastern zone into a pole of economic development, encourage the growing demand for passengers abroad, develop international tourism and activate the Port of La Unión. The Bukele government is now saying that construction of the airport will begin this year.  Cristian Flores, the chief of strategic projects for the government, says that the government received a feasibility study estimating the airport will generate 4700 jobs in its first year and 50,000 jobs by the end of 10 years....

I wrote the following post four years ago for the 36th anniversary of the massacre of four Dutch journalists ambushed by the Salvadoran military while they were covering the civil war.  Since that date there has been no progress in prosecuting those responsible, although there is no legal impediment to doing so.   Yesterday in San Salvador, the Dutch ambassador, family of the dead journalists and a representative of the European Union all expressed their deep concern over the ongoing impunity in this case.  Seeking justice for 1982 murder of Dutch journalists March 14, 2018 In early 1982, El Salvador was a dangerous place for journalists covering the civil war between FMLN guerrillas and the country's armed forces.   Despite the danger, four Dutch journalists, Koos Koster, Jan Kuiper, Joop Willemse and Hans ter Laag, ventured out to the Department of Chalatenango to get an interview with guerrilla fighters.   The Salvadoran army ambushed their gr...

As we reach the second anniversary of the pandemic impact of COVID-19 in El Salvador, the Salvadoran public continues to wholeheartedly approve of the handling of pandemic by Nayib Bukele's government.   That approval is driven both by concrete actions such as the early acquisition of vaccines, consistent public health messages, and hospital improvements, as well as by the sophisticated government public relations machinery telling the public how well the pandemic was being handled.            Verifying those claims with actual data is much more difficult, however.  The Ministry of Health has declared as confidential , and not subject to disclosure under the public information law, a wide variety of data regarding the pandemic and the government's response. What we know -- the official COVID 19 case count The official count of confirmed cases  of COVID-19 in El Salvador as of February 27, 2022 is 156,364. What we don't know -- the ...

In El Salvador, the economy and household finances have become the number one worry of Salvadoran families, outpacing crime and insecurity.  Today we take a look at the macroeconomic picture of the country. Inflation Public opinion polling in January showed that the vast majority of Salvadorans were concerned with inflation, with 93% believing the cost of basic foodstuffs had risen, and 78% believing that the overall cost of life had risen some or a lot. Inflation in El Salvador parallels inflation in the US.  The  Consumer Price Index  in El Salvador increased 6.1% in 2021, similar to the US rate of 7.0% .  The rise in prices affects the everyday consumption of all Salvadorans.   For example, according to this January article in La Prensa Grafica, the price of pupusas has increased by ten cents from vendors in the center of San Salvador due to increasing price of cheese.   RevistaFactum explained that cheese prices were rising for a variet...

Today began the initial hearing in criminal proceedings against more than a dozen defendants in the case of the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her daughter.  It represents the furthest step forward in the prosecution of this "crime against humanity" in a criminal court in El Salvador. The basic outlines of the case are well known to readers of this blog.   In November 1989, during the "final offensive" of the FMLN which brought fierce fighting into San Salvador, the military high command gave the order that Jesuit priest and rector of the University of Central America Ignacio Ellacuria and his fellow Jesuits should be assassinated and no witnesses left to the event. The operation would be carried out by the Atlacatl Battalion of the Salvadoran army on November 16, 1989.    An assistant prosecutor told the media today that: Defendants are accused "for the murder of the Jesuit priests," procedural fraud, cover-up, acts of terroris...

Let me start out by saying that tourists should come to El Salvador.  The countryside from its miles of beaches to its mountains and volcanos is filled with beautiful vistas.  The food is varied and delicious.  The people are warm and friendly. The former headlines about El Salvador's homicide rate do not (and never did) reflect the level of danger to tourists, who have never been a target of the gangs. The government of El Salvador recognizes the importance of tourism and has been heavily promoting it.   Most prominent is its " Surf City " campaign promoting kilometers of Pacific coastline where the waves are championship size and the sunsets are stunning.   An article in Travel + Leisure wrote about How El Salvador Became a World-class Destination for Surfers : The small towns surrounding the beaches in La Libertad have seen significant investment in recent years, mostly in relation to its surf scene. A number of mid-range to luxury hotels have poppe...