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Lorena Aguilar, a resident of San Jose and a Democratic Diaspora in Resistance member, traveled with a group of activists who are worried about the direction of their native country. For eight hours that message was seen as the vehicle cruised along the Salvadoran corridor to the consulate of El Salvador on Wilshire Boulevard, as well as passing by the Convention Center. “How long will Bukele continue to violate the fundamental rights of Salvadorans?” read one billboard on a small moving van-like vehicle on Figueroa Street. The Salvadoran group Democratic Diaspora in Resistance has placed those allegations at the center of its messaging campaign. “Bukele has my brother in prison,” read another poster, carried by Álex Henríquez, who said his sibling had been detained under the current state of emergency implemented at the end of March, which human rights advocates and media reports contend has led to the arrest without a court order of thousands of alleged gang members as well as many innocent people.Īmnesty International recently denounced the emergency order, under which it said more than 36,000 people have been captured, “massive violations of human rights” have been committed, including cases of torture, and at least 23 people have died while in captivity. “How long will the arbitrary arrests be?” asked Salvadoran Ana Flores, carrying a sign written in English and Spanish. But 24.8% regarded such measures as an attempt by the government to burnish its popular image. In a recent survey conducted by Central American University, 66.2% of respondents said the Bukele government’s mass roundups had improved security.
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President Bukele remains highly popular, both at home and among Salvadoran Americans, and his followers support the heavy-handed measures implemented by his government. The Summit of the Americas, created in 1994, is intended to assemble the continent’s heads of state, civil society organizations and civic leaders around shared regional goals, including the promotion of democracy and human rights - at least in theory.īut this year’s summit has been shrouded in controversy and acrimony after the United States did not invite Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and the presidents of Mexico and Honduras subsequently chose not to attend in protest against their counterparts’ exclusion. “What Ortega has done in 10 years, Nayib Bukele has achieved in two,” said Rostrán, a Managua native. Pointing to a group of Salvadoran demonstrators a few feet away, Rostrán said the type of political repression that has long gripped Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela is also pressing in on El Salvador. “The United States needs to turn its gaze towards Latin America,” said the activist while standing at Figueroa and Pico. entities raising awareness of events in Nicaragua. Today she is one of the leaders of the New York and New Jersey Work Table organization, part of a network of 23 U.S. Twenty years ago, Dámaris Rostrán left Nicaragua for New York.
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Nicaragua is ruled by a former Marxist guerrilla leader El Salvador is governed by a populist former mayor and businessman. The political realities of Nicaragua and El Salvador differ in certain ways. Los Angeles is home to an estimated 425,000 Salvadoran Americans, the largest concentration in the United States, and an estimated 39,000 Nicaraguan Americans, according to census figures. Nearly all of Monday’s protests outside the Convention Center targeted either El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele or Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. “No more dictatorships in Latin America!” they yelled in Spanish.Ī few yards away, Salvadoran protesters echoed the refrain: “We do not want dictatorships!” “We don’t need countries where dictatorships exist,” shouted a group of Nicaraguans gathered at Figueroa Street and Pico Boulevard in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center, the summit’s main venue. The prevailing message? No more strongmen. As many of Latin America’s leaders gathered Monday in Los Angeles for the start of the Summit of the Americas, a handful of immigrants and their supporters took to the streets, waving flags and posters to vent their political differences with their countries of origin.