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El Salvador Questions Thread

anon_meha said in #1504 1y ago: received

I’ve been to El Salvador twice recently and have spent over two months there. It’s a great spot, I loved my trips both times and will return.

Due to its unique political situation and it being led by a live player I imagined people might have questions about it. Comment below and I’ll respond to the interesting ones. If you are going anytime soon I can also try to give recommendations for the best restaurants/stays/things to do.

I’ve been to El Salv received

anon_gudo said in #1508 1y ago: received

Can you comment on the influence of the PRC in El Salvador? If El Salvador is so much of a live player why does it acquiese meekly to demands such as revoking the permanent observer status of the ROC (Taiwan) in favor of the governing authorities on the mainland in the PARLACEN?

Can you comment on t received

anon_fipe said in #1514 1y ago: received

>>1508

Cooperation with the PRC is a sign in favor of, not against, Bukele being a live player. El Salvador is in the backyard not of China, but of the United States. Unlike Vietnam or Korea, El Salvador faces no threat of domination by China as a neighbor. Whatever deals Bukele makes with the PRC are likely to be in El Salvador's net interest, not least in counterbalancing the influence of the United States.

Anon, you may find these tactics repugnant on ideological grounds. The fact that Bukele is willing to use them anyway is also evidence that he is a live player.

Cooperation with the received

anon_jydw said in #1519 1y ago: received

>Cooperation with the PRC is a sign in favor of, not against.

I love cooperation. That's why I think that both the ROC (Taiwan) and PRC should have permanent observer status in the PARLACEN. Wouldst thou find this objectionable?

I love cooperation. received

anon_fipe said in #1520 1y ago: received

>>1519
> Wouldst thou find this objectionable?

Irrelevant object-level stuff.

I'm talking about Bukele's strategy, which totally points to him being a live player.

Irrelevant object-le received

anon_dibi said in #1525 1y ago: received

>>1520

Answer the question, anon. Are you in favor of the kinds of restrictions in this article? Why should a country have to choose between cooperating with the First World or the PRC?

https://www.csis.org/analysis/china-and-el-salvador-update

>Given that El Salvador already had a commercial port in Acajutla, the project in La Unión—which would have disproportionately benefited Sánchez Cerén’s supporters—bore an eerie similarity to the ill-fated Hambantota port project in Sri Lanka, where Chinese firms built a new port in a zone dominated by supporters of the ruling party despite an existing port in Colombo. Lacking enough trade to make use of two ports, in a dilemma with powerful lessons for El Salvador, the next Sri Lankan government was saddled with significant debt, ultimately leading it to lease the port and the land around it to China.

>Importantly, the terms of the trade zones would have excluded companies already established in El Salvador (principally from the United States and Europe), allowing new Chinese companies—working in conjunction with Chinese port operators, Chinese shipping companies, and likely Chinese service providers—to dominate the zones. Moreover, due to La Unión’s location in the Gulf of Fonseca (at the intersection of Salvadoran, Honduran, and Nicaraguan territory) and El Salvador’s participation in a special customs arrangement with Guatemala and Honduras, the PRC would have been well positioned to expand its reach among El Salvador’s neighbors.

Answer the question, received

anon_meha said in #1527 1y ago: received

>>1508

I agree with >>1514 here. I do not think recognizing Taiwan is really important at all. El Salvador seems to use its relationship with China as a bargaining chip with the US. I think this is a good move. The US is very powerful and is a stone’s throw from ES, they should be maintaining a relationship with both countries. They have gotten millions of dollars worth of projects, the new library is gorgeous. I don’t think it’s really an issue.

I agree with >>1514 received

anon_wiwo said in #1529 1y ago: received

>>1525
>Are you in favor of the kinds of restrictions in this article?
This sounds like obnoxious loyalty/orthodoxy policing. This is an anonymous forum, not a place where you can pin people down in games of guilt by association. If you think he's a Chinese shill or something, say so. Otherwise consider rephrasing your question.

This sounds like obn received

anon_fipe said in #1545 1y ago: received

>>1525

OP's statement, to which you objected, was that El Salvador is a live player. I provided a simple and clear argument that Bukele is indeed a live player. That's the only aspect relevant to OP. Your stuff about the PRC obviously is not.

OP's statement, to w received

anon_sagi said in #1553 1y ago: received

>>1519
>That's why I think that both the ROC (Taiwan) and PRC should have permanent observer status in the PARLACEN.

Is this anon suggesting perhaps that countries be able to have free trade with both Chinas? This anon might be a chinese shill.

Is this anon suggest received

anon_wiwo said in #1584 1y ago: received

This thread got derailed but we should take OP up on his offer. OP what was the most interesting and surprising about ES? I don't know much about the whole situation except that Bukele has decided to become a philosopher king and is actually going for it. What should we be tracking?

This thread got dera received

anon_fipe said in #1588 1y ago: received

>>1504
> I can also try to give recommendations for the best restaurants/stays/things to do.

Would be great to have a sketch of an itinerary for someone visiting with an eye to checking out how Bukele's policies are working out on the ground, maybe writing a piece about it.

Would be great to ha received

anon_meha said in #1595 1y ago: received

>>1584
What’s interesting is to see a population that’s doing well and is loving their president. Murders are basically nonexistent and you always feel safe. Walking around in the public square near the library there are smiling military guards with rifles and on every other block in the whole country there are private security officers with shotguns. The security guards are more from the days of gangs, but they have stuck around. The national library is definitely something to check out. It’s nothing too special, but it’s very nice and is very focused on the youth of the country. They definitely could have a better selection of books, they just have a lot of what’s in every university. Great space overall though. Lovely central historical district.

I have a few friends who live here and have residencies, they’ve been treated well and with warm welcome. It’s good to see the residency process going well, if anyone is interested let me know.

I am paying attention to his 5,000 people passport program, if that means bringing in a bunch of Indians or actual high quality human capital will be interesting to see. He is also going to be checking the whole executive branch for corruption and bribery so I’m curious to see if there is any outcome from that.

Other than that El Salvador is still a 3rd world country and has a long way to go but is developing fast and in the right directions. The most pertinent problems are crazy streets/driving and not enough variety of restaurants. Lot of great food though don’t get me wrong.

>1588
I can work on and prepare an article/itinerary of the best stays & restaurants to check out for people interested in visiting.

What’s interesting i received

anon_pobo said in #1596 1y ago: received

>bringing in a bunch of Indians or actual high quality human capital

Are Indians and actual high quality human capital mutually exclusive sets? Would you be disappointed if 5000 brahmins and kshatriyas are chosen?

Are Indians and actu received

anon_meha said in #1597 1y ago: received

>>1596
Haha no they are not mutually exclusive. If true aryans are called to El Salvador then so be it. I only mean that I hope they get some interesting people to move and work there, not people using fake degrees or things of that sort.

Haha no they are not received

anon_fija said in #1601 1y ago: received

>>1597
>>1596
Consider the base rates. There are very few true brahmins in India and a great number of people seemingly bred and trained for thousands of years to defraud bureaucracies. You think you're getting true brahmins, actually you're getting cooked resumes and recursively chain migrated cousins.

Consider the base ra received

anon_nege said in #1698 1y ago: received

>>1504

This isn't really a question related to visiting, but do you know of any good books or other resources to explain how Bukele came to power in the first place? I would like a blow-by-blow of how he overcame the corruption and violence without getting stymied or assassinated.

More of an on-the-ground question -- do you have a sense for what the overarching ideology of the populace of ES is? I notice for instance that a lot of young Mexicans tend to be very influenced by US-style woke ideas, like gender stuff, and the decolonization rhetoric. Every article I've read about ES has made it sound like the population are just simple peasants just grateful to no longer be in such high danger of being murdered, who have no real ideology beyond that, and maybe that is just normal and good for people to not be very ideological like they are in the West, or maybe it's an oversimplification.

This isn't really a received

anon_fipe said in #1699 1y ago: received

>>1698
> ... how Bukele came to power in the first place ... without getting stymied or assassinated.

One tidbit is that he came up through left-wing parties, which may have deactivated some the immune response against the early actions he took.

One tidbit is that h received

anon_demy said in #1700 1y ago: received

>>1698
> I would like a blow-by-blow of how he overcame the corruption and violence without getting stymied or assassinated.
My understanding is that he's still pretty cool with certain varieties of white collar activity that LatAm elites tend to indulge in. Might be a few parallels here with someone like Alvaro Uribe.

I'd also note how geographically concise the country is. Makes sense that a solution would emerge there vs Guatemala or Honduras.

My understanding is received

anon_meha said in #1708 1y ago: received

>>1698
This is a great resource for the whole story: https://im1776.com/el-salvador-history/. Honestly what he did was pretty nuts, and I'm not entirely sure how he didn't get taken out. One reason could be that it would have caused a total uprising. Another is that God blessed him to free the citizens. And to answer your other question about the population's ideology, it's very much what you said simple peasants who are simply overjoyed that peace and prosperity are back. Everyone loves Bukele, no one really cares that much beyond that. It's beautiful. People shouldn't have to care about politics.

This is a great reso received

anon_nege said in #1733 1y ago: received

>>1708

Thanks, that's a good read. I still wish I could find more detail about how he secured the loyalty of his security forces and police and got them to "defect" in a certain sense from the previous regime as well as from the gangs. My understanding is that in gang-ridden Latin American countries, bribery and threats to family (by gangs, corrupt regimes, and probably foreign clandestine operations) really inhibit resistance to their power. I don't know what Bukele's campaign platform looked like, but one would think that if he were campaigning on anything that the gangs or powers that be perceived as threatening, they would have attempted to assassinate him. Maybe his messaging was just savvy, or maybe he was just a really good judge of people such that he kept potential traitors out, or some other possibility I'm not thinking of right now. I willingly believe he is blessed by God, but I still think the specifics of how he navigated all this would be extremely enlightening.

Thanks, that's a goo received

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