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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]

When the United States invaded Nicaragua in 1912 the popular reaction in El Salvador was so strong that it completely upended politics. The article argues that this anti-imperialist movement, completely ignored by the current historiography, forced Salvadorean governments to make decisions regarding foreign policy that would have been unthinkable had it not been for the pressure from below. Popular pressures contributed to limit the scope of the final version of the Chamorro–Bryan Treaty between the United States and Nicaragua. The treaty did not include Platt Amendment-like provisions. Moreover, the Wilson administration abandoned the idea of extending a protectorate to all the Central American countries and building a naval base in the Gulf of Fonseca. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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..

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.

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The article discusses the national identity of El Salvador and its history since the 1970s as it popped up in the news of farmers, students, and workers being killed by military and paramilitary groups, and murders by leftist guerrilla groups. It states that El Salvador fought the war against the military with the help of the U.S. Topics include violence and migration in El Salvador, social decomposition, poverty, and marginalization

Copyright of Estudios de Derecho is the property of Estudios de Derecho and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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 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.

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".

This text analyzes three articles on the "political uses of the past" in different moments of the national history of El Salvador, Guatemala and Chile, to think over the ways to write the national histories in the post wars. This text debates how a hegemonic interpretation can silent or displaces other historical interpretations. It analyzes the role of the authors in these combats for the memory and the history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the role played by Schafick Jorge Handal in the process of political conversion of the Frente Farabundo Martí into la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) in the post-civil war period. We analyzed the main debates about the political and ideological redefinition of the FMLN, once the civil war was finished, the party leadership and internal democracy. This process was marked by bitter disputes between the leaders of the old political-military organizations that formed the FMLN. Handal was one of the main protagonists of these struggles, and gained power and internal recognition. But he died suddenly in 2006, when the process of "unification" was advanced, but not consolidated. Nevertheless, Handal has become the main identity reference in the official memory of the party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects on the role of violence as a key strategy used by the Latin American left wing to access power since the victory of the Cuban Revolution (1959). It also looks at the spread of certain readings of this revolutionary process - political, social and of the actions themselves - that have great mobilising power and whose key element is violence. The case studies are Uruguay and El Salvador (from 1959 to 1996), which are of interest due to their differences within the revolutionary wave of Latin's America's "new left", the challenging degree of their mobilisation, and their subsequent incorporation into the political system. For each, the justifications for resorting to violence are analysed, along with their interpretation and the repertoire of tactics used. It concludes with a reflection on the end of these experiences, the abandonment of violence and their achievements and limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses political events thak took place in El Salvador between 2014 and 2015, when two electoral contests have been held and the FMLN won its second's presidential contest after the nomination of one of its historical leader, Salvador Sánchez Cerén. At the legislative level, despite the victory of ARENA, the bloc formed by GANA and FMLN managed to control enough seats to dominate the Chamber. In the context of consolidation of the FMLN as a governmental party and the fractionalization of the right wing opposition, the Supreme Court has thus become the principal opponent of the government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the end of civil war in El Salvador. Topics discussed include the war between the insurgent Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the government of El Salvado, completion and implementation of a peace agreement in 1992 and FMLN's pragmatism during the peace talks that led to the path of political reforms.