Democracy in Central America Is on the Brink
The tenuous liberal democratic frameworks established in the 1990s after the civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador are long exhausted. What will come next in both countries is uncertain.
52 Articles by: Hilary Goodfriend
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Hilary Goodfriend is a postdoctoral researcher with the Instituto de Geografía at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. She is a Jacobin contributing editor.
The Democrats Want a Bigger, More Beautiful Border Wall
Donald Trump’s cruel border policies sparked an outpouring of popular compassion for migrants, which Democrats made central to their 2020 platform. Now the Biden administration and the Kamala Harris campaign have embraced Trump’s xenophobic premises.
International Dockworker Solidarity, Fictionalized
Labor has the power to halt the war machine. Dockworkers have often exercised this power, and a new novel by Herb Mills tells a tale, rooted in his own experiences, of stevedores refusing to load US weapons for the brutal El Salvador dictatorship in 1980.
El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Committed Blatant Election Fraud
This month, incumbent Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele seemed poised to easily win reelection and sweep the legislature with his New Ideas party. But when his legislative supermajority appeared in doubt, Bukele and his supporters resorted to outright fraud.
Kissinger in Central America
With Central America in flames, Henry Kissinger’s challenge was to portray local revolutionary movements as foreign conspiracies more alien than the United States’ own violent interventions. Where democracy failed, capitalism flourished.
Progressive Governments Across Latin America Are Condemning Israel
From Chile to Honduras, Latin American governments are recalling ambassadors, severing diplomatic relations, and openly condemning Israel — a country with a history of propping up dictatorships across the region — for its crimes against humanity in Gaza.
In Latin America, Economic Equality Is a Precondition for Democracy
A new comparative study of left-wing governments in Latin America shows that left governance can create strong local participatory democracy, even in hotbeds of opposition.
Ecuadorian Migrants Fleeing to the US Are Refugees of Right-Wing Rule
Immigration from Ecuador to the US has spiked as political and economic instability shake the country. The culprit: right-wing policies, which have reversed the massive gains made under “pink tide” president Rafael Correa.
US Sanctions Are Driving Displacement and Migration From Cuba and Venezuela
If the Biden administration wants to stop the mass displacement that is leading enormous numbers of Cuban and Venezuelan migrants to the US-Mexico border, it should end the sanctions that have made life in those countries all but impossible for average people.
US Imperialism Alone Can’t Explain the Triumph of the Right in Latin America
The United States has repeatedly intervened in Latin America to overthrow democratically elected governments and install right-wing dictatorships. But homegrown far-right forces in Latin America itself have often proved just as important as US meddling.
For Father Luis Olivares, Christianity Was a Radical Doctrine
This Easter, we remember the life of Father Luis Olivares, a leader in the sanctuary movement of the 1980s and a proponent of liberation theology. To him, Christianity was a call to stand with the poor and oppressed of the world.
Joe Biden Is Bringing Back Donald Trump’s Asylum Ban at the Border
The Biden administration’s recently announced change to border policy effectively resurrects Donald Trump’s asylum ban. It will cause harm or suffering to thousands or millions of migrants seeking survival in the US.
Reckoning With the Children Disappeared During El Salvador’s Civil War
The Salvadoran civil war didn’t just see US-trained-and-financed far-right forces commit endless war crimes — it also ripped children from families, an unknown number of whom never found their way back to their parents.
The Crypto Bro President
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, had a mandate for change. He used it to build a police state and buy coin.
Ana Margarita Gasteazoro Was a Proud Salvadoran Class Traitor
The wealthy young Salvadoran Ana Margarita Gasteazoro decided to give up her privileges for struggle against a far-right dictatorship — leading to her jailing and torture. That dictatorship is gone today, but El Salvador’s undemocratic crackdowns are not.
Socialist President Xiomara Castro Is Trying to Revive Democracy in Honduras
Honduras’s new leftist president, Xiomara Castro, was inaugurated in January. In her first few months in office, she’s prioritized dismantling the decade-long right-wing dictatorship’s anti-labor, pro-capital agenda.
Honduras Needs a New Constitution to Break With the Old, Corrupt State
After many years as a close US ally in Central America and over a decade of corrupt dictatorship, Honduras has a left government. Jacobin spoke to Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Gerardo Torres about the political transformations Honduras desperately needs.
San Antonio’s Mass Migrant Deaths Are a Logical Outcome of Joe Biden’s Anti-Immigrant Policies
The news of at least 53 deaths of migrants in San Antonio is heartbreaking — particularly because it is the inevitable result of the monstrous immigration policies that Joe Biden has done little to change.
In El Salvador, Bitcoin and the Police State Have Gone Hand in Hand
Mario Gómez is one of El Salvador’s most prominent critics of the government’s recent embrace of Bitcoin — which may explain why he was recently arrested by Salvadoran police, he told Jacobin in an interview.
El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Is Yet Again Ramping Up His Authoritarian Violence
Nayib Bukele has overseen multiple violent crackdowns on basic civil liberties across El Salvador during his time as president. With his recent declaration of martial law against gangs, it’s only getting worse.