Some may see Nayib Bukele as just another authoritarian politician in a long line of Latin American dictators either installed or embraced by the United States, but there is something different about Nayib when directly compared to the other iron fisted fascists that sold out their people to the highest bidder: he’s half Palestinian.
Nayib’s father immigrated to El Salvador in 1921 (just four years after the Balfour Declaration) from Jerusalem to start a new life. And this very likely saved his father. British Mandate Palestine was primarily an afterthought for England, and there was a sense of unease growing over the region as European Jews started to settle there while Palestinians attempted to maintain stability after the defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Fast forward to today, and the Palestinian people are facing genocide and ethnic cleansing at the American-armed hands of Israel. And it doesn’t seem that Nayib gives a fuck about that at all.
Despite America funding the slaughter of his father’s people, Bukele seems intent on working with the US to further his own power in El Salvador by making his country’s greatest export nothing other than incarceration. The United States and El Salvador have already reached an agreement for El Salvador to indefinitely imprison undocumented immigrants who have been charged for violent crimes for a financial aid.
Then things took a truly unprecedented turn: Bukele offered to incarcerate American citizens who have been convicted of serious crimes, too. An offer which the Trump Administration is considering. Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, and now an official member of the Trump Administration, took to X (formerly Twitter) to show his support for Bukele’s proposal. Calling it a “great idea!!”
Things that are unprecedented can sometimes be deeply ironic, too. While President Trump uses the threat of deportation as a political weapon, there is some truth to his rhetoric, the Trump Administration is gearing up for mass deportations, and is restructuring law enforcement to achieve these aims. Other than undocumented immigrants, Trump has been outspoken in his support of Israel, which has manifested in a multitude of ways, such as the US taking complete control over the rebuilding and ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. The war on the Palestinian people doesn’t stop in Gaza. The Trump administration has deported several students and nullified visas for foreign students who have publicly been critical of Israel and their crimes.
This has me thinking, wouldn’t it be odd if a few of those students, who have been deported for defending Palestinians and their internationally recognized rights were incarcerated in a prison operated by a government that is under the direct control of a politician who is of Palestinian lineage?
While this scenario is unlikely, as these the students wouldn’t be labeled violent criminals, it does feel possible. Right wing America already views these students as “terrorist sympathizers” which is deeply ironic if you know anything about the history of the establishment of Israel, but whatever.
This is the darkest characteristic of capitalism, it’s a system that celebrates the ability to turn a blind eye as your own people die for a dollar. There’s something more sinister about blood money when the blood covered currency is dampened by the deaths of your own.
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a reminder that enacting genocide is about power and domination. it does not belong to any one identity group or happen to any one identity group. no one is immune to fascist beliefs.
Everybody knew this shitlib