Our June 30th webinar, US Intervention and Salvadoran Resistance: from ARENA to Bukele, was a collaborative success! Three speakers from El Salvador and one from international solidarity told of US intervention in the Central American country since the 1980s. They lend valuable context to a story that is now in the headlines, due to Trump/Bukele collaboration on prison imperialism. The speakers tell a story of resilience and resistance, and the importance of joining our struggles towards making Our Americas a Zone of Peace.
Below you’ll find a follow-up letter by FoLA’s Chair, Leslie Salgado (including a link to the video recording), followed by a thank-you note to our awesome partners and a list of resources on the subject.
Dear friends,
Thank you for registering for our webinar: US Intervention and Salvadoran Resistance from ARENA to Bukele. We are pleased to share the recording with you. (see below for link and instructions to use subtitles in English, should you need them).
We hope that the story of US intervention in El Salvador, particularly since the 1980s, helps people in the United States understand how important it is to prevent our government from interfering in other peoples’ sovereign struggles for dignity and liberation. We also hope that viewers can better understand how Nayib Bukele uses deception to serve not only his own
interests, but those of US empire. The peoples of the US and El Salvador have been fighting for the same things for generations-living wages, education, healthcare, dignified housing, land, a clean environment-and now with the threat of prison imperialism, our fates are even more closely intertwined. We must join forces, as proposed by all of our speakers and in the campaign to make Our Americas a Zone of Peace.
Attached is a list of resources on El Salvador, to further your learning. It also includes all the resources that were posted in the chat during the webinar, and one particularly relevant comment. We are also sending the list of collaborating organizations that helped make this event possible. Thank you all!
YouTube link to recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Z5eB0ECcM
If you would like to see the recording with English subtitles, please follow these instructions: To change the language of closed captions on a YouTube video, first, play the video and click the “CC” button in the player to turn on captions. Then, click the settings icon (gear icon) and select “Subtitles/CC”. If the desired language is already available, choose it from the list. If not, click “Auto-translate” and select the language you want.
For justice and peace,
Leslie Salgado, Chair
Friends of Latin America
Estimados amig@s,
Gracias por inscribirse para nuestro seminario virtual: Intervención Estadounidense y la Resistencia Salvadoreña desde ARENA hasta Bukele. Nos complace compartir con ustedes la grabación. (ver abajo el enlace y las instrucciones para ver la grabación con subtítulos en español, de ser necesario)
Ojalá que la historia de la intervención estadounidense en El Salvador, sobre todo desde la década de 1980, ayude a la población de Estados Unidos a comprender lo importante que es impedir que nuestro gobierno interfiera en las luchas soberanas de otros pueblos por la dignidad y la liberación. También esperamos que nuestro público pueda comprender mejor cómo Nayib Bukele utiliza el engaño para servir no sólo a sus propios intereses, sino a los del imperio estadounidense. Los pueblos de Estados Unidos y El Salvador llevan generaciones luchando por las mismas cosas -salarios dignos, educación, salud, vivienda digna, tierra, un medio ambiente limpio- y ahora, con la amenaza del imperialismo carcelario, nuestros destinos están aún más estrechamente entrelazados. Es preciso aunar esfuerzos, como proponen todos nuestros panelistas en el seminario web y en la campaña por hacer Nuestra América una Zona de Paz.
Se adjunta a este correo una lista de recursos sobre El Salvador, para profundizar su aprendizaje. Incluye todos los recursos que se publicaron en el chat durante el seminario web más un comentario especialmente relevante.
También enviamos la lista de organizaciones colaboradoras que ayudaron a hacer posible este evento. Muchas gracias a tod@s!
El enlace para ver la grabación en YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Z5eB0ECcM
Si desea ver la grabación con subtítulos en inglés, siga estas instrucciones: Para cambiar el idioma de los subtítulos en un vídeo de YouTube, primero reproduce el vídeo y haz clic en el botón «CC» del reproductor para activar los subtítulos. A continuación, haz clic en el icono de configuración (icono de engranaje) y selecciona «Subtítulos/CC». Si el idioma deseado ya está disponible, elígelo de la lista. Si no, haz clic en «Traducción automática» y selecciona el idioma que desea.
Por la justicia y la paz,
Leslie Salgado, Coordinadora
Friends of Latin America
THANKS! ¡GRACIAS!
Thanks to our partners on the 30 June webinar on the US-El Salvador/Gracias a nuestros aliados en el seminario virtual sobre EEUU-El Salvador:
- Montgomery Peace Action
- Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES)
- Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldía Popular
- Movimiento de Víctimas del Régimen MOVIR
- North-South Project for Peoples-Centered Human Rights
- United National Antiwar Coalition
- Friendship Office of the Americas
- Frente Intercontinental – la Ventana de Lucha Popular Salvadoreña
- Codepink
- SanctionsKill/Americas Without Sanctions
- National Network on Cuba
- Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition
- Venezuela Solidarity Network
- Solidarity Committee of the Americas (SCOTA)
- Vermont Peace/Antiwar Coalition (VPAC)
…and others who tweeted or helped spread the word in other ways!
EL SALVADOR RESOURCES 2025
GOOD BACKGROUND READING
Hilary Goodfriend (2019): https://jacobin.com/2019/02/el-salvador-fmln-nayib-bukele
Hilary Goodfriend 2017: https://jacobin.com/2017/07/usaid-el-salvador-gangs-drug-war-security-fmln-arena
Hilary Goodfriend 2013:
http://dollarsandsense.org.user.s436.sureserver.com/article/p3-push-in-el-salvador
Bukele/Trump complicity with gangs: https://beta.elfaro.net/en/el-salvador-en/bukele-gets-Trump-to-toss-the-work-of-vulcan-the-task-force-that-pursued-ms-13
INFORMATION & LINKS POSTED IN THE CHAT DURING THE WEBINAR
- During the introduction
- https://friendsoflatinamerica.org/
- In 2019 Friends of Latin America sponsored “Where are the Children?”, a campaign to raise awareness about family separation. We were in leadership of a coalition that worked to close the Howard County detention center, and successfully pushed for passage of the Liberty Act (and later defense of it) which prohibits Howard County from collecting and sharing immigration information about residents with other government entities.
https://x.com/FriendsLatinAm/status/1590349442775142401 - CEPR Report on Economic Sanctions as a Root Cause of Migration: https://cepr.net/publications/economic-sanctions-a-root-cause-of-migration/SanctionsKill/
- Americas Without Sanctions: https://sanctionskill.org/americas-without-sanctions/
- During Marisela’s talk:
- Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldía Popular: https://www.facebook.com/p/Bloque-de-Resistencia-y-Rebeld%C3%ADa-Popular-100076450514433/
- During Samuel’s talk:
- During Claudia’s talk:
- Shared by CISPES:
Other relevant comments and resources posted:
- #JuicioPúblicoParaRuth
- Friends of Latin America is also on instagram: https://instagram.com/friendsoflatinamerica
- Gracias! Hoy vi la otra cara de la moneda. Siempre había hablado con salvadoreños y están muy felices con Bukele y la paz que se respire en el Salvador. Es Bueno saber la otra realidad.
Friends of Latin America 