Central America Round Table Conference

At a round table conference on Central America entitled “Civil society responses to the return of authoritarianism”, representatives from various organizations and movements from Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Germany, and other European countries gathered in Berlin on October 30 and 31 to exchange ideas. In various countries, they are observing similar developments toward authoritarian regimes, bringing back memories of the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s. Far beyond Central America, other countries are also orienting themselves toward “Bukelismo,” a punitive system based on punishment that can be traced back to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. He promised to enforce security against gang violence with a state of emergency and special decrees, but in doing so allowed more than 80,000 people to disappear into prisons, mostly without any contact with their families or legal counsel. Freedom of speech and assembly are severely restricted, and the fear of speaking freely and expressing oneself often replaces the fear of gang violence. Many participants observed that the greater the insecurity of the population due to gangs or narco-crime and the greater the impoverishment, the more support authoritarian parties and groups receive. Progressive movements are currently failing to offer adequate responses to these problems.

Redaction: Ulli Jentsch