How are the people of El Salvador less free now? They can walk around without being robbed, mutilated and/tortured and murdered. Is that not more free than before?
Discussion
Well to start, many were arrested and not charged. Others have died in prison without trial, others have hadoney seized. They have lost due process protections, and also honest courts and had an election that legally shouldn't have happened.
This however, is in addition to the report of journalists being arrested as this note was about.
These are good points, I am clearly not in favor of Journalists beeing arrested my point only was made for the consolidating power part and I think once the trash is cleaned out gun laws could be eased again step by step but also should be paired with the right education
Also, The government has cracked down even more on guns. You do not have the right to shoot the robbing gang member or protect your property. Between money, this and the previous theft and corruption issues, I would argue the government is why the gangs flourished. Now acting like the savior is quite the feat.
I'm not going to pretend that bukele is perfect, I'm not a fan of politicians overall, but I ask again; are the people now more, or less, free than when Bukele took power?
Less.
So, while they're now free to go about their business without being murdered, they're free to work without being extorted with the potential for their hands to be cut off if they don't pay, while they're free to leave their homes and no longer be in fear of their lives, they're also now somehow less free?
Freedom comes from physical security. A person who can protect themselves can be free to do as they will. If they have no physical security, they have no freedom.
I'm not a fan of politics, in general. I would, however, say that the people of El Salvador now have physical security and I don't see how anyone could deny their greater freedom now than before.
None of those other things are state sponsored. If the state allowed guns and self defense, they wouldn't have become an issue in the first place. If the state hadn't created a vacuum that the gangs filled via shitty economic, monetary and corrupt policies, they wouldn't have been an issue.
The ends do not justify the means. Ever.
Right, but those things were a problem. And that problem has been solved. Yet it seems you'd like argue the people are less free now. A weak, corrupt state lead to the position where it was one of the top murder capitals of the world.
Ideologically, I'm much more aligned with Milei in Argentina, but they face a different problem to El Salvador. I love the way Milei slashed the state. But if the state, or 'authority' in any form must exist, surely it's one arguable role is to ensure the relative security of its inhabitants?
Solved?? Sure thing. GDP is flat, guns still aren't allowed, dictator illegal was elected again after packing the courts, and crime is absolutely still a thing.
Now Bitcoin isn't tender anymore, he has taken an IMF bailout, and is happy to jail other countries citizens for Trump.
Add to that now journalists being arrested?
Pass. I cancelled my trip this year, and won't be going until he is gone and a new president can prove better.
It's also amusing:
State causes problems
State fixes problems by taking away rights and due process
State claims victory
Amazing.
A distinction is worth drawing, I think, between implementations of the state. The previous drove corruption to such levels that violence became extreme. The current implementation has reversed that, by removing the perpetrators. My concern isn't that someone came to power capable and willing to ensure a reversal of the state of total social destruction, my concern is simply, when the time comes, will Bukele step aside, or will he become a problem in his own right. I don't think he is yet.
I can agree with this.
But remember, he already didn't step aside.....so there is that.