Glenda Heron, member of #CONNECTASHub

From Wednesday March 15th to Sunday March 19th, I received at least 300 follower requests on Twitter. And I had to block more than a thousand users who were bombarded with insults for every taste. That’s not counting the ones I’ve received on other social media, which I keep private and limit to only those I know.

This unusual wave of interest in me coincided with the fact that I was invited to a virtual interview in the program “El show de medio día”, which is broadcast on open television in the Dominican Republic. The producer who contacted me said that “drivers have heard a lot about Bukel and want to talk to a journalist who is in the country to give their opinion.” “Good,” I said. What can I do.

The thing, for me, was not what I expected. And I am for them too. While I was sitting in the living room of my house with the computer in front of me and the microphone still closed, the first thing I saw on that program was a fragment of a video transmission to the Terrorist Detention Center (CECOT) that El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele had been instructed to distribute it from his personal accounts. And, at the same time, I heard a lot of applause and cheers. Okay, it will be interesting, I thought and sighed.

When one of those present in the studio said that this was “a dictatorship in which I would like to live,” I saw Yvonne Ferreras, the only conductor working as a journalist, get up and leave the chamber in great indignation. . I still haven’t said a word. The other contestants on that show continued to shout their euphoria for the measures they felt were “necessary and reproducible”.

When they opened my microphone, I greeted them and asked if they knew that President Naib Bukele had a background in advertising. And that the video they were watching was the result of narrative manipulation and not an inherent reflection of what is happening to us as a country.

#present| “They are innocent, they don’t pay anything, they already know they are innocent. Why don’t you take them out?” expresses a mother who asks for the release of her son, who was captured on April 3 last year #exceptionmode #move #Savior pic.twitter.com/e9kXfSLIwI

— La Brújula Magazine (@labrujula_rev) March 28, 2023

More words, fewer words, I pointed out that the monopoly of discursive resources disadvantages many people who do not feel more secure but suffer the consequences of an authoritarian and punitive regime. Speeches that, through social media and government-linked media, point, for example, to the claim that the state of emergency solved the security problem on its own, or that all of the more than 60,000 captured are gang members and criminals. Because judging a country by video is an act of extreme simplification, which can only be the product of ignorance, misinformation, or the desire to look good in front of totalitarian authorities at the expense of the well-being of the population.

From that moment on, many of them began to scream during their performances, justifying it by the fact that they are always like that. At that moment, they knew that I was not there to confirm the actions of the government, which suspended freedom of association and assembly, the right to privacy and protection for a year. So what happened in the remaining minutes of the interview is very similar to the scenario in which President Bukele and his allies attack the press and other organizations. And here is the breakdown of the offers.

“You protect criminals.” No, disagreeing that the government’s main concern is to share videos with sadistic images to say “a crime has been committed this time” is not to defend criminals.

Not only is this an exclusionary and punitive narrative, but it also creates a false sense of security. Nothing built on the suspension of rights month after month, for a whole year, practically indefinitely, can not solve a problem that has such numerous and complex causes as insecurity. It is not limited to crime either. Because the threats come not only from criminal gangs, but also, as we see in El Salvador, from the security forces, when traditionally they abandoned mechanisms for monitoring and controlling them, including the Peace Accords signed in 1992.

“But El Salvador is better.” This is one of the most commonly used fallacies to justify punitive measures and very short term results. Among them stands out the reduction in the number of murders, a controversial fact, for the promotion of which, moreover, the government is responsible with very little statistical transparency. Linking the decrease in the number of murders with measures to militarize the territories, as the government does, is wrong. At the same time, it must be said that the government has manipulated the numbers, controlled the institutions that produce them, dismantled public information tools, and dehumanized the results.

#ElementsMagazine

Confidential reports from @PNCSV show that the government lied from the start #ExceptionRegimenby the number of murders: the numbers have almost halved. https://t.co/xzi39RBKem

— Elements Magazine (@RevElementos) March 28, 2023

And there are other ways to refute this claim. The one I’m going to pick today is the Phenomenon of La Campanera, a community in the San Salvador metropolitan area. For decades, it was an isolated community whose inhabitants had to endure physical abuse as well as social prejudice.

With the exception of the regime, the regime “pacified” La Campanera in a very indirect process. To the point where a parade of motorcycle couriers announced that home delivery services were back in the area. Thus, the authorities have shared all sorts of images that show the restoration of areas for sports or trade. While the script is running. But the underlying social solutions are not so simple. They do not depend on election campaigns and cannot be limited by the silence of arms.

Bell Girl is not safe. Because? For this: if the security forces now occupying La Campanera allow abuses or excesses of violence, to whom will the victims complain? Who will protect them, or even believe them, if all institutions are controlled by a government that insists that this is the safest country? That is why the central government should not manage all institutions at its own discretion. That is why it is important that the legislative and judicial branches of government remain separate and independent. And that is why it is important to be able to verify and certify, through the mechanisms that are already established by law, everything that the government qualifies as an achievement.

The Bukele government has turned this area in the municipality of Soyapango into another location for their fabricated videos to showcase the merits of their authoritarian project to the international media. But the security of societies is also measured by inalienable dimensions, which include education, health, employability and space for coexistence. Progress comes when countries build their own system of opportunities and adequate to the needs of all residents. And to get there, you have to go a long way. Let’s start with the fact that it is impossible while the exclusion mode is in effect.

#efActualidad | The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expresses concern over the “harsh measures” that El Salvador’s authorities have imposed during the year-long exclusion regime. https://t.co/tf9cyaZjay

— Lighthouse (@_elfaro_) March 28, 2023

The “appeasement” by weapons of areas traditionally marked by physical and social violence serves only to place reflectors there, while other spaces remain in darkness. Baho-Lempa communities a few kilometers from the capital were subject to arrests of their members, including minors. These people cannot simply be classified as “collateral damage” based on the fact that pizza delivery men can now arrive at La Campanera. Human rights must be universal, irrevocable and inalienable.

“Give us proof.” When the interview got to this point, the main host asked me to send him posts supporting my position. I made the mistake of telling him that I could gladly send them to him. Now, without the pressure of your screams and time, I know that I am not required to present what this interviewer and others call “evidence”. Because, in addition, anyone who is going to talk about the El Salvador case and propose it for their country is obliged to know in detail the measures taken by the Bukele government and, above all, their true consequences.

But, again, the reality is far from what it should be. Along with the Dominican Republic, a large number of television programs have repeated Bukele’s sadistic videos without the slightest effort to balance the information. It looks like a marketing phenomenon. Something that should greatly offend us as Salvadorans, since the reality we live in, the risks we are exposed to and the rights we have lost, have not found a place in this place, in that marketing strategy that paints that violence found an end in more violence.

.@RevElementos shows that the government lied to the Salvadorans and the world. More murders and disappearances than reported
Why lie?
Why hide information? pic.twitter.com/6znnO7QsWg

— Ruth Eleanor Lopez (@Ruth_Lopez1977) March 28, 2023

Thus, this advertising message not only reached a large number of social media accounts replicating it, but also found a response in the media, which, for example, in Colombia or Honduras, makes Bukele look like a miracle. How can someone so happily join a discourse that makes vulnerable populations invisible? How can they believe that the gangs that have been terrorizing the whole country and other neighbors for decades are exactly the same people who go barefoot and half-naked to the new prison? And, even worse, how can you believe that these videos bring us closer to the social justice that a poor, punished and abused society like Salvadoran society needs so badly?

It is very difficult for me to trust the media, journalists and politicians who, in turn, easily support the government based only on what they see on social networks.

“It’s from the opposition, it’s biased.” This phrase is intended to throw into the press those who do not agree with the Government. This also applies to human rights organizations and anyone who disagrees with the measures taken by the Bukele government and its allies.

For years, these sectors have been attacked by those in power. The same person who, always supported by his popularity, should not feel threatened by those who do not agree with his disregard for human rights. But it turns out that he cares, and very much so, about those organized people who take their narratives to suit their interests. Because? Because the world cannot know that here, despite numerous attempts to extinguish various manifestations of civil organization, this fire has not been extinguished. There is light.

This is how the government used the exclusionary regime as a tool to neutralize people so that they could not fight for even the most basic rights. This government, which prides itself on its popularity and the power it has over institutions, is not really afraid of the existence of an opposition current. He is afraid of the Constitution, laws, public opinion when he defends the interests of a person. The enemy of this government is not the press; That’s the reason it’s not on your side.

Text originally published by CONNECTAS.