In 2024, El Salvador has been under the scrutiny of the international community due to the increasingly repressive tactics of President Nayib Bukele. His far-right government’s heavy-handed approach to crime, under the guise of establishing “public security”, has sparked both praise and criticism.
We must understand the deeper social and political impacts of Bukele’s policies and the ways our gente mobilize against them. That’s why Mijente Public Policy Director Jacinta Gonzalez sat down to interview Francisco Parada Rodriguez this September.
Rodriguez is a member of the coordination team of Bloque de Resistencia and Rebeldia Popular. He discussed the rise of militarization, the criminalization of poverty, and the long-term consequences for El Salvador.
Below is a summary of our conversation with Rodriguez. To listen to the full conversation in Spanish, check out our YouTube page.
A Climate of Fear and Control
Rodriguez began by explaining the “exception regime”, a cornerstone of Bukele’s strategy to “combat” crime. This policy has led to the militarization of communities, especially in poorer areas like Soyapango and Apopa, where simple poverty alone is seen as a criminal act. “The government has made poverty synonymous with criminality,” Rodriguez emphasized, drawing attention to the stark class divide in how the regime operates.
Because all those military fences that have been set up in Soyapango, in Apopa, for example, right? That is where those military fences are, but we do not see those military fences in the affluent areas of this country. As if to say, where the rich live there are no criminals, right? The ones who deserve a military fence are the poor, right?
Francisco Parada Rodriguez
Bukele’s government routinely justifies these actions as necessary to combat gang violence. Instead, Rodriguez argues that this has simply created a climate of fear and repression that affects everyone. Historically safe communities are now under siege, further marginalizing those who were already struggling to make ends meet.
The Rich Keep Getting Richer
Furthermore, Rodriguez highlighted the economic motivations propping up Bukele’s security policies. The militarization of El Salvador is not just about controlling crime but also about creating a punitive economy. Industries surrounding the prison system, from supply chains to infrastructure, have profited significantly.
[Since COVID-19], the punitive model has generated the growth and strengthening of the country’s wealthiest. Gains are generated by businessmen who are dedicated to supplying these [new] prisons with the goods necessary for the people who are detained to live. It is an industry, and it is the impoverished population that is being used to strengthen that industry.
This model of repression benefits the wealthy elites, who have little to lose and a lot to gain from maintaining the ongoing status quo. This is only a convenient distraction from the underlying issues – poverty and inequality – that fuel crime in the first place.
The Rise of MOVIR: Resistance to Repression
In particular, Rodriguez touched on the ways the exception regime has had devastating effects on families in impoverished communities. Thousands have been detained (most times arbitrarily, with very little explanations given), leaving families not only traumatized but also financially hurting. The Movement of Victims of the Regime (MOVIR, or “El Movimiento de Víctimas del Régimen de Excepción” in Spanish) rose up in response. MOVIR advocates for the release of the wrongfully imprisoned and demands justice for those whose lives have been destroyed by Bukele’s policies.
Community organizations like MOVIR are rising up to push back against the narrative of militarization as a solution. Especially in response to the government’s misleading rhetoric on crime and its failure to address the underlying social conditions.
There are thousands of people… who, with the capture of their loved one, they have to assume a cost– Not only an economic cost, but also an emotional cost, a psychological cost, to see that their relative was detained without having committed any crime. And this has even generated the creation of a movement of victims of the regime, the MOVIR, which has already been working for two years to denounce the regime and to demand the release of their family members from prison.
MOVIR represents a growing resistance to Bukele’s regime, a grassroots, pueblo-led effort to challenge the narrative that militarization equals safety. In 2023 alone, MOVIR supported over 4,000 family members of PDLs (Persons Deprived of Liberty). They provided access to legal aid, as well as other basic essentials like food, water, and transportation as families navigated the legal system.
The Truth Behind Bukele’s “Public Security”
We learned that Bukele’s government has been known to praise (and credit) itself for a reduction in homicides. However, Rodriguez pointed out that just citing that statistic alone is seriously misleading. Other crimes, including theft, human trafficking, and sexual violence, have actually increased. This signals that the regime’s focus on militarization has done little to address the actual root causes of crime.
It’s the same old Mano Dura policy repackaged. It is a plan of repression and persecution, because in the end… crime has not decreased and we are not saying this with a propagandistic spirit, but there are data that the Attorney General’s Office itself, which is an official institution, presents [via] studies in which it says that, yes, homicides have decreased but other types of crimes have increased.
According to Rodriguez, the exception regime is a band-aid solution that avoids addressing systemic issues like inequality, lack of education, and unemployment.
The Rise of the Far-Right’s Influence in Latin America
Importantly, Rodriguez shared insights into Bukele’s admiration for far-right leaders and the global implications of his policies. Bukele has made no effort to conceal his esteem for Donald Trump. On top of that, he has aligned himself with a broader trend of right-wing extremism in the region.
Rodriguez explained that Bukele’s government, with its increasingly authoritarian tendencies, serves as a model for other ultra-right politicians in Latin America. His militarized approach, use of repressive tactics, and concentration of power have inspired similar movements in countries like Argentina and Ecuador.
Bukele, let’s say, inaugurates this dynamic in Latin America. Of course, now he is followed by other ultra-right politicians who have been in the logic of publicly announcing that they want to implement policies similar to those of El Salvador.
This trend, according to Rodriguez, signals a dangerous shift in the political landscape of Latin America, where authoritarian regimes gain traction under the guise of public security and combating crime—but at the cost of our gente’s freedoms and human rights.
Resistance and the Power of Community Organizing:
Despite the repression and spread of the far-right beyond El Salvador, Rodriguez is optimistic about the power of community organizing and grassroots resistance. Movements like the Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldía Popular (BRP) are standing up to the regime, demanding justice and accountability through social media and direct actions.
Our comrades, our relatives, our parents, our friends who fought in the armed conflict used the media as a means to fight for the transformation of society, we also have to do this. [But] beyond using social networks, we believe that what is important is that people organically develop actions, that they break the logic of just posting a denunciation on the networks and say ‘I’m going to go to bed’. They need to take on a militant role, a committed role, for the transformation of our society.
Francisco emphasized that this kind of organic activism is key to creating lasting change in El Salvador. The government may have the military, but the people have each other.
We know that the struggles in El Salvador aren’t isolated—they reflect broader trends of militarization, repression, and economic inequality seen elsewhere, including in the United States. Francisco urged everyone to stay informed, but to go a step further and also take action.
Although our gente in El Salvador are confronting the rise of an emboldened far-right, Francisco remains hopeful. The resistance is growing, and more people are waking up to the dark realities of Bukele’s regime. The fight for a more just and equitable El Salvador is far from over, and as Francisco shared with us, it’s a fight that requires all of us. As a political home for Latinx and Chicanx people across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, we recognize that our liberation is directly bound to other liberation movements fighting for transformative change.
At the end of the day, Rodriguez reminded us: “Change doesn’t come from the top down. It comes from the people, from the ground up.”
Want to watch the interview but missed our livestream last month? You can catch a replay in Spanish here.