It is rarely in the news for the right reasons, but this Central American nation with a Bitcoin-loving leader deserves a rebranding
The news from El Salvador is rarely positive. We’re told it is the “most dangerous country” and capital San Salvador the “most murderous city”. Photojournalists seem to have an obsession with the country’s gangs. Most recently, president Nayib Bukele, dubbed “the world’s coolest president”, hit the headlines as the first head of state to embrace Bitcoin. Around $60 million in taxpayer cash has been lost since the experiment started. Not so cool.
Perhaps it’s down to this negativity that El Salvador is the last country in Latin America that I got round to visiting. I never planned to avoid going, but grim stereotypes are bound to seep into the subconscious. When I finally got there, I found it to be beautiful in some parts and beguiling in all.
My tour started on a serious note. Up at Perquín in the Oriente – where the FMLN leftist guerrillas had their headquarters – are memorials to those lost in the Civil War that raged from 1979 to 1992. Shrines and burial sites are dotted all over, and commemorative parades are as routine as religious ones. The Museo de la Revolucion was basic but affecting, with a collection of war memorabilia, weapons, propaganda posters and photographs of guerrillas. Nearly 1,000 people were slain in a massacre that took place in December 1981 in El Mozote. As recently as February of this year, forensic experts exhumed the remains of further victims, mainly children.
Visiting such places might sound like the very definition of “dark tourism”, but the people I encountered there were welcoming and kind, and the journey up to the sierras around Perquín – now known as the capital of the Peace Route – was quite magical. The collision of natural beauty and human tragedy is a key part of Central America’s recent history.