How Authoritarians Use Spectacle and “Tamed” Bodies
In Field Notes, @ruthbenghiat.bsky.social explains how staged imagery and disciplined bodies become tools of power in the authoritarian playbook.
▶️ Watch now.
#FieldNotes #Authoritarianism
Breaking News: The EPA will stop considering lives saved when setting pollution limits and instead calculate only the cost to businesses.
A law enforcement agency that cannot show its face to the public does not serve the public and likely does not have the support of the public.
Gunboat diplomacy is back!
Worth remembering it didn’t work then and after a century of coersion and self-defeating power projection it was replaced by the Good Neighbor Policy.
“Peace in the Americas must rest on mutual confidence and cooperation, not on force.”
— FDR, 1936
The United States has not been a party to torture on this scale since the war in terror.
Torture does not make anyone safer and can never be justified as part of public policy.
Read out report here bit.ly/4nUjd4d
“He was dirty,” Mr. Musto said of the Salvadoran president. “He was corrupt. And now he’s sitting next to the president in the Oval Office and he’s got prime access to the leader of the free world.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u...
📢 #CristosalStatement | The Constitutional Chamber admits a habeas corpus petition in favor of Ruth López but legitimizes rights violations and the discretionary use of the state of exception.
Learn more. 👇
🌈 This Pride Month, we stand with the LGBTIQ+ community. In times of rising threats, visibility and solidarity matter more than ever. Everyone deserves dignity, love, and equal rights. #PrideMonth #LGBTIQ #HumanRights
Bukele partnered with gangs for political benefit and undermines US law enforcement to cover up his crimes; now Trump is helping.
www.propublica.org/article/buke...
🚨 #PressRelease | UN experts call for protection for Ruth López, lawyer and human rights defender.
They urge the government of El Salvador to ensure her safety and guarantee due process while she remains in detention.
🔗 short-link.me/-jje
Punitive populism that offers security at the expense of democracy and human rights is a false bargain serves as a pretext to expand autocratic power, exploit public office and diplomacy for personal gain, and institutionalize cruelty in public policy.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
📣 “The people of the US and El Salvador deserve better.”
Noah Bullock and Amrit Singh expose how Trump & Bukele push punitive populism—offering security while undermining democracy & human rights.
📄 Read the full article @theguardian.com tinyurl.com/yxvzshwe
#HaveSomeDecency #FreedomForRuthLópez
One week after Ruth López’s arrest, we reflect on what it means for human rights in El Salvador and the region.
🗣️ Featuring @jonathanblitzer.bsky.social
🎙️ In conversation with @noahbullock.bsky.social
🗓️ Thursday, May 29
🕑 2 PM ET / 12 PM Central America
📍 Live on Zoom | shorturl.at/8WbW6
@cristosal.bsky.social
From El Salvador where the defense of rights is not free.
#TenganDecencia
#LibertadParaRuth
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Mr. Trump and Mr. Bukele are “two presidents who see themselves with extraordinary powers to defy the courts, to decide who is innocent and who’s guilty, to determine what individuals and groups should be protected by the law – and which ones shouldn’t.”
www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics...
@cristosal.bsky.social has been documenting cases and developing habeas corpus claims with families of Venezuelan deported to CECOT.
None of the families have had communication with their relatives since they were rendered to El Salvador.
These are enforced disappearances.
There is now an irreconcilable difference between how the State Department and the Justice Department view the Bukele regime.
State says that Bukele is one of their key allies in combating gangs, while Justice's alleges that Bukele partnered with them.
www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
El Salvador's Nayib Bukele paid a visit to the White House yesterday – a man accused of abusing human rights. So why has Trump become such a great friend of his? @nikkimcr.bsky.social and @jacobjarvis.bsky.social spoke to @noahbullock.bsky.social to find out 👉 linktr.ee/americanfric...
This episode might be my favortie @americanfric.bsky.social interview so far.
Bukele will be at the WH today, we spoke to @noahbullock.bsky.social about how his regime has cratered human rights in El Salvador -- and what Trump is learning from it.
linktr.ee/americanfric...
Ahead of Bukele’s meeting with Trump tomorrow, the work being done by organizations like Cristosal has never been more important ⬇️⬇️
Thank you @TVietor08 and @CrookedMedia for a great conversation about autocracy in El Salvador.
A president that claims that human rights and independent courts are obstacles for security is more concerned with accumulating power than national security.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4zi...
I spoke with @rollingstone.com about how in El Salvador, the seductive promise of security in exchange for rights has led to tyranny, and it could in the US too.
Follow our human rights work in Central America at @cristosal.bsky.social
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
Institutions that protect people against abuses of power are the strength of democracies.
Brutality is the tool of the autocrat and the proof of its weakness as a form of government.
A democracy doesnot demonstrate strength outsourcing its brutality to an autocrat.
"To be a witness is to be a voice for the voiceless against the powers of injustice."
45 years since his martyrdom.
Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador
Saint of the Americas
Brutality is the autocrat’s method, control is his objective.
“Show them they are not in control.”
time.com/7269604/el-s...
Our human rights organization @cristosal in El Salvador has been documenting arbitrary detentions, torture and killings in Salvadoran prisons.
Here is what Americans need to know.
@timmiller.bsky.social
foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/20/t...
What Americans should know about Salvadoran prisons.
@timothysnyder.bsky.social
@anneapplebaum.bsky.social
@rbreich.bsky.social
@jonfavs.bsky.social
@ezrakleinbot.bsky.social
@chrislhayes.bsky.social
@rhodesben.bsky.social
foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/20/t...
