El Salvador Perspectives

  In countries like El Salvador, where values of an  authoritarian culture still prevail, these campaigns  that praise the virtues of the military,  making them look like heroes and saviors  capable of solving the problems that civilians cannot solve, further foster an authoritarian culture. -- Jeannette Aguilar Sunday, September 15, was Independence Day in El Salvador.   On Sunday, school students filled streets across the country marching in civic parades, the national anthem was sung, and San Salvador saw the large annual parade which during Nayib Bukele’s presidency has been a celebration of the police and military security forces. On Sunday night, the president gave his Independence Day discourse to the nation in the form of an address to the 18,000 soldiers on the military parade grounds before him.   All the imagery of the broadcast speech revolved around the Salvadoran military and police and their president, their Commander Gen...

The history of El Salvador's military during the 20th century was filled with violations of democratic rule and basic human rights.   Decades of military dictatorship began in 1932 with General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez , who ordered " La Matanza ", the massacre of 10,000-20,000 mostly indigenous campesinos after a peasant-led uprising.   There would follow 47 years of governments imposed by the military and sham elections. During El Salvador's civil war from 1980-1992, the military would be responsible for massacres killing tens of thousands of civilians. The largest single massacre in Latin American history, the the massacre at El Mozote and surrounding communities, left a thousand dead, including more than 400 under the age of 12.   In 1989, a military squad would invade the campus of the University of Central America and kill 6 Jesuit priests, a female employee and her daughter.   At memorial wall to civilian victims of civil war Thr...

In a speech to the nation on the evening of El Salvador's Independence Day, September 15, president Nayib Bukele announced that he will run for re-election in 2024.  Bukele asserted that he has been the first leader, acting at the will of the people, to achieve “true independence” in the 201 years since El Salvador came out from under the Spanish crown.  It seemed that the whole of the day's celebrations had been designed as a lead up to announcement of his candidacy. The day began with a military parade in San Salvador.  The Bukele government put the strong arm of the state on display in the parade filled with all the units of the military and police security forces.  It took more than two hours for all the marching troops to pass by. Marching past statues of the Divine Savior of the World and Saint Oscar Romero, were thousands of troops, most carrying automatic weapons.  There were flyovers by military helicopters, jets, and drones, passing repeatedly over th...

Today is the anniversary of what has come to be known in El Salvador as simply "9F."    On this day one year ago, Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele, summoned his supporters to the outside of the Legislative Assembly building in a dispute with his opponents in the congress over a loan approval. Police and military were deployed throughout the capital city.  Then Bukele marched into the chambers of the legislature accompanied by heavily armed soldiers and took the seat belonging to the president of the Legislative Assembly. Photo from ElSalvdor.com / EDH Critics of Bukele see this event as a prime indicator of authoritarian tendencies in the popular president.  On display was his willingness to disregard constitutional norms and the separation of powers.   Also evident were armed forces and national police who understood their loyalties as running directly to the president. As the events of that day unfolded, I wrote these two posts: Nayib Bukele's power play...

Sunday, September 15, was Independence Day in El Salvador.   In cities and towns across the country, bands marched, school children recited the meaning of national symbols, flags waved, folk dancers in colorful dresses performed, and baton twirlers twirled. Here are some photos from the celebration in the town of Tonacatepeque. In the capital city of San Salvador, there was a grand military parade, presided over by Nayib Bukele.  This final photo of troops carrying out a mock "anti-terrorist" operation was the subject of many critics on social media who objected to a display of tactics frequently abused by the military, and at a time when many are protesting the growing militarization of public security in the country.  The scene also hearkened back to images of government repression during conflict years of the 70s and 80s.  Military displays on Independence Day are nothing new in El Salvador.  Troops with armored vehicles, ...

May 7th in El Salvador was the Day of the Soldier, a national day for honoring the country's armed forces.   The day is marked with military spectacle and speeches from the president and military leaders.   The armed forces released a  video  for the day: So it is appropriate to take a short look at the role the armed forces play in El Salvador today. With a population of approximately 6.5 million people, and land area the size of the US state of Massachusetts, El Salvador has a military with approximately 20,400 members . The budget for the Ministry of Defense during 2018 was approximately $175 million.   The military has three branches -- army, navy and air force. The Salvadoran air force currently has 50 personnel in a helicopter unit deployed with a United Nations mission in Mali .  El Salvador has had troops deployed as part of this African mission since 2015.   Between 2004 and 2008 under president ...

There was progress against impunity in El Salvador this week as a court handed down sentences against soldiers involved in "disappearing" three youth in the town of Armenia, El Salvador. The events in the case took place in February 2014 and arose from the military's role in patrolling El Salvador in support of the police in battling the country's gangs.  A group of youth were talking in front of their houses in the municipality of Armenia. Six or seven soldiers on patrol approached the group and at gunpoint forced five of the boys to accompany the soldiers.  They were taken from a zone controlled by the Barrio 18 gang to a zone controlled by MS-13.   Two of the youth were released, and they went off to wait for their three remaining friends.  Their friends never appeared, and to this date have never been seen again. Parents of the youth, including one father who was a member of the police, immediately began questioning the military, petitioning the police,...

It used to be that a mention of United Nations peacekeepers in conjunction with El Salvador was a reference to the UN Observers Mission (ONUSAL) which was on the ground in El Salvador in the first few years after El Salvador's civil war ended in 1992.   Today, however, El Salvador is sending out peacekeepers of its own to different parts of the globe.  It happens without much notice, but for three years El Salvador has been sending military units to participate in UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa. Location of Mali From Dialogo, the Digital Military Magazine  this week: United Nations (UN) delegates screened the equipment and flight technology the Salvadoran Air Force’s (FAS, in Spanish) Gavilán I Air Contingent will use as it joins the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA, in French) in September 2018....  The Gavilán I contingent will consist of pilots and specialists in communication, maintenance, and w...