
A pandemic of power grabs: Autocrats see opportunity in disaster - baylearn
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/04/23/autocrats-see-opportunity-in-disaster
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el-salvador
My country is on that list.

The president/government is using Twitter to:

* Order military lockdowns in cities

* Defect blame to all political oponents

* Threaten to shutdown the largest bank and mobile phone operator

* Bot networks that attack any dissenting view

* A government official publicly using the twitter api to identify tweets from the oppositon

* Order the military and police to use letal force if someone does not comply.

We've had somewhat working separation of powers.

It is terrible to see my country turning into an autocratic rule, and how the
government is misusing Twitter to make that happen :/

~~~
pocoloco
> * Order military lockdowns in cities

Using the military was normalized be previous governments from the left and
the right. Nothing new in using them for security purposes. And lockdowns are
being performed worldwide, so from a local perspective nothing abnormal in
using the military for lockdown purposes.

> * Defect blame to all political opponents

Which blame? Keeping derelict infrastructure such as the potable water plant
that didn't receive a repair for 30 years hoping that it will break down in
order to pass laws to privatize access to water? A non-existing health care
system for the most Salvadorans? On and on...

> * Threaten to shutdown the largest bank and mobile phone operator

The president used his power to keep these and other corporations in check
since these were ignoring the orders of not seizing the stipend provided by
the gov to the poorest. At least one bank was seizing this in "fees" and debt
collection. As for the mobile company, there were people reporting that one
company was cutting service to people for non-payment even though these have
been prohibited by the gov to do so for a few months therefore illegal.

> * Bot networks that attack any dissenting view

This is a tired argument that has been shown to be false time and time again.
The popularity of the president, Nayib Bukele, is such that 98% of the
population have a positive image of the president and 97% approve his handling
of the current virus crisis. There is enough people that approve his actions
that anyone emotionally invested in the opposite cannot handle the reaction of
others specially when any comments that they bring are at best uninformed, at
worst lies. I know, these are high numbers; he's that good.

> * A government official publicly using the twitter api to identify tweets
> from the opposition

So, the gov is investigating public information about posts with unverifiable
data aimed to discredit and possible incite violence against the president's
family. What's wrong with that?

> * Order the military and police to use lethal force if someone does not
> comply.

Comply to what? To break lockdown? Nope. Use lethal force when engaged with
violent life-threatening forces, which in El Salvador are gangs backed by drug
cartels, corrupt business man, and prominent politicians from left and right
protected by immunity because they are currently serving. Yes, that's right,
current serving politicians from both left and right have been recorded
providing funds to these gangs.

> We've had somewhat working separation of powers.

What? I guess you're talking about the president stating that he will use his
constitutional powers to enforce any measure deemed necessary to protect
lives. This is an argument used by his discredited opponents because they
still control the judicial and legislative bodies. Before Bukele, the
presidency danced to the same sick music that has kept this little country
poor where both left and right were attached to the hip.

> It is terrible to see my country turning into an autocratic rule, and how
> the government is misusing Twitter to make that happen :/

It brings hope to see a small country that has been ruled by a primitive
dishonest bi-partisan mafia to have at last a glimmer of hope for a better
future in this time of incertitude.

[1] Survery result in Spanish PDF

[https://www.cidgallup.com/uploads/publication/publication_fi...](https://www.cidgallup.com/uploads/publication/publication_files/publication_1587421944000.pdf)

------
lycidas
"The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein discusses this phenomenon more with
regards to economic policies.

~~~
lowdose
[https://youtu.be/B3B5qt6gsxY](https://youtu.be/B3B5qt6gsxY)

------
commandlinefan
There's been an ongoing, mostly successful, effort by the United States media
to associate words like "liberty" and "freedom" with "white supremacy". This
has paved the way to a mostly supportive public now that the U.S. government
is taking advantage of this (relatively mild) pandemic to completely re-wire
the structure of government here.

