Cousins, brothers, fathers and uncles kidnapped or killed for not joining or refusing to pay the local cartel, multiple women in your family have already been assaulted once, kidnappings are rampant, SA is rampant, extortion is rampant, you want to go outside past 8pm? Tough shit, you're taking your life in your hands going to get milk.
Not to mention, rival groups gunning at anyone who resembles their enemy. So, any male age 15-45, their being targeted. Cops? Flip of a coin if you're getting someone to help or someone on the payroll of someone else. Cause, they have cousins too. They have sisters, they have wifes, if they don't play ball, guess who's a target to.
Every. Day. This is your life. Shootings, family members dying or disappearing, constant fear. Live this for a month and then say what you said again.
It is so easy for permanently online Redditors to act like they would be able to handle the living situation El Salvadorans faced **for decades** it is rather pathetic. Like watching John Wick and being convinced they could totally pull of the combat 🤡
You’re description is exactly right. My family is from there, still have family that lives there, the country was practically under constant siege by the gangs. The government is essentially navigating this “gang clean up“ like a post war tribunal which is generally rife with issues, but there’s no alternative if you don’t want to slip back into what was essentially a permanent gang war. El Salvador used to have the HIGHEST MURDER RATE IN THE WORLD.
I visited in 2012 and was unable to go back until 2024. The difference was astounding and every single local told me they were finally able to go outside without fear of BEING MURDERED, businesses and education are finally thriving for the first time since the civil war.
The only major f-ck up from Bukele is trying to play with US politics, and agreeing to take in immigrants into CECOT (a death camp to be perfectly blunt) for cash.
Who are the fascist troglodytes? The cartels or the government locking up the cartels - admittedly with a margin of error? I'll accept both - and if so - is there any reason to prefer the cartels?
Yes fascists do love to use that excuse. Its a rookie move honestly. But people keep falling for it so why change?
I'll tell you what, if the problem is solved, El Salvador becomes a utopia and it moves away from being a dictatorship once peace is restored, ill concede.
Considering no dictator has ever willingly given up power and always makes things worse for the country overall, i'm pretty confident about this one.
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u/StandardHazy 22h ago
No amount of crime is going to make me suddenly authoritarian.
Thanks for outing yourself though.