Roberto Lovato on Bukele's Visit to Washington and US-El Salvador Relations

Historical Context of US-El Salvador Relations

• 🇸🇻 El Salvador has a long history of military dictatorships, with a significant indigenous and communist insurrection in 1932 leading to widespread government violence.
• 🇺🇸 The US provided billions in military aid to El Salvador's government in the 1980s, supporting a repressive regime.
• 🕊️ The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) waged a war to dismantle the military dictatorship, but its analog-age political structures were not updated for the digital era.

The Rise of Gangs and Criminalization

• 🔗 MS-13 and 18th Street gangs originated in US prisons and were later deported to El Salvador, strengthening their structures.
• 🗣️ The US government, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, has escalated the use of gangs to legitimize policing and criminalization, labeling them as terrorists.
• ⚖️ This criminalization disproportionately targets Latino and Black young men, with gang databases being used at the federal level.

Nayib Bukele's Technofascism

• 💻 Bukele, a wealthy and technologically sophisticated figure, emerged with a "New Ideas" party, blending oppositional discourse with fascist militaristic practices.
• 🌐 He benefits from Venezuelan digital consultants and employs a "digital dictatorship" model, using surveillance technology and political theater.
• 💰 Bukele's administration has engaged in crypto scams and built notorious prisons, using them as tools of control and political spectacle.

The Franchise of Terrorization

• 🚨 The "franchise of criminalization and terrorization" is expanding, starting with gangs and extending to immigrants, journalists, activists, and potentially citizens.
• 📢 Bukele's rhetoric, such as liberating millions by imprisoning thousands, and Trump's openness to sending US citizens to El Salvador's prisons, exemplifies this trend.
• 🌍 This phenomenon reflects a unification of the global right, necessitating a unification of the global left.

The Need for Radical Social Movements

• ✊ The current liberal progressive approach is insufficient to combat technofascism; a more radical, left-leaning approach is needed.
• 💡 Social movements must reconstitute themselves, reconnecting with their radical imagination and core principles to drive real social change.
• 🌎 There is hope in global movements, inspired by historical revolutionary traditions and enabled by unprecedented interconnectedness, as seen in movements against injustice.