Bitcoin is not the biggest problem in El Salvador right now \u2014 it’s Bukele using the gangs to go as full dictator as he thinks he can get away with.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin continues to be a problem as well, of course.<\/p>\n
On Sunday 27 March, President Nayib Bukele demanded that the Legislative Assembly declare a thirty-day state of emergency over gang violence that led to 62 murders on Saturday 26 March.<\/p>\n
Constitutional rights that were suspended include freedom of gathering and association, the right to legal defence, and the inviolability of correspondence and telecommunications. Suspects can be held for 15 days, up from 72 hours. [La Prensa Latina<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n This is being enforced in Bukele\u2019s standard style: flashy action for the cameras, and not so much attention to details.<\/p>\n With 12,000 arrests so far, there are many reports of apparently arbitrary arrests to meet quotas. Four baristas at 1200 Caf\u00e9, an award-winning coffee shop, were arrested while wearing their work uniforms and were paraded about as criminals. The baristas were only released after the hashtag #1200cafe became a trending topic from people tweeting about their arrest. With the right to defence suspended, hashtags have been working better than lawyers. [Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n There are also gang member arrests, of actual gang members, who are paraded around to show how effective the police are … and who then turn out to have been past activists for Bukele\u2019s Nuevas Ideas party. [Twitter<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n Bukele has threatened to starve those designated as gang members in jail. \u201cThere are rumors that they want to start taking revenge on random, honest people. If they do that, there won’t even be one meal in prisons. I swear to God they won’t eat a grain of rice, and let’s see how long they last.\u201d [Yahoo! News<\/i><\/a>]<\/p>\n Bukele has gone into open war on journalists in El Salvador, accusing them of having gang relatives and so on. El Faro wrote about the judge who freed an MS-13 gang leader who was to be extradited to the US. Nuevas Ideas accused the journalist of being linked to the gangs. [Expediente P\u00fablico<\/i><\/a>, in Spanish<\/i>]<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a new Bukele video that I\u2019m calling \u201cTriumph of the Shill.\u201d It\u2019s ten minutes, but you\u2019ll get the idea in the first thirty seconds or so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nuevos soldados y polic\u00edas para la #GuerraContraPandillas<\/a><\/p>\n New soldiers and police officers for the war against gangs. pic.twitter.com\/s5G3g8vF8J<\/a><\/p>\n — Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 8, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n