Notes on El Salvador
mattlakeman.org
Notes on El Salvador
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Re: Notes on El Salvador
#2The article does present a very objective evaluation of Bukele as a person, and statesman.
One has to deeply wonder about Political Theory after reading stories like this.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#3I really like how the author enumerates and links to his most important sources right in the introduction.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#4I backpacked through El Salvador in 2007. I don’t remember people saying it was particularly dangerous.
Honduras was the place I was told to skip, unless you wanted to scuba in Roatan
There were other backpackers in the hostels.
Even Colombia at that time was fine.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#5> Rather, the best case against Bukele is that he has created severe systemic political risk in El Salvador by converting the government from a democracy to a de facto dictatorship
then hes in a good place to introduce some kind of monarchy, or personal transfer of power, someday. people want him to be dictator for life and he seems to be loved enough to receive it. democracy doesn't deal with gangs well enough to make a country like this functional. hes a wise person whose made good investments for his country.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#6> As with everywhere else in the developing world, there are also a bunch of cheap Chinese imports […]
Note: the images below this text actually show Korean writing, not Chinese.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#7I backpacked through El Salvador in 2007. I don’t remember people saying it was particularly dangerous. Honduras was the place I was told to skip, unless you wanted to scuba in Roatan There were other backpackers in the hostels. Even Colombia at that time was fine.
They all still are fine. I drove the entire pan American highway from Alaska to Argentina from 2009 to 2011. I have dozens of Friends that have done it, and I moderate a Facebook group where thousands are doing it right now.
As the marketing for tourism Colombia goes “the only danger is you’ll never want to leave”
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#8> Rather, the best case against Bukele is that he has created severe systemic political risk in El Salvador by converting the government from a democracy to a de facto dictatorship then hes in a good place to introduce some kind of monarchy, or personal transfer of power, someday. people want him to be dictator for life and he seems to be loved enough to receive it. democracy doesn't deal with gangs well enough to ma…
As a cynical idealist, I once tried to find 1 country of decent size that could escape the poverty/mis-governance trap while being a democracy.
I found zero success stories.
Every 20th century economic success story was a defacto autocratic nation. They only transitioned to democracy after they'd reached a certain level of development. (I excluded preexisting high HDI nations and ones that accidentally hit mineral gold)
It's similar to how commitees have never built successful startups. At the early phases, you need a decisive and singular leader.
I continue to be on team democracy for poor nations. But I'm well aware that data is not on my side.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#9Gang crime seem to be a common weakness of democracies. There's a notable list of countries that had to resort to elect a quasi-dictator to get rid of gangs. As my hometown is coming to grip with a bubbling gang war, I wonder if there is a better way.
Re: Notes on El Salvador
#10I backpacked through El Salvador in 2007. I don’t remember people saying it was particularly dangerous. Honduras was the place I was told to skip, unless you wanted to scuba in Roatan There were other backpackers in the hostels. Even Colombia at that time was fine.
They all still are fine. I drove the entire pan American highway from Alaska to Argentina from 2009 to 2011. I have dozens of Friends that have done it, and I moderate a Facebook group where thousands are doing it right now. As the marketing for tourism Colombia goes “the only danger is you’ll never want to leave”
This is absolutely not my experience or the experience of many people I know that have traveled in the region. Latin America is great but the safety concerns are real.