Bukelization of Latin America

Reader Jim asked me to write about what’s happening in Central America, and I’m glad to do it. Thank you for the question, Jim!

The region has been made unlivable by the gangs. Life in Ukraine is a lot more comfortable, secure, and civilized than in supposedly peaceful El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. It’s absolute horror. It’s not new horror but that doesn’t make it better. Two and a half million people have already left the tiny El Salvador, and over 60% of those who are still there are planning to leave.

The young Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele has been cracking down on the gangs, causing massive hissy fits among lovers of democracy who live in opulent countries and have no understanding of the extent of the problem in Central America. Other Central American countries and even Ecuador have timidly followed in Bukele’s footsteps. He’s suspended many of the civil freedoms, declaring a state of exception in the country.

Hispanic countries have a very poor track record with democracy. Spain finally got it right after 1975. Of course , Spaniards have already tried to tear up their brand-new constitution since then but at least there’s been no violence. Mexico achieved an actual democracy in 2000 but let’s be thankful it’s had no dictatorships in a century. The rest of Hispanic countries hobbled from dictatorship to a civil war to a junta until 1990s. Then most have managed to piece together something that resembled democracies if you squinted hard and looked at them at just the right angle.

Understandably, after witnessing Latin Americans raping each other with severed limbs of infants for a century, everybody is very nervous about any sign that Latin American “democracies” are losing even the formal characteristics of being democratic. But look, to have a democratic country, you kind of first need a country. El Salvador was fast losing everything that made it one and turning into a failed state.

I don’t know if Bukele can save El Salvador but I’m glad he’s trying. The Western belief that formal signs of democracy – elections, constitutions, political parties, electoral debates – will somehow magically turn people who love tearing each other to pieces for fun into a functioning society is a delusion. Nobody can make things better for Central Americans. I say, let’s leave them in peace to figure it out. If they want to Bukelize, let them try. It can hardly get much worse than it is now.

In the meantime, Putin has joyfully congratulated Russians with the Day of Youth, the regular Russian army is preparing to carpet bomb a large Russian city, and I’m back to my regularly scheduled programming. I totally take requests, though. Nothing is off limits.