So Mr. Bitcoin President of El Salvador has deployed a massive wave of incarcerating violent gang members to combat endemic violence in the country, but also at the cost of civil liberties and also not addressing the root causes of the gang violence in the first place.
Of course, El Salvador has been among the most violent countries in the world in terms of murder rates and violent crimes so something had to be done, but I'm not convinced that this crackdown will do anything but kick the can down the road.
Thoughts? Also, apologies for the Guardian link it was the first summary to come up when I searched it :ohnoes:
As someone who lives on the border of El Salvador, it's a very mixed bag. MS-13 has been an issue for as long as I can remember. I've had childhood friends join up with them and I was even involved as a teenager beating the shit out of some of their targets for intimidation. The people of El Salvador aren't all RAH RAH with IMF policies. Just imagine if you knew friends and family that were killed by gangs, if you had a gun pressed against your head on more than one occasion, if you had sisters or friends who were raped out in the open and nobody could stop it from fear of retaliation.
That's the reality for a lot of people out there, among many things. They see no end in sight as their valuables get stolen or family members killed. So they turn to the solution that seems to stop it quickly. El Salvador has done some things to address the economic issues but not enough. Will this crackdown work? It's a toss up. Nicaragua had a crackdown and it seemed to work, but El Salvador isn't run nearly as competently.
Its like taking asprin for cancer.
Sure if you have cancer, a couple asprin for pain might help, but it's not treating it.
Reversed, you might still need some asprin even if you're treating the cancer.
But at the end of the day
Yeah, some people should be given the wall for non-political reasons. This site will sometimes over-correct to violent justice for the Capitalists but baby gloves for everyone else. Some people are just as cruel as the Capitalist, but with a non state-approved method of building and expressing power. I wouldn't feel good with living next to basically ex-bandits if they were "rehabilitated". Same with a cop with a long rap sheet of abuses. What is the difference between a cop enforcing state violence for a pittance pay, and a gang member enforcing gang violence for a pittance pay.
What economic measures has Bukele undertaken outside of the bitcoin stuff? I know he’s more confrontational re: US and IMF, but does that language translate into policy?
He did some stuff during Covid that I can't remember off the top of my head, but it was more than we did in Guatemala by far. There were some small improvements on social security if I'm remembering correctly. Unfortunately, his spat with the US is more about his ego than anything else. He's a populist that initially started out with a left-wing party before they kicked him out for being a neolib. The economic measures were small and were almost completely abandoned after he went on his Bitcoin crusade.
:seen-this-one:
But for real, that checks out. Thanks for giving background