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States have adopted a range of policies to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Some, mainly democracies like New Zealand and South Korea, took quick health measures without curbing citizen rights. Others, especially those led by populists like Bolsonaro and Erdogan, denied the seriousness of the health crisis even as they curbed political and civil rights. El Salvador is virtually unique in its COVID-19 response, combining a strong rhetorical commitment to health measures with clear efforts to undermine democratic controls and rights. President Nayib Bukele adopted an early travel ban and publicly vilified those who broke curfew by sending them and all who tested positive to quarantine centers for 30 days. He derided and defied Constitutional Chamber decisions against such practices, ordered militarized actions, and crowded gang-affiliated prisoners together in humiliating ways that risked exposure to COVID-19. We examine how Bukele's policies conform to, and seemingly exemplify, Michel Foucault's theoretical concepts of biopolitics and disciplinary power. However, the Salvadoran case also challenges key features of Foucault's theory, suggesting the need to modify his Western assumptions about highly institutionalized states. Our analysis suggests that strong leaders can undercut citizen rights and agency, visible at the intersection of biopolitical social theory and democratic backsliding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Profiles Joaquin Villalobos, former guerrilla leader in El Salvador. Marriage to a woman from a politically connected family; Conciliatory position with rightists; Divisiveness within the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN); Plan to run for president in 1999.

The article reports on the civil war in El Salvador and the involvement the U.S. government. It relates the 12-year conflict between leftist insurgents and a U.S.-backed military dictatorship in El Salvador. It discusses how Central American solidarity and sanctuary movements defended refugees and opposed the interventionist U.S. politics that created them..

This article analyses mining policy as an indicator of a larger question: are some Third World governments starting to steer away from plunder ‘extractivism’ towards a paradigm that prioritises the environment? We begin with the cases of El Salvador and Costa Rica, which have major mining bans in place. We then present the results of our research in which we find five other countries with noteworthy mining-policy shifts: Panama, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and New Zealand. A sixth country, Honduras under President Zelaya, stands as a recent historical case of how sensitive such a policy change can be. A key take-away from our article is that critical development scholars and practitioners need to look more closely at the mining sector – not simply to analyse case studies of specific mining protests and resistances to extractivism, although these are of course important. Rather, there is a need to investigate policy changes that just might be indications that the era of unquestioning extractivism has ended and that at least some governments are initiating policies to incorporate environmental externalities, policies that suggest a changing development paradigm in the direction of environmental – and concomitant social and economic – ‘well-being’ as envisioned in buen vivir. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports that president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele claimed a narrow first-round victory, low voter turnout reveals deep problems in the country's political landscape. It mentions information on Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and Farabundo Martí National Liberation (FMLN) leadership. It mentions that Carlos Calleja and Carmen Aida Lazo, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of ARENA respectively, campaigned on what was referred to as a "platform of hope".

The article focuses on the social condition in El Salvador 25 years after the United Nation brokered negotiation between the insurgent Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government during the civil war from 1980 to 1992. Overview of the history of the conflict and the ongoing public security crisis due to the lack of social policies is discussed. Suggestion on the need for the nation to implement political economy of peace to consolidate democratic governance is offered.

This study argues that individual parties and party competition in El Salvador and Cambodia today are still profoundly affected by the period of civil war that has long passed. The war-time origins of the main Salvadoran and Cambodian parties have left a deep imprint on their organizational structures and style of leadership, just as war-time political exclusion set the tone for unbalanced party competition after the war. Although El Salvador's party system is more institutionalized and pluralistic than Cambodia's, there have been clear cross-national patterns of unequal institutionalization and ruling party dominance that are a product of the war. International engagement ranging from election observation, election organization to party assistance has had some benefits, particularly for opposition parties. At the party system level, however, international support has only been of minor influence, with the possible exception of financial, economic and technical assistance to the government, which has served to accentuate the tendency towards dominance by the party in power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on politics in El Salvador. The victory of Mauricio Funes of the Farabundo Martí Front for National Liberation (FMLN) party as the nation's president in the 2009 election is said to represent the first peaceful transfer of power to a political party of the left. In January 1992, the democratization process in the nation started with the signing of the Chapultepec Peace Accords, which ended the 12 years of civil war.

Although it is increasingly recognised that violence, crime, and associated fear are challenging democratic governance in Latin America, less attention has been paid to the ways in which state responses to crime contribute to the problem. By analysing El Salvador as a case study, this article addresses three key interconnected issues in the debate. First, it explores the dynamic of violence. It then locates youth gangs as violent actors within this context. Finally, it addresses the state response to the growing phenomenon of youth gangs. It is argued that current strategies, dubbed Mano Dura - Iron Fist, employed by the Salvadoran government serve to reveal the fragility of the democratic project, exposing the underside of authoritarianism that remains key to Salvadoran political life in the transitional process from civil war to peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To succeed, democracy building in post-conflict situations requires political parties to be both competent and committed to the democratic rules of the game. Former belligerents tend to dominate. This article investigates how contextual factors and more particularly the institutional framework in which a party operates affect internal organizational dynamics, and how these in turn affect the challenges that adaptation to democratic politics pose to party leaders. It examines the nested games played by party leaders as they struggle to retain control of their parties and compete with other parties for political power. The analysis focuses on cases drawn from El Salvador, Bosnia, Kosovo and Mozambique, and shows how inter-party competition shapes the identities, priorities, tactics and strategies, which in turn affect the prospects for democratization. The role of international actors in influencing both processes and outcomes in these situations must also be taken into account, especially where democratization is viewed as a means to the end of establishing peace and not simply as goal in its own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies the history of radical political movements in El Salvador. Ideas and infrastructure of revolutionary politics; Political impact of the church in the radical mobilization; Promotion of the image of a broad based political front of progressive forces.

From 1979 to 1992, the US supported the El Salvadorian government in its counter-insurgency war. The insurgents were characterized by the US as Soviet backed communists. US support for the El Salvadorian government was sold as supporting a pro-US ally to contain Soviet expansionism within Central America. This article examines the documentation that the US used to substantiate this justification, and argues that the facts and interpretations that the US used cannot sustain the characterization of the insurgency movement in El Salvador as Soviet backed. Furthermore, even in the event of a rebel victory, and in the absence of US hostility, the insurgents would have almost certainly sought good relations with the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to explain the dynamics of one part of the triple political transition in El Salvador. It deals with the question of how the neoliberal agenda was implemented in postwar El Salvador, and with what results. It pays particular attention to the way newly emerged political actors adopted or dealt with it. Crucial is the way the Salvadoran right wing managed to implement its neoliberal policies without fundamentally being challenged by the center or the Left. More generally, the author discusses the way neoliberal policies affected postwar Salvadoran political culture.

The overall success of the Salvadorean transition suggests two working hypotheses that might prove useful for the analysis of other countries. First, it suggests that political transition and democratization could be analysed as a political market-place, where all kinds of resources are traded. With Chapultepec, no political actor won or lost: everyone went home with something. Exchanging resources of violence against other resources is arguably the pivotal type of 'trade' in peacebuilding. Second, it shows that resourceful external players can greatly facilitate peacebuilding and democratic transition by providing the extra resources (economic and political) needed to make trades possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an integral part of the 1992 Peace Accords for ending conflict in El Salvador, radical reform of the civilian policing has virtually involved the creation of a new, non-political police force. In spite of resistance to reform, including attempts by the armed forces to retain a public security role, the achievements have been impressive in terms of replacing former security bodies, generating public confidence, greater respect for human rights and improved training. This has been possible because of the political recognition in E1 Salvador of the essential need for reform and because the Peace Accords provided clear guidelines and a timetable for change. The UN and the international community have also played a key role in assisting the transition, particularly in establishing a training academy, providing technical assistance and verifying the implementation of the Accords. However, the El Salvador experience also offers lessons, including the need for political leadership by the UN in integrating and co-ordinating the various external bodies for supervising and assisting transitions, especially where police and security personnel have had a record of human rights abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the coverage of El Salvador by three U.S.-based news magazines during a 29 month period that includes the November 1989 offensive by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. Similarities and differences in the coverage of the magazines; Portrayal of U.S. policy on El Salvador by the mainstream U.S. news media.

A personal narrative is presented is presented which explores the author's experience of being a delegate of the North American Congress on Latin America to El Salvador during the civil war.

The article reports on the new and old war in El Salvador. It recalls the 12-year conflict between leftist insurgents and a U.S.-backed military dictatorship in the late 1970s. It discusses the victory of Jose Napoleon Duarte as the president of the country and the victory of Christian Democratic Party in the mayoral posts and National Assembly.

The article reviews publications from the NACLA archives selected from key points in the Salvadoran civil war. It recalls the 12-year conflict between leftist insurgents and a U.S.-backed military dictatorship in El Salvador. It discusses how Central American solidarity and sanctuary movements defended refugees and opposed the interventionist U.S. politics that created them..

This article discusses the political position of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador in 2006. Four days after the municipal and legislative elections, the party announced that it won the race for mayor of San Salvador. The conflict caused by the mayoral race is recalled. In addition, this article assesses the alliance between the FMLN and other groups.

Offers a look at the economic and political structures of Nicaragua and El Salvador after the July 1979 Sandinista victory in Nicaragua. Change in political and economic climate after the social revolution; Psychosocial consequences of the war; Immigration of Salvatorans to the U.S.

Reports on the victory of Tony Saca of the National Republican Alliance in the 2004 presidential election in El Salvador. Highlights of Saca's platform; Declaration of an anti-gang policy; Change in the outlook of the country's economy.