EL SALVADOR IS BECOMING A COUNTRY OF FURTHER ADMIRATION

El Salvador is admirable for several reasons, its small territory, bathed by the pacific ocean from has beaches second to none; its volcanos and hills that rise all over the country allows for clean air, a complex pallet of greens, and chilly weathers right in the midst of summer; its lakes, laying in between the ocean and the green fresh-air hights, add to the already diverse landscapes an options for things to do.

Thanks to its small territory, people have it all in no time –the bravery of surfing long waves, the adventure of hiking and waterfalls walks and swimming, the peace at the lakeshores, and more.

Adding to that is the most important element –the people's welcoming attitude, the diversity of people thanks to the mixing of races, and the dynamic life of its cities. All these co-existing elements make El Salvador a paradise on earth.

Now, El Salvador is becoming a further admirable country because its people, a population once-upon-a-time divided into small fractions following different political parties, have finally got the courage to get together. El Salvador is becoming a united nation, at least for the moment, and that is remarkable because the division of its people had lasted for such a long time that it seemed the country would never unite.

The road has been a hard one, and even harder times are to come to sustain the glue that unites us at the moment, but the persistence and willingness of the larger population, those supporting the current leadership, has created a unity of El Salvadoran people that has no precedent at least for the last half-century.

A conversation with El Salvadoran political analyst and writer David Panamá (https://www.facebook.com/ernestopanamaescritor/), who possesses encyclopedic political knowledge, confirms that El Salvador suffered about sixty years of military dictatorship, followed by thirteen years of civil war, and after that, thirty years of corrupt governments that kept El Salvador as one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to allowed criminality, and one with a very high illiteracy rate.

El Salvador, otherwise a paradise on earth, was for most of its history a country exploited by the rich, domestic and foreign, to make them richer and turn the poor even poorer and more vulnerable. The sad part of such a reality is that for such a long time, the people of El Salvador allowed that to happen.

But El Salvador seems to be reaching the beginning of a new, more desirable reality, one where the poorer, have been the center of attention, and the rest of us is ok with that. And this is good for everybody because, after all, if one lives in a castle surrounded by poverty, one lives in poverty. The hopes and active participation in the making of a new and healthier country are high so to ensure that such a new path delivers an outstanding country.

So, how has this extraordinary phenomenon been possible?

Several factors are worth mentioning. First and most important, the pandemic. El Salvadoran people, regardless of the hardships, love life, and in this situation –the pandemic, such most-loving factor is in jeopardy. So, if something good has come out of such dreadful time, is the awaking of El Salvadoran people in the sense of understanding that defeating this pandemic is only possible if we work and stay together.

As Winston Churchill once said: Never waste a good crisis. And the current administration of El Salvador has, in a very intelligent way, done precisely that, not to waste this crisis. The time for the pandemic couldn't be better (forgive the sarcasm) for a new administration to shine. Let us hope they will continue to shine after the pandemic.

But a good crisis is not enough. To deliver something that 95.7% of the population approves (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBIyqsA6clo&t=11s), leading to the active participation of the masses and every public sector in the country, requires not only intelligence but also a strong character of the leader and a team with the capacity to deliver positive results.

Country leadership around the world has been put at a test with the Covid-19, and El Salvador has excelled in the process, not only because the leadership acted with strict measurements even before the first case appeared in the country, but also because they started to work on fixing many sectors of the country at the same time including corruption, criminality, water quality and the improvement of other public services, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and more.

Communication between the administration offices and the public as well as access to data has never been as open as they are now. It seems that the majority of El Salvadoran people, plus the whole world, in fact, recognizes as positive the efforts of the new administration.

Perhaps the most important aspect to celebrate about this new administration is that its leader, Mr. Nayib Bukele, has been able to inspire people to get together. That inspiring factor is perhaps the real job of the leader, and he has found what inspires people in El Salvador and do precisely that –inspire.

Has he made mistakes? Many, I believe, but, not to justify those mistakes of course, when one takes charge of a messy enterprise, mistakes are inevitable.

The pandemic, like any other type of crisis, is the perfect opportunity for a new administration to shine and for people to get together in order to survive, as it is for the opposition to voice out mistakes of the current administration.

But the Covid-19 didn't make it possible for the new administration to be favored during the presidential elections in the fourteen states of the country since the elections, neither it created public consensus; that favor and consensus came before the pandemic; something else was already in place.

On the one hand, people were already wasted by the long hardship we've lived. During the elections, many would have voted not for another party and system but just for something different, and hope that such difference was for the better. I believe many did that. Besides, the other political parties lacked credibility due to their inability, or not willingness, to work for the good of the country. Also, the new leader had a good record built through actions while he was a Mayor.

On the other hand, El Salvador's new generation of young professionals is more critical, better educated, and they demand a better country to live in, and, as it seems to be the case, they are willing to raise their voices and participate in the doing. Without their participation, such a change wouldn't be possible. That people united will never be defeated is true, and El Salvador, once again, is showing that to be the case.

For an El Salvadoran person grown-up during the civil war, and being abroad at the moment, it is beyond touching to see my country united walking a one-path, greeting and prizing those fighting the pandemic upfront, praying as one country regardless of their image of god, abandoning political flags and work together with the central government, not disturbing the process, holding it while others do their deeds, and getting ready for the new reality to come... this is, in deed, beyond touching and one feels nothing else but pride.

Sure, more challenging times are about to come, one-sided interests opposing the doings of the current administration will arise again, we will have to remain vigilant of the actions taken by the current administration so that they don't forget that their responsibility is to the whole country, not to their personal or political interests; but if we continue our current path together, we will, in no time, not only defeat the pandemic but recreate and maintain a country that will be, truly, a paradise on earth.

God bless El Salvador!