Naming Names in a State of Exception

Abstract (English)

The project seemed so urgent in 2011—that year of global outrage. I happened to be in El Salvador when young people began swarming the streets, protesting a decree that would kneecap the country’s Supreme Court. They dubbed themselves the Indignados, in homage to their Spanish counterparts. I quickly put together a proposal to return and work with this new generation of (mostly middle-class) activists. That they were agitating against the newly elected leftist government, formed by the FMLN, the party of former guerrillas, made the situation even more intriguing. The FMLN used to be the ones organizing the protests. But by the time I got back there for a sabbatical leave, the Indignados had all but disappeared from the headlines. Though their focus had dissipated, many remained politically active, whether in NGOs, journalism, or in government. Eventually I wrote a (forthcoming) book about liberalism and emergent generations of activists. As I revise the manuscript, though, urgency has returned. The current president of the country, Nayib Bukele—“the world’s coolest dictator,” as he trolled the world on Twitter soon after he was elected, at age 37, in 2019—is not so cool with activists, with critics, or with anyone who does not follow his lead. He has imprisoned his political enemies. The Legislature has supported his demand for a State of Exception, crippling rule of law. Last year I returned once again to the country, hoping to reconnect in person after the pandemic had kept us apart. Things had changed. Back between 2012 and 2019, all of the young activists I met had been quite open about their opinions. All of them had wanted me to quote them by name. But now? Fear and silence reign in some key spaces. Some of the former Indignados are afraid for their families. So I’ve been reaching out to them to be sure that they still want to be identified, or even to be present, in the book. In this paper I discuss the dilemmas intertwined with an ongoing (literal) State of Exception and “protecting” subjects and consider how the timing of projects and publications matter.