Cliff Notes

These days, the degradation of democratic values seems like a slow slide. But sometimes, it looks more like it’s being pushed off a cliff. For example, when hundreds of people were sent to an infamous Salvadoran prison with no due process. The orders were carried out. The move was defended. And the country moved on. But the detainees didn’t. “Now that he’s free, Leonardo José Colmenares Solórzano, a 31-year-old Venezuelan, wants the world to know that he was tortured over four months in a Salvadoran prison. He said guards stomped on his hands, poured filthy water into his ears and threatened to beat him if he didn’t kneel alongside other inmates and lick their backs.” From ProPublica and The Texas Tribune: Now That They’re Free. “Though happy to be home, they say the fact that they were released is proof of how senseless their detentions were.”