One of the great things about El Salvador is a history of dynamic social movements on the ground. Many of them have been scared into submission by Bukele. Their leaders have been thrown in jail. This is going to be a really tense period coming up to see if he throws more of them in jail, but they're dynamic. They're strong. They did a brilliant job in this education campaign against mining. This could go either way and that's why it's important for people to continue to be involved in this work with El Salvador and to continue to put pressure on whatever government we have here in the US that it not go along the coolest dictator in the world.

Institute for Policy Studies' John Cavanagh on their report on El Salvador, "State of Deception: A fact-finding report on El Salvador’s detained water defenders, the potential return of environmentally destructive mining, and the state of human rights under the Bukele administration."

Also, Seb Wupper and the Past Inside the Present.

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Guest

John Cavanagh

John Cavanagh was Director of the Institute for Policy Studies from 1999-2021, and is now a Senior Advisor at IPS. He directed IPS’ Global Economy Program from 1983-1997. Cavanagh is the co-author of 12 books and numerous articles on a wide range of social and economic issues. His newest book (with Robin Broad) is The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Country from Corporate Greed. He co-authored (with Richard J. Barnet) Global Dreams: Imperial Corporations and the New World Order, which sold over 60,000 copies with Simon & Schuster. Cavanagh co-led a 24-person team to create the International Forum on Globalization book Alternatives to Economic Globalization, which sold over 20,000 copies and was translated into 12 languages.

Human Rights Under El Salvador's "Cool Dictator" / John Cavanagh

John Cavanagh