Leilani Reyes

Professor Encinias

CAS115

November 21, 2023

Detailed outline

I. R1: How has the Nayib Bukele administration/ dictatorship/government impacted ES’s

lack of women's 3 rights when it comes to the decision of their own bodies?

II. Thesis statement: Under Nayib Bukeles administration/government in ES, there has been

a lack of reproductive and sexual orientation rights and being silenced when they speak

out.

III. Introduction: A large percentage of central Americans live in the United states. They hear

the good change that has happened in the course of five years in El Salvador. With the

minimization of crimes, building up a better economy, and such. Rightfully so, many

central. However, there are a few issues that still stand today. That is, The strict religion

of catholicism or any other branches of christianity, in El Salvador, can be responsible for

the current lack of rights for women.Sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls

not existing, abortion is illegal in all circumstances, matter of fact it is seen as a crime.

This can also have to do with the strict religion of catholicism in El Salvador. And the

LGBT community is still targeted and El Salvador remains probably one of the most

homophobic countries in Central America.

IV. History/Background: A woman's body doesn’t only focus on a woman's physical

attributes, but also of their minds, and what their minds choose to do for their bodies.

Meaning what they choose to do with their reproductive rights i.e. choosing to go on with
 a pregnancy, or to stop anything from continuing to brew. Even with sexual orientation,

getting to choose which gender they hold intimate relationships with; whether it’s a man,

woman, or a non-binary person.

V. Claims:

A. Under Nayib Bukele administration, he has made it possible for women to lose

control of their rights with their own bodies. For abortions, President Nayib

Bukele has made it illegal to have an abortion, Under no circumstances is

someone allowed to have an abortion. At first this seemed unreal, and

unbelievable until the case of Elsy came to surface in the media. A Salvadoran

woman who was in her third trimester, suffered from a miscarriage, then was

incarcerated for having that miscarage, she had no control over. Elsy, in her

utmost vulnerable state in her life was publicly humiliated, mentally violated and

sentenced to jail for 30 years in prison. Not because of a decision she personally

made, but for an issue that happened biologically in her womb. How is it that a

president has made rules and regulations against what a woman does, even if it’s

uncontrollable. With abortion, there has got to be some serious motive as for why

a woman would not want to bring a baby into this world. Regardless if it’s

because she was harassed, taken advantage of, or even realized that she made a

mistake and wanted to take it back. That decision doesn’t lie in the hands of

anyone that isn’t her. Not a mother, not a father, not a significant other, and

especially not to a man who will never understand the struggles women go

through.
 1. Casas, Ximena. “El Salvador Releases Woman Imprisoned after

Miscarriage.” Human Rights Watch, 15 Feb. 2022,

www.hrw.org/news/2022/02/15/el-salvador-releases-woman-imprisoned-

after-miscarriage#:~:text=In%202011%2C%20Elsy%20suffered%20a,had

%20had%20an%20illegal%20abortion.

B. Bukele has increased the number of soldiers in El Salvador, for neighborhoods

that were mainly controlled by gang members. Although this was probably done

with good intentions, president Bukele has not really thought the situation

through. A woman who happens to be an activist in El Salvador states, “five years

ago, we were afraid of mareros [gang members], and now we are afraid of groups

of soldiers.” Speaking about the state of exception, she noted: “It brings a false

sense of security. . . . There is so much harassment from police and soldiers,

because they have increased their presence in our communities, and you can’t say

anything about it.”. It’s a difficult situation, the amount of violence that used to be

so prominent has stopped, but there are still people suffering in silence. Because

Bukele and his administration are thinking of the people in the country as

percentages instead of individuals. If most of the citizens are doing okay, why

help the few that are suffering.

1. Zulver, Julia, and Maria Mendez. “El Salvador’s ‘State of Exception’

Makes Women Collateral Damage.” Carnegie Endowment For

International Peace, 4 May 2023, carnegieendowment.org/2023/05/04/el-

salvador-s-state-of-exception-makes-women-collateral-damage-pub-

89686.
C. Abuse increases the risk of adolescent pregnancy in El Salvador, and intimate

partner violence during adolescence has a huge effect on the the victim. Currently,

Women in El Salvador are facing physical, sexual, emotional, and economic

abuse. This violence is stated to be the lead to severe mental health issues,

including suicidal thoughts and attempts. A study found that experiencing more

than one type of violence is "polyvictimization." There has been a large wave of

Salvadoran women who have gone through poly victimization, which has

significant associations with suicidal thoughts and attempts. Psychological and

economic violence, along with physical and sexual violence, were found to

increase the risk of suicidal thoughts and attempts. Effective intervention and

research are recommended to address IPV and mental health problems in El

Salvador. The recognition of this issue is essential, and what makes this article so

good is that it was assessed, and with proof, we can say that there is a problem

that can be addressed and treated with the work of everyone around us.

a) Kim, C., Vasquez, L., & Rajah, V. (2023). “The Effects of

Polyvictimization by Intimate Partners on Suicidality Among

Salvadoran Women.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol.

38(15-16), 8991-9014.

https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605231162654.|

D. The LGBT community is still targeted and El Salvador remains probably one of

the most homophobic countries in Central America.

1. Due to the social forces in El Salvador, it is challenging for the LGBTQ+

community to publicly declare their sexual orientation and use the

 #MeToo hashtag as a strategy for their movement. Adding on to that, the

paper identifies the social forces that diminish the use of #MeToo in El

Salvador and some positive indications of the movement's influence. It

proposes directions for LGBTQ+ leaders and citizens to empower

LGBTQ+ Salvadorans to speak out and provides areas for further research

into leadership theory. State terrorism has become a way of life and is

integrated into the national culture. The state has been used to maintain the

dominance of the elite and prevent the inclusion or rights of excluded

groups, including LGBTQ+. It is not noted that the state-sanctioned police

violence against "undesirables'' dates back to the colonial era, "first to

control rural workers, then leftists and unionists in the first half of the

twentieth century - and to LGBT people today." After explaining the

social imaginary in El Salvador and the study methodology, this paper

highlights the discriminatory environment and violence experienced by

LGBTQ+ Salvadorans, their lack of access to justice, and the leadership

approaches used by the LGBTQ+ movement.

a) Thompson, Randal Joy, and Sofia Figueroa. “MeToo and

LGBTQ+ Salvadorans: Social and Leadership Challenges.”

Gender in Management, vol. 35, no. 4, 2020, pp. 373–89,

https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-05-2019-0078.

E. In 2014, located in San Miguel El Salvador Zashy Zueli from Sid Velasquez left

her humble home 2014 because her family failed to accept her sexual orientation.

Zulei migrated to San Miguel the East Side of the country where she thought she
could live without any discrimination against her. However, as time went on,

when she thought she was going to be okay, she ended up being humiliated and

beaten up for being a transgender woman until suspected gang members murdered

her on a lonely street and bystanders tried to help. The article states, "Zashy was

living in desperation; her family didn't want her because of her sexual orientation

and the gang members had threatened her. She knew she was going to be killed;

she wanted to flee the country, to leave for the United States, but she was shot in

the lung, "Venus Nolasco, a trans woman who runs the LGBT collective "Pearls

of the East," told The Associated Press. After Zueli's murder, United States Vice

President Camilla Harris identified violence against the LGBTQ community and

Central America. During a meeting with Guatemala President Alejandro

Giammettei, he stated that it was one of the biggest causes of migration in the

region. After opening the beauty salon, she hired another trans woman to help her,

and she succeeded, so she planned to expand her business. Life seemed to smile at

him, but on the night of April 25, as he was walking on a lonely street in San

Miguel, Zashy was shot in the back. Bystanders helped her and took her to the

San Juan de Dios National Hospital, where she died. So far, there have been no

arrests, and Venus thinks that, like other hate crimes perpetrated in the country, "it

will be forgotten, they are not interested in what happens to us."

1. Translated by ContentEngine LLC. “Murder of Salvadoran Trans Woman

Impacts LGBTQ+ Community in El Salvador.” CE Noticias Financieras,

English ed., ContentEngine LLC, a Florida limited liability company,

2021.
F. The Salvadorian law defines femicide as the killing of a woman with “motives of

hatred or contempt for her condition as a woman”. Some have proposed the term

Femicide, To really bring out the role of the state negligence in these crimes and

the intersection of power dynamics that have that Connect with cultural and social

economic factors. The day President Nayib Bukele announced a strict lockdown

for El Salvador at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a collective of local

women’s organizations launched a hotline to support women confined indoors

with their abusers. The country was not prepared for the public health emergency

nor for protecting women against violence. The groups noted always exacerbate

“acts of violence against women stemming from existing inequalities.” By early

June, the feminist organization Colectiva Feminista para el Desarrollo Local had

documented 26 femicides during the lockdown. President Bukele has stated in the

most unsympathetic way, that feminist groups should be "happy" with how rates

of killings of women have fallen under his government. Although official data

indicates that femicide rates have declined since 2016, human rights groups

highlight that other forms of violence against women, such as disappearances,

have been present but not vocalized .Ormusa, a local nonprofit organization

promoting women's rights, reports that 130 women were murdered in 2020; which

is a decrease from 238 in 2019. But, Baulenas warns people to be wary of

government data because it could be motivated by electoral interests, such as the

recent elections, where Bukele's party won a majority. The decrease in feminicide

could reflect the fact that the state has not put enough resources into adequately

investigating feminicide. Looking at the statistics of it all, according to Ormusa's

 monitoring, cases of domestic violence in 2020 totaled 1,245, an increase from

1,172 cases in 2019. Meaning, feminicide statistics fail to account for the

enforced disappearances of women and girls, and missing persons cases also raise

questions about the possible underreporting of feminicide.

1. Zanzinger, Kristina. “Underreported and Unpunished, Femicides in El

Salvador Continue.” NACLA, 5 Mar. 2021,

nacla.org/news/2021/03/04/femicides-el-salvador-pandemic.

G. A transgender woman by the name of Camilla Diaz Cordova Suffered violence

and discrimination her entire life for her sexual orientation. Cordova eventually

fled El Salvador multiple times to seek refuge abroad. Unfortunately after being

deported from the United States in late 2017 She understood what her fate was

from that point. It's allegedly stated that in January of 2019 police officers

detained Cordova and assaulted her in a pickup truck before throwing her out of

the moving vehicle. Eventually due to all of the abrasive action that happened to

her she died from those injuries. Earlier in the month of April of 2020An

investigating judge ruled that a homicide case against the officers who committed

the crime could be able to proceed to trial. Although stating that there could be a

chance Cordova would have Justice, That same judge ended up dismissing the

Case. President Nayib Bukele has made fighting crime A main focus of his

presidency. President Buchanan tries to proclaim the declining number of

homicides however his lack of strategy when it comes to the LGBT hate crimes It

means very quiet. In the year of 2020 there have been 3 reported murder cases of

gays and transgender people in El Salvador. You'd think it would be president

 buquette's responsibility to publicly not condemn this sort of violence towards his

citizens and encourage prosecutors to pursue training on hate crime charges. But

as of right now it stands that the trial of those accused of killing Cordova Will not

be examined if they targeted Cordova for her gender identity. Salvadorans that are

part of the LGBT community are watching closely to see whether or not Justice

will be delivered for the recent spate of murders.

1. González Cabrera, Cristian. “Justice for LGBT Salvadorans Requires

Reckoning with Hate.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020,

www.hrw.org/news/2020/04/11/justice-lgbt-salvadorans-requires-

reckoning-hate.

H. A 22 year old pregnant woman told a reporter by telephone "I don't want to die"

This occurred in May of 2013. Beatriz was suffering from Lupus and kidney

failure which made her pregnancy delivery much harder than the average

Delivery. Although she was at risk of dying her government was denying her an

abortion this was a life or death situation and she was not granted any help under

any circumstances. Beatriz lives in El Salvador where all of abortion is banned

under all circumstances even if it means a mother's life is at risk or if the fetus is

Not alive anymore. Beatriz's situation was brought to global attention. The truth

was it wasn't just her who was suffering but so many other women who as a face

of the result of El Salvador's abortion laws revealed a real reality that a case like

baya traces was not that uncommon. El Salvador is a country that is very deep

within the Catholic tradition. Which means that insult mother is a very

conservative country being only one of the other 5 countries in the world that
implement an abortion ban. In earlier years El Salvador actually allowed abortion

in 3 circumstances when it means saving the life of the mother, when it was

victims of rape, And or if there was serious federal deformity. However now in

modern times a newly appointed conservative right-wing successfully

campaigned for reform of the country's abortion laws. Nowadays even

miscarriages have been prosecuted and seen as abortion or homicide and women

have been sentenced to prison for years because of miscarriages. To summit up

women Are not allowed in abortion even if it means they risk their own life, if the

fetus is non viable, And even if the person is a victim of rape or incest.

1. Zacarias, Johanna. “SUFFERING IN SILENCE: THE URGENT NEED

TO ADDRESS EL SALVADOR’S LACK OF REPRODUCTIVE

RIGHTS.” The George Washington International Law Review, vol. 47, no.

1, 2015, pp. 233–61.