Not so long ago El Salvador was the ‘forbidden fruit’ of the Central American ‘gringo trail’. You just didn’t go there – and if you did you were considered crazy. Gangs ruled the country and the governments lack of resources and man power meant they were powerless to do anything. This changed when Nayib Bukele became president of the country. In March 2022, Bukele enacted a state of emergency for El Salvador after a series of brutal gang massacres. This had not ever previously been attempted before by past governments and was usually reserved as a temporary measure to deal with events such as earthquakes and pandemics. A one month state of emergency was approved. That was 25 months ago and El Salvador are still in an anti-gang state of emergency, having extended the 1-month emergency 24 times. To my understanding, Bukele basically rounded up everyone that was even remotely suspected of being in a gang, whether they actually were or not, and chucked them in especially made super prisons. Roughly 75 000 suspected gang members have been imprisoned so far since the state of emergency.
The pros? El Salvador is now safer to visit than it probably ever has been. Going from the most murders anywhere outside of a war zone to thriving tourism in only a matter of years. Bukele boasts a 92% approval rate, Mark Mcgowanesque during Covid if you will, and is revered as some sort of hero in El Salvador. During the weekish I spent in El Salvador, you could buy all sorts of things with Bukeles face on it. Towels, mugs, t-shirts, it was hilarious and almost didn’t seem real.
The cons of Bukeles presidency? He’s basically a dictator.
“The state of emergency has also suspended constitutional rights to defense, meaning detainees can be held indefinitely on vague charges, without the need for an arrest warrant or evidence to back up criminal allegations. Under the emergency laws, detainees also lose the right to a court hearing within 72 hours of arrest, and lawyers and civil society organizations have said they cannot speak to those detained. Uncorroborated raw intelligence, rumors, and information sourced from social media profiles have formed the basis of arrests”.
An article I liked: https://insightcrime.org/investigations/too-many-soldiers-how-bukele-crackdown-succeeded-where-others-failed/
A video I liked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xmRaaVkvd8&rco=1&ab_channel=VICENews
Some would claim that El Salvador is now the safest country in Central America to visit, and through my time in the country, its hard to disagree with them. It started off with a trip to Santa Ana, in Western El Salvador. I met up with a couple of friends I had met previously in El Paredon and we visited a cool church with a nice rooftop view. El Salvador is the cheapest country in Central America, so we had to keep the economy ticking and try the cheap local beers and also had a 1m tostada for dinner.
We hiked the Santa Ana volcano on Day 2, which was thankfully not nearly at hard as Acatenango and was still active at the top. It was then time for a football experience in El Salvador. We went to the markets and acquired our CD Fas shirts to blend in. The tickets were either $5, $10, or $15 depending on where you sat. The $5 tickets were arguably the best ones as you got to be in and amongst the active support instead of in an empty grandstand on the other side. The game was one of my favourite experiences of the whole trip. The active support did not stop singing for the duration of the game and it was a really fun atmosphere. The locals were more than happy to have ‘gringos’ involved in watching the game and I think they appreciated tourists coming to watch. A top of the table clash between 6th and 7th saw CD Fas narrow 5-1 winners.
The next day we took the chicken bus to the town of Juayua which was about an hour away. I’m not sure if I mentioned chicken buses before but they are the local busses in Central America. They are old converted US school buses that have been giving a new lease on life when their tenure in the States is up. They get the name ‘chicken bus’ as they are often used by locals as a mode of transport of stock. Juayua is home to the 7 waterfalls which is, as the name suggests, is a series of 7 waterfalls. We did a 4 hourish tour of the falls for only $10 and got to scale and move around and through all the waterfalls. It was a very fun experience and a very good day. In the afternoon we rented a motorbike (sorry Mum) to ride the Ruta de las Flores which is a region of 5 towns that is connected by a very long, scenic road.
El Tunco is a section of the beachy areas of El Salvador. We took the chicken bus down to it from Santa Ana which took around 3 hours. It is a very lazy, chilled out surfer town, similar to El Paredon, where there is not much to down but surf and relax. I again put my surfing skills on show for a new fan base. We spent 2 nights in El Tunco, relaxing on the beach and eating. In the evenings of both nights, we joined some local guys in a game of 3 v 3 beach football as the sun set on El Tunco Beach, a memorable experience. It might as well have been 1 v 3 though as my teammates were little more than statues out there. We ended the final night with some drinks at a local bar, concluding a very fun time in El Salvador.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ut94e65GfchruiQz6
Love the post, apart from the motorbike‼️
Loving it all benny boy