Protests Are Our Voice: Make This Saturday Count

Your sign is a pressure point. Use it.

Across the country this Saturday, millions of us will be in the streets.
If you're joining, don’t just express outrage—apply pressure.

Authoritarianism feeds on silence, confusion, and distance.
CECOT is where all three collide.

It’s where the United States is already sending people.
It’s where due process is openly collapsing.
It’s where disappearances and deaths are documented in real-time.
It’s the blueprint for what comes next—unless we make it impossible to ignore.

Your protest sign isn’t decoration. It’s disruption.
Here’s how to make yours count.

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1. Name Bukele Directly

El Salvador’s President Bukele craves admiration. He thinks he’s untouchable. But he runs a death camp—for Trump.

He may have high approval at home but his global image is fragile. Direct protests here puncture his carefully crafted persona, sending a clear message that we see through his lies and know the truth about CECOT.

• “CECOT is a Death Camp. Bukele Built It.”

• “Bukele Runs Trump’s Black Site.”

• “Bukele Is Disappearing People for Trump.”

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2. Shatter the Silence

Most Americans still don’t know what CECOT is or that our government sends people there. Your sign could be the first truth someone sees.

• “179 Had No Criminal Record. Trump Sent Them Anyway.”

• “This is Happening Now.”

• “They Were Deported to Be Disappeared.”

• “A Life Sentence for Seeking a Better Life.”

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3. Hold U.S. Officials Accountable

This isn’t only Bukele’s cruelty. It’s American complicity: funded, facilitated, and erased by our own government.

• “We Know What You’re Funding.”

• “Democracy Doesn’t Disappear People.”

• “Your Silence = Your Complicity.”

• “This Will Be on Your Record.”

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4. Center the Victims

Authoritarianism survives through abstraction. Your job is to make the invisible visible. Carry their names. Show their faces. Refuse to let them vanish again.

• “Free Andry. Free Kilmar. Free Jerce.”

• “Bring Them Home.”

• “Their Lives Depend on Us.”

• “Deported. Disappeared. Still Missing.”

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5. Demand Legal Accountability

These aren’t just moral atrocities. They’re legal crimes.

Violating court orders. Deporting asylum seekers to face torture. Outsourcing indefinite detention. Those closest to Trump may not care, but there are many layers around them that could break.

• “This Is a Crime, Not a Policy.”

• “Sending People to Torture = Illegal.”

• “This Sign Will Be Evidence.”

• “We See What You’re Doing—So Will History.”

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Why This Must Remain a Headline

CECOT isn’t just another injustice—it’s a test case. They’re measuring how far they can push.

If it fades from headlines, we tell them this is acceptable.

CECOT isn’t just a prison—it’s a template. If we let it become normal, it will expand: to others, to citizens, to anyone brave enough to dissent.

We cannot let them get away with disappearing people while the country scrolls past.

Your sign is your power.
Make people look closer.
Make it impossible to look away.
Make it matter.

Saturday isn’t the end—but it could be a turning point.
If we show up ready.
If we show up strategically.

Every voice, every sign, every act of resistance makes authoritarianism weaker. Together, we're stronger.

If you are finding my work through this post and want to know more about what is happening here, please read Disposable People: We Are Not Safe and CECOT: El Salvador’s Prison of No Return.

For more resistance strategies you can implement immediately, read Four Immediate Steps to Resist Authoritarianism.

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